Sidra With Tobie

Today, being a Saturday, and more importantly being the first Saturday of a long-awaited holiday week, we decided to sally-forth and indulge our foody (and drinky) passions on a day trip to upmarket Stamford. Mmm! Lovely, lovely Stamford. Home to some of the finest pubs, cafes, cheese shops and wine merchants in the land.... and a Waitrose. Yay!



Pizza!

Whenever we visit Stamford, we're inevitably drawn to the top of the town and the cosy, boozy, foody delights of the Tobie Norris pub. Top quality Pizza and fine Ufford Ales are the main draw, though the historic building itself is worthy of investigation. We like it in the Tobie (yes, we're on first name terms now). It's the perfect place to lose an afternoon, aided and abetted by the three 'P's of civilised lunchtime pubbing. A Pint, a Pizza, and a stack of the days Papers. Lovely! There are probably other pubs in Stamford, maybe even really great ones. We really wouldn't know.

As if things couldn't be bettered at the Tobie, they've only gone and increased the range of ciders on offer. There's now a Westons cider on handpump, and the rare treat of Hogans Draught, a full flavoured keg cider not often seen round these parts. I'd really better stop drooling now before I start to sound like a fan-boy...

Anyway, inspired by our friends Tania & David of Birmingham, who're always doing exciting things with food and drink and Tweeting about it to make us really envious, we decided to stock up on a picnic basket full of Epicurean delights, and have a Spanish themed evening. In front of the telly. With some French and English bits thrown in for good measure.

All praise to Waitrose for supplying the Manchego and Aged Ossau Iraty cheeses, as well as the Paleta Iberico air dried Pig meat. Other cheeses came from here and there, the star of the cheeseboard being a ridiculously runny Époisses de Bourgogne, rind washed in local Brandy for extra pungency/offensiveness. To complete the (ahem!) Spanish theme, I opened my very last bottle of Basque Sidra Natural, bought several years ago on a holiday in Bilbao. Standing manfully in the gathering dusk of the garden, I poured the precious drink in the traditional way, from a great height into our prized pair of Basque Sidra tumblers.

It was a little bit past it to be honest. Sidra like this isn't made to be kept for any great length of time, and this bottle had gone a little too far down the road of vinegariness to be entirely enjoyable. It was however thoroughly authentic, which is more than can be said for our Spanish themed evening.

Respect Your Elders

Our recent Spirit Cask Cider experiment was reasonably successful (albeit that no 'Casks' were actually used in its production). We're determined to get ahead of the game and develop the next big thing in cider marketing, but let's be honest, Cheap Cooking Rum and lightly toasted Hungarian Oak Chips are never going to deliver the kind of 'story' our increasingly picky customers demand. It's got to be genuine old Spirit Casks, and we haven't got any, so I guess it's back to the drawing board...

Anyway, it's now become apparent that we were wasting our time searching for the cider-zeitgeist in a bottle'o'rum. Apparently, Flowers are where it's at. Elderflowers to be precise, and needless to say, someone's already picked them. We've missed the boat... again!

Homemade wine enthusiasts have been putting these delicate Spring blossoms in their fruity concoctions for years, and one or two craft brewers have dallied with a bit of blossom in their time, but now it's the turn of cider. The distinctive flavour of Elderflower is widely regarded as a 'positive' taste experience whenever it occurs, so it's perhaps no surprise that someone's decided to shoehorn it into their cider. Although needless to say, it came as a complete surprise to us.... harumph!

The 'someones' who've already done it are the ingenious folk at the Sampford Courtenay Cider Co, who make jolly good cider in deepest Devon from apples grown on their own farm. Described as 'undiluted', 'lightly sparkling', and only 'slightly sweetened', it sounded right up my street. I just wasn't sure about the Elderflowers!

The first surprise came when I popped the swing-top on the bottle. I'd chilled things down nicely, but even so the cider frothl'd invitingly up the neck like a fine sparkling wine. The fizz is anything but harsh though, and certainly suits this style of cider. It's a robust little monkey, full of chunky bittersweet flavour, and just a hint of tangy farmhouse character for added drinkability. The Elderflower is subtle. Very subtle. I got a bit of flora in the nose, but not much in the mouth to be honest. Best of all, it's not the sticky sweetie I was expecting, more Medium or even Medium Dry, which is a very pleasant change. I love it, and so does the missus.... bah!

