Harvest

The Summer is drawing to a close and the trees are laden with their fruit. Cider harvest is not the same as a dessert apple harvest. You have to be very patient, waiting, testing for starch and checking the specific gravity of the juice. Too soon and you will be low on sugar and in turn lower in alcohol. Now we are not looking for head banger levels but 7.5% abv is ideal but anything over 5% is good.

The great advantage of cider apples is that you really harvest them from the ground, the tree tells you when they are ready. So long as you beat the slugs to them they will come to no harm. All our trees are heritage varieties that produce “vintage” juice and they come to harvest from late September through till mid November. Once they have been collected if there is a sufficient volume they are pressed immediately although they are happy to wait for a couple of weeks if necessary, a process called “tumping”.