Admiral Nelson Beer Festival, Market Harborough

The bank holiday rush of orders fuddled my brain to such a degree that I very nearly forgot to supply the terrific Admiral Nelson in Market Harborough with our cider and perry! A very big thanks to Jan for jogging my memory with a timely phone call. Normal service will now resume.

The festival kicks off at 3pm this Friday, and you can expect a whole bunch of real ales, as well as several ciders and a perry from welsh producer Gwynt-Y-Ddraig. We've supplied the very last box of Red Longdon Perry and also a Red Kite Cider. There will also be music aplenty during the evening sessions.

Not the May Bank Holiday

So the traditional end of May Bank Holiday has been royally shifted into June this year, but thanks to a rash of beer and cider festivals, you can still Bank on there being a happy Holiday atmosphere this coming weekend anyway... ahem!

The weekend festivities start early on Thursday 24th from 5pm at the Northampton Delapre Abbey Beer Festival, where we'll be sending cider and perry. Friday lunchtime sees the Newark CAMRA Beer Festival open its tent flaps to revellers. The cider & perry list, which includes one of each from ourselves, can be viewed here. Friday afternoon from 5pm is the time to visit the Swan & Rushes in Leicester for their annual Cider & Cheese Festival, where our Red Kite Cider will be making an appearance.

It's worth noting also that our cider and/or perry have been dispatched to the Criterion Freehouse in Leicester, and Langtry's in Nottingham to help their non-Bank Holiday weekend celebrations.

They're All Cider Bars Now...

It's official. Nottingham drinkers have great taste in cider and perry. A recent ground-breaking initiative in the city has shown that discerning Nottinghamshire drinkers, when expressed to preference, will choose local and East Midlands ciders and perries, and blimmin' well like them too*

The image below (c/o Ray Blockley of Torkard Cider) shows the fantastic range of ciders and perries which were available at noted Nottingham ale house Langtrys, during their recent cider festival. I'm particularly pleased to say that our own cider and perry went down well, and we'll be sending more of the same (or similar) very soon. A big thank you to Ray for his part in helping source such a great range of ciders and perries, and Suzi of Langtrys for making it happen in such an eye-catching and professional way.

*Note: Other non-local ciders and perries were also available, and presumably also enjoyed.

Local and Good

Rockingham Forest Cider, Red Kite Cider and a limited quantity of Malvern Hills Perry will be available at Ye Golden Lion's Waendel Walk Weekend Local Beer & Food Festival from today. Nice pub, nice people, no previous walking experience required.

Perry Pear Blossom

Looking at these pictures now with the rain battering against the windows, our annual visit to the orchard in Worcestershire last weekend seems like an age ago. We timed our visit for maximum perry pear blossom, the Oldfields in the Far Orchard had a particularly striking display. I'm pleased to say that given the awful weather we're having now, it was bright and sunny, and most important of all, the trees were a-buzz with pollinating insects. It doesn't matter how much blossom there is, no pollination, no fruit. It was a little too early to judge the potential cider apple crop, so perhaps a return visit in a couple of weeks time is in order. 

Green Horse perry pear blossom, a reasonable showing after an 'off' year in 2011



The Green Horse tree dwarfs our picking and panking team. The tree in the distance (and the two images below) are an Oldfield, absolutely covered in white blossom



Some of the perry pear trees had lost a significant number of fruiting buds as clumps of blossom on the orchard floor. Our first thoughts were a recent hail storm, which was confirmed by John, but only a few trees were affected and the blossom was undamaged. Another possibility is bird damage, specifically Finches, or maybe some trees are reacting to the unusually dry conditions we've had up until the recent wet spell.