Rutland - Open for Sales

In our efforts to keep the 'cider miles' to an absolute minimum, we've been looking for a local outlet for our ciders and perrys in addition to our 'Cider Tap' the Red Lion, Middleton. Given the choice, we'd much rather sell all of our cider locally rather than send odd barrels to events further afield. Sadly, the vast majority of local pub outlets are either tied on wet sales, or prefer to stick to tried and tested national brands, unwilling to take the risk on small-scale local concerns such as ourselves.

Now I'm well aware that the pub trade is an increasingly difficult one to make a living from. It's perhaps no surprise that licensees have a tendency to play safe with their drinks offering, after all, most of their customers are similarly 'conservative' in their tastes. Nevertheless, it still frustrates me that so few pubs see their cider choice as an opportunity to offer something different, perhaps even something unique to the area, and thereby give themselves a small but important competitive advantage. It's interesting to me that Delicatessens and Farmshops have seen the benefit of offering local, distinctive produce for many years, yet most of the pub trade is still lagging behind in this regard. We've been approached on numerous occasions to supply farmshops and other speciality food outlets, a market we would love to exploit just as soon as the bottling line is up and running. Sadly the same cannot be said for the pub trade, even those which are free to source their cider from wherever they like...

Meanwhile, one local business willing to take the initiative and stock our 'local' cider, is the excellent Wing Hall Farmshop in the pretty Rutland village of Wing. From this weekend our Rockingham Forest Cider will be available for offsales from the farmshop, or by the glass to accompany a meal in the Cafe-Bar. We aim to visit the Farmshop and Cafe this weekend for Shopping, Tea & Cake, and a spot of Free-Range Hen Watching. We'll post a full report of our findings on here.

Newark Beer Fest - Cider List

The cider & perry list for the forthcoming Newark Beer Festival (28th - 30th May) is now available here. Nice to see a few East Midlands producers represented, including Skidbrooke Cyder of Lincolnshire, and Our Friends in the North, Torkard Cider of Nottinghamshire, as well as our own Rockingham Forest Cider and Blakeney Red Perry.

Fill Yer Boots

The Waendel Walk attracts participants from all over the world. Hardly surprising really, the rolling countryside around Wellingborough is just made for walking. After a long day on the hoof there can be nothing better than a cool, refreshing pint of beer or cider, and that's where the Waendel Walk Beer Festival comes in.


I don't know about you, but when I go off route and visit far-flung parts of the world, it's not a pint of the usual I'm after, it's something local, something I can't easily get at home. Beer Festival organiser John Norton (aka Farmer John) agrees, and that's why all the beers, and most of the ciders have been sourced from within 30 miles of Wellingborough. Most of the local Northamptonshire breweries are represented, and for our part we've sent a couple of barrels of Rockingham Forest Cider (7.2%), and a couple more of Blakeney Red Perry (6%). In addition there will be cider from Eve's of Kettering, and Westons Herefordshire Country Perry.

After dropping the barrels off, we had a swift half in the local CAMRA award winning Coach & Horses. This was our first time at the Coach & Horses, and I was suitably impressed. Festooned with interesting breweriana, and not a hint of the shabbiness you find in some 'real ale' pubs. The bar offering was good too, I had something tasty from Summerskills of Devon, whilst the missus enjoyed a Webb Ellis Bitter from the Rugby Brewing Co. A real cider is also available, but the strikingly orange Thatchers Cheddar Valley is really not to my taste! There's a pleasant looking garden at the rear of the pub too, just the job for when the hot Summer finally arrives...

Time for Bread

It's National Bread Week.... Ho-Hum!

Apparently we're supposed to celebrate this important national event by buying trolley-loads of nasty white-sliced 'Bread', and thinking really hard about the 'roll' (ha-ha!) that this (ahem!) 'Bread' plays in our excessively processed, nutritionally challenged lives. Right-O!

Well stuff that, we're doing our bit for bread by going the extra mile and making real, tasty, proper Cider & Cheese Bread, with real cider, and real cheese. Bread, Cider, and Cheese are of course a classic combination, and the very heart of a proper Ploughman's (of which I have very strong opinions... Celery! Sweet Peppers! Fruit!.... No!). So combining the three elements in one delicious home-baked loaf is a no-brainer really. Here's the recipe in American/Irish measures, which seems to suit baking more than weights in my opinion:

One Cup Strong White Flour

One Cup Strong Wholemeal Flour

One Cup Grated Cheese

Tbsp Vegetable Oil

Pinch of Salt

Tsp Dried Yeast

3/4 Cup Cider

I'd be lying if I said we did the whole mixing and kneading thing. In reality, all the ingredients went into a bread maker, with a 5 minute extra kneed when the machine had done its thing...

A word about the ingredients. We used Claybrooke Mill flour, because we've tried the rest*, and now we stick with the best. The cider was a bottle of Spalding Scrumpy Yellowbelly Cider, a smooth, clean, very well made Eastern Counties style cider from... erm... Spalding. Quite dry, which is what we wanted for this bread. The cheese was a delicious French Comte, sweet and nutty like a grown-up Emmental.

So how did it taste? Absolutely bloomin' delicious actually. Very cheesy, with a lovely tangy fruitiness from the cider. Lacking in imagination as we are, we enjoyed the bread fresh from the oven with a glass of cider, and a slice of cheese... but if pushed for a recommendation, I'd say try it with a good homemade Winter soup.

*Obviously we haven't tried 'all' the rest, but it's flour we're talking about here, not chocolate!

All of a Twitter

It was International Dawn Chorus Day today. We celebrated by laying in late with the window open, watching the bird life flittering and twittering about the garden, and what a lot of birds!

Blackbirds are back in force, fighting, mating, and building nests in the most inconvenient locations. Several parts of the garden are now practically no-go zones, with a pair of Blue Tits nesting in the dry-stone wall, and Blackbirds returning to the willow trellising without a thought for how vulnerable to cats they'll be there. We've done our best to secure the area, let's hope it's enough.

Gold Finches are fairly common garden birds, but their uncommonly beautiful plumage make them a rare treat for us. A pair have been visiting the garden for the last few days, and I've been determined to catch a photograph of them at play. Note to self: Must get a decent zoom lens.

As for the birdsong, it's been deafening, with one call standing out from the crowd. For the first time this year a Cuckoo has been calling nearby, a welcome visitor as the RSPB have now given this bird Red Status due to a recent sharp decline in numbers.

Interestingly, the Cuckoo call is also the traditional signal that things have reached maturity in the ciderhouse. We've already broached our first cask, but it was nice to hear natures own confirmation that the season is now underway, particularly on the day that folk from Newark CAMRA are coming to collect cider and perry for their festival.