The packaging is real quality too. A 70cl swing-top bottle, labelled in such a way that a gnarled old apple tree can be seen shimmering through the golden liquid. You'll be pleased to learn that this cider was procured from one of the larger Waitrose stores around these parts (Stamford), and at £4.99 is reasonably good value for a cider of this quality (particularly as I get a lovely swing-top bottle to re-use at my leisure).

Now then, back to the laboratory. I'm sure we've got a bottle of Elderflower cordial somewhere in the house....

Cider & Ale in Stamford

Our New Years Eve celebrations got underway a little earlier than usual yesterday. We'd taken the 'Christmas at Home' concept just about as far as it would go. A full week of indulgent inactivity was taking its toll. Man cannot live on Malvern Hills Perry and Dr Who alone. We'd barely left the house since collecting the Turkey from Ashley Herb Farm, it was high time for a change of four walls. After much careful thought, a Sale-ing trip to Stamford seemed like a good idea.

Stamford is a nice day out, ripe with boozy possibilities, and an ideal destination for more active forms of indulgence. It's usually a better than average destination for cider and perry too, so whilst Karen did the shopping thing, I went in search of a comfy sofa and a Perry or two. Plus ça change!

By a staggering coincidence, the Jolly Brewer Beer Festival I'd read about on the Peterborough CAMRA website, was in full swing. What luck! The cider and perry list was pretty reasonable for such a modest festival, and I plumped for a brace from multi-award winning Somerset producer Hecks. The Hangdown Cider and Blakeney Red Perry were in fine fettle, if a little too sweet for my taste. The problem with a pub like the Jolly Brewer is the huge coal fire. It's hard to drag yourself away from it on a cold Winter day, but drag myself away she did, up the High Street to shopping heaven. I'd built up a bit of momentum by now, so continued on past the '50% Off Sale' signs to the Tobie Norris for a bit of a rest.

The Tobie Norris has a lot going for it pub-wise. A beautifully restored Medieval building perched at the top of the High Street, within easy sneaking distance of the main shopping area. Great Pizzas, and excellent ales mean even Karen likes the Tobie Norris (high praise indeed). There's usually bottled cider from Jollydale of Stamford (though not on this occasion) and Aspalls Draught Cyder. I went for a pint of the usual, the zesty, extra pale White Hart from Ufford Ales, one of my absolute favourite session beers.

Time was tight, Karen was almost shopped out and we still needed to do battle with the last-minute panic-buyers in Waitrose. Thinking on my feet I managed to give Karen the slip again, heading straight to Stamfords premier ale and cider house the Green Man. The cider range at the Green Man can be very good, but on this occasion it was a rather ordinary selection from Biddenden, Broadoak, and Westons, none of which I'd travel any great distance for. Besides, winking suggestively from the bar was another hop-driven stunna' from Peterborough's peerless Oakham Ales, the mighty-mighty Citra, all juicy citrus fruit and pungent cat pee aromas, truly the Sauvignon Blanc of the beer world. Lovely!

It was time to wend our way home via the recently opened Stamford Cheese Shop (the excellent Simpole-Clarke Deli, another good reason to climb the High Street, was unfortunately closed for the day). A small slice of Scrumpy Sussex was my contribution to the days shopping, and it wasn't even in the sales! More cheesy stuff later...

We finished the day with mucho Great Oakley Ales at the Red Lion. Naturally. Happy New Year to all our reader and drinkers.

Tree O'Clock

Tomorrow (Dec 5th) for one hour only (11am -12 noon) it's Tree O'Clock, a world record attempt to plant the most trees in one hour. A worthy project, and part of the wider National Tree Week which aims to promote the planting of trees in the UK, and the appreciation of trees in general. If you were thinking of planting a tree this Winter, it's not too late to buy one now and make a pledge to plant it tomorrow on the website. Don't forget to take a picture of the planting though, or it won't count towards the record attempt.

Sadly I won't have time to plant a tree tomorrow, I've made a little pledge of my own to Karen... The Christmas shopping has been put off for far too long, and a trip to the pretty market town of Stamford is apparently 'non-negotiable'. If you happen to be in Stamford tomorrow and spot a sulky looking middle-aged tramp in a wax jacket and bushman's hat being dragged around the M&S gift dept... that's me that is... Bah-Humbug!

Ok, so we won't be part of the record attempt, but that hasn't stopped us planting a couple of trees today instead. Of course the planting of a tree itself is the important bit, world record attempts!... well they come and go. I was once a record holder... along with the rest of the pupillage at our secondary school way back in the early 80's. The Dying Fly was all the rage back then, made popular by the mighty Tiswas team, and we proudly held the world record for this somewhat dubious practice for maybe a week at most... Inevitably, another school out-flyed us, the gimlet-eye of fame moved on to another star-struck secondary modern, and that was that! I don't think we even made it into the Big-Book itself. Such is life.

