Rain (almost) Stops Play

The final cider apple harvest of the season very nearly didn't happen this weekend. Friday arrived along with severe weather warnings, and a mild dose of 'Sore Throat & Sniffles'. I'm not very good at being ill, particularly when there's work to be done, so Karen and myself retreated to the Red Lion for restorative pints of Welland Valley Mild round the cosy log fire. Nice, but not getting the cider made.

I must say, we've been very lucky with the weather this year (and our health for that matter). It was only a matter of time before a proper bit of Autumn weather came along and put the dampers on things. I'm sure a time will come when the whole cidermaking season will be nothing more than a freezing, windy, washout. Proper hard work...

A break in the weather on Sunday meant an unfeasibly early 6am start to get to the orchard for daybreak, and what a day. It was as if the Autumn had been rolled back again for one last warm(ish), sunny day. I really love the peacefulness of the orchard at this time of year, with most of the trees now bare of fruit and leaves, and nothing but Woodpeckers, Buzzards and the occasional sleepy Wasp for company. It's been very hard work harvesting the fruit this year, but I'm going to miss being in this orchard when the season finally comes to an end.

Meanwhile. there's an awful lot of Vilberie cider apples to harvest, plus a few Bramleys and some mystery yellow apples which will hopefully add a bit of balancing sharpness to the blend. There are five Vilberie trees in the orchard, I managed to harvest two of them, leaving a fair bit to do next Friday when I plan to make the final visit of the year to this beautiful corner of rural Worcestershire (weather permitting!). John kindly loaned me the use of his old Land Rover, saving me the job of lugging 30+ sacks of apples down to the car through a wet and muddy orchard, and whatever happens now, there's apples to be pressed, and fermenters to be filled next weekend.

Red Lion gets a taste of Somerset

Thanks to our friends in the North, Ray & Gail of the Hucknall Cider Co, real Somerset cider will soon be making a guest appearance at the Red Lion, Middleton. Just as soon as the last few pints of our own Rockingham Forest Cider have been sold, two new ciders from family cidermakers Hecks will be on tap in the run up to Christmas.

The Hecks family have been making their award-winning ciders and perrys in the village of Street for six generations, and are notable not only for the consistently good quality of their produce, but also the wide range of blended and single variety ciders and perrys they make. A visit to the atmospheric farm shop, situated in the very heart of the village, is rewarded with a bewildering array of draught and bottled ciders and perrys to sample and buy.

The ciders which Ray & Gail have brought back for us are an easy-drinking Medium/Dry blend (perhaps more Medium to my taste), and a single variety Tremlett's Bitter, properly Dry and a little more tannic than the blended cider.

We have a rule here at Rockingham Forest Cider, that when one of our own ciders has been delivered to the Red Lion, we don't bring it back home, one pint at a time! Needless to say, this rule doesn't apply to 'Guest Ciders', particularly those we have a particular fondness for.

A Round of Real Ciders

What's this picture all about then? Well to be honest it's just an excuse to feature an interesting old cider tray from Barry Lount's extensive collection of Breweriana (Cideriana?), much of which is on display at Barry & Liz's award winning pub, the Cow & Plough in Oadby. As you can see, it's well decorated with ciders from the dozen or so available at this weekends Bonfire Beer Festival, though disappointingly a beery impostor has been sneaked onto the tray too.

The cider range was very good for a pub beer festival, exclusively West Country, Three Counties and Welsh ciders. My personal favourite was the Swallowfield Cider from Herefordshire. No perry, perhaps not surprising considering last years very poor perry pear crop. I'd be surprised if any Three Counties cidermakers have any 2008 perry left by now.

The image on the right is included to give an indication of just how varied the colour of ciders can be. These are all made from individual blends of various cider apples, yet range from deep golden to pale yellow.

Something Fruity for the Weekend

The excellent Cow & Plough in Oadby, Leics, is hosting a Bonfire Beer Festival this weekend (5th-7th Nov). Now beer we can take or leave, there's generally enough good ale at our local the Red Lion to make a trip over the border to Leicestershire a rare treat these days, but the award-winning team at the Cow & Plough are also serving up a very good range of ciders at this festival. Rather too good to miss in fact, so we'll be toasting this season's vintage apple and pear harvest on Saturday lunchtime. Here's the cider menu:

HECKS PORT WINE OF GLASTONBURY 6.5
GOZIER DRY 6.0
COURT FARM 6.0
BRISTOL PORT MED 7.8
THATCHERS CHEDDAR VALLEY MED 6.0
WESTCROFT JANETS JUNGLE JUICE 6.8
BUTFORD ORGANIC 7.3 DRY
OLIVERS CIDER MED 6.3
DEWCHURCH MED 6.0
NEWTON COURT MED 7.0
UPPER HOUSE MED 6.0
BEN CROSSMANS CIDER 6.0
ROSIE'S RAMPANT RAM 7.4
SARAHS MED 6.0
SWALLOWFIELD DABINETT 6.3

October Wrapped Up

We completed the last pressing of October yesterday, bringing our main cidermaking month to an exhausting conclusion. It's nothing but rest and recuperation from now until the Vilberie are ready later in November.

I'm getting a bit nervous about the Vilberie for all kinds of reasons. I've nothing much to blend in to up the acidity of these bittersweet apples, and may have to order a little Malic Acid for the job. I'm also concerned for the condition of the trees, which are already in quite a poor state. When we last visited the orchard, one tree had lost a large branch due to the weight of crop it was carrying, and the crown on another tree has split for the second time. High winds over the next few days could wreak even more damage before we get back to the orchard, and I'm expecting to find most of the crop on the ground. It's much harder work scratching around in the grass for apples, particularly when they're quite small like Vilberies.

Good news: A neighbour let us take all the crop from their mature Bramley Apple trees, not a massive quantity, but a useful bit of sharp juice for the pressing yesterday. We even managed to find enough local apples to fill a couple of small fermenters of Welland Valley Special, including a few pears and some huge yellow apples from down the road in Rockingham village.