4 November 2020 in Apples, Cider, Orchard by Admin
… or can you? This year has seen a huge crop in the orchard – approaching 6 tonnes, which is quite a lot for a one-man operation! As you can see from the picture, it was all together too much for the Bramley tree which broke all its branches under the sheer weight of fruit. In total I will have picked a bit over 5 tonnes (with a bit of help from my able assistant) – I just couldn’t manage it all as I was having to press in between the picking to create room to store the apples.
So the good news is that the apple juice production will be up on last year and hopefully available in more outlets. There is still a reasonable amount of cider from the 2018 vintage and the 2019 vintage will be released fairly soon (when we consider it has developed sufficiently). A new 700L floating lid tank has been purchased to create capacity for pressing the current season’s crop – but that won’t be ready for 18 months or more as all our cider is matured like wine (which is indeed how it is best drunk, hence why we sell it in 750ml bottles).