But I digress. It's tree planting time, the moment our grafted apple trees have been waiting for all Summer long. First in was the Calville Rouge D'Hiver, a dual purpose apple variety, originally from France where it's still found in some gardens. Calville is a name given in France to a range of apples which exhibit a heavily ribbed, crowned shape, and the flavour of this apple is described in the New Book of Apples (Joan Morgan & Alison Richards) as being 'Sweet, fruity with little richness, almost aromatic; soft, white flesh'. It also cooks to a 'lemon puree...' which sounds nice. This tree is on a semi-vigorous rootstock, MM106, which will eventually give a fair size tree, so I've used it to replace the Birch tree which outgrew it's welcome near the house.

The other tree which I've 'planted' is Scarlet Crofton, a dessert apple with a 'Striking dark red flush, under network of russet' and a 'Sweet, almost scented taste'. This apple is possibly of Irish origin, a tip of the hat to my ancestry. The tree itself was grafted onto M27 rootstock, a very dwarfing rootstock, perhaps only really suitable for pot-grown trees which is where this one has been planted. It will need staking for it's entire life, and cropping will be relatively small, but hopefully we'll end up with an attractive specimen for the patio in a few years time.

There are other trees to plant out, including a Dabinett which I'm hoping to train as an Espalier against a stone wall, but these can wait a few weeks until the Christmas rush is over. With the cidermaking finished, racking of the ciders not until January, and the latest round of pruning still later, the month of December brings a welcome break in the cidermaking year. From now until Christmas, we're getting festive, and this blog aims to be less about cidermaking, and much more about cider drinking. Wah-Hay!

Gamekeeper Turned Poacher

It's been a mixed-bag of a May Bank Holiday weekend. A little bit of sunshine but rather too cold for comfort, and of course predictably wet today. We've put the usual business of cidermaking on the back burner this weekend and put our cider-drinking hats on instead. Call it Research & Development, though sadly not tax-deductible!

First up was the LocAle festival at the Jolly Brewer in Stamford. A fine selection of locally brewed beers, augmented by our own LocApple ciders. The sun was shining at this early stage of the weekend, so I celebrated with a 'quality-control' half of Rockingham Forest Cider whilst soaking up the rays out-front of the pub. Pick of the ales for me was the Barn Ale from the Tydd Steam Brewery near Wisbech. At this point I'd like to make it absolutely clear, just in case there might be any confusion, that our ciders are made from 100% pure apple juice, and contain no Orchids whatsoever!

Today's 'Grand Day Out' to the Elton Society Village Fete was more of a 'Damp Day Out', but luckily we managed to find a dry spot in the spacious tent of the Crown Inn Real Ale & Cider Festival, which was in full swing in the village centre. The pub is well worth a visit any day of the week, but particularly when the beer range has swollen to around 30, plus a very reasonable range of real ciders and perry. I was more than happy to re-acquaint myself with a half of Hereward Dry, an award-winning cider produced as a sideline to the Hereward Brewery in Ely. I last tried this cider at the 2007 Leicester Beer Festival, and must say that if anything it's improved since then. There were also draught ciders and a perry from Biddenden, Thatchers, and Westons, but I decided to try a delicious fruity Mild and a floral, hoppy Golden Ale instead, though can't remember what they were called or who brewed them. It's a good job this isn't a beer blog...

Coming Soon: More opportunities to drink real cider and perry (hopefully in the sun) at the 3rd Castor & Ailsworth Beer & Cider Festival (14th - 17th May), and the Northampton Beer Festival (28th - 30th May).

Local Cider for Local People

The month of May, with it's brace of Bank Holiday weekends, seems to mark the start of the Beer Festival season for many pubs. It's the promise of warmer weather, and the emergence from Winter hibernation of the less hardy Beer Garden Drinker that spurs landlords to go all beery-eyed. Of course, no beer festival is complete without a bit of traditional cider.

We've already delivered our 'LocApple' ciders to the Jolly Brewer in Stamford, ready for this weekend's LocAle Festival, and as you can see from the ever increasing list on the right of this blog, our ciders are well represented at events throughout the area this Summer. We try to keep things as local as possible, there really is very little point in sending our cider the length and breadth of the country.

We're particularly looking forward to this year's Cider & Cheese Festival in July, which is being held jointly at our regular Leicester outlet, the Criterion Freehouse, and the nearby Swan & Rushes. Both of these pubs have an excellent reputation amongst beer and cider drinkers, and it's hoped that there will be up to 30 different ciders and perrys on offer during the weekend of the festival, accompanied by a similar range of tasty cheeses! There should be no overlap of varieties, and our ciders will only be available at the Criterion.

Ciderhouse News - April

The new-season Rockingham Forest Cider (6.4%) is now ready for release, and a box has already been delivered to our local 'Cider-tap' the Red Lion in Middleton.

The Red Lion has recently been awarded Northants CAMRA's Winter Pub of the Season, a well deserved recognition of the hard work Kevin & Fiona have put in since they took over the pub less than a year ago. There will be a presentation at the pub on the evening of the 18th of May. We will of course be in attendance, if only to help Kevin get the certificate on the wall straight!

Dean & Gill of award winning Stamford ale house the Jolly Brewer, have requested a couple of boxes of our cider for their forthcoming LocAle Festival. The Peterborough CAMRA Pub of the Year 2009 will have over 15 locally brewed real ales available during the festival, plus cider from Westons, as well as our own Rockingham Forest and Sulgrave Orchard ciders.

Apple Day 2008

October is a busy month for cidermakers, orchardists, and lovers of all things appley alike. Common Ground's popular Apple Day, CAMRA's Cider & Perry Month campaign, and of course the month-long task of harvesting and pressing the fruit for next year's cider all help to focus minds on our wonderful orchard heritage throughout October.

Apple Day events are planned throughout the country, most not actually occurring on the day itself since the 21st of October falls on a Tuesday this year. A full listing of all known events can be found on Common Ground's Apple Day Events Calendar, which is already chock-full of great days out, and is constantly being added to.

Similarly, events which have been planned by local CAMRA branches for the Cider & Perry Month campaign can be found via the Cider & Perry Month page on CAMRA's website. The ukcider Events page is also worth a look, and is an excellent resource for cider related events throughout the year.

Personally, I wish that both these seasonal initiatives were held at a less busy time of the year. We rarely get the opportunity to attend any of the Apple Day events, we managed to get to Stamford last year and hope to attend at least one local Apple Day event this year. I can't help thinking that many more cidermakers would get involved with Apple Day and Cider & Perry Month, if the events were taking place at a time of year when all the cidermaking was done and dusted, and maybe they even had some cider to sell.

Apple Day - Stamford

Apple day is the big-day-out for enthusiasts of orchards, apples, and to a lesser degree, cider. Initiated by Common Ground in 1990, the number of events which take place on or around 'Apple Day' (21st October), grows year on year.


By a strange quirk of fate, I have never actually been to an Apple Day event, though certainly not by design. This year I determined to go to at least one of our local events, Stamford being one of the nearest.


One of the main motivators behind the Stamford Apple Day is the Stamford Community Orchard Group, which is dedicated to preserving Stamford heritage apple varieties (of which there are many, though most are currently designated as 'lost'), and establishing a community orchard for the benefit of all Stamford folk. They are ably assisted by the East of England Apples & Orchards Project, an umbrella organisation which covers voluntary groups throughout the Eastern Counties area.


The Stamford Apple Day event takes place at the Arts Centre in the town centre, with participants including Beekeepers, apple produce from Stamford New College, excellent local apple juices from the Stamford Juice Co (who also make a drop of fine cider), and a host of other interesting stalls with wide family appeal.


One of the most interesting aspects of an Apple Day event is the chance to have unknown varieties of apple from your own orchard/garden identified by experts in this field. I took along a couple of specimens from the several varieties we used in our recent cidermaking, hoping to put a name to a face as it were. Some small dessert apples from our own orchard proved difficult to pin down, not helped by the size of the fruit. We really should have thinned out the bumper crop on this tree, leading to better size apples, but as anyone who grows-to-press is likely to understand, removing healthy fruitlettes from a tree groaning with appley potential somehow goes against the grain. We'll know differently next year.


Another dessert apple, which we picked from the lovely Welland Valley village of Rockingham, was quickly identified as a Worcester Permain. In retrospect, and having now looked, and tasted these apples, the rich, sweet flavour and appearance is classic Worcester, but identifying unknown apples is notoriously difficult, even for the experts, so it's nice to have a really positive ID, rather than guesswork.


The image at the start of this Blog is of one of the many trays of apples laid out to help the 'identifiers', which also made a wonderful display of our rich orchard heritage.


We aim to go to at least one other local Apple Day event this year, possibly Wilson's Orchard in Northampton, and would seriously recommend you support Apple Day at an event near you.