On joining our gang
Aug 12, 2016
Welcome to Bignose & Beardy and thank you for your curiosity.
You just joined our gang.
We realised early on that we needed help to pull this thing off. We also realised that we and our friends that ended up helping out were having a lot of fun. Being outdoors in ancient orchards on warm sunny autumn days (the sun always shines on Cider days). Harvesting fruit that would have gone to waste. Helping the children down from trees, throwing balls for dogs. Eating cider sausages washed down with fresh apple juice, limbs tired, cheeks ruddy.
Food tastes so good when you’re hungry.
Turns out those picking days are the best of days.
They encapsulate what we’re trying to do with Bignose & Beardy. Yes, of course, we are trying to make good, traditional cider and get it out into the world. But really what we are about is having fun, being part of a community, making friends, learning as we go and trying to do things the right way, even when that’s a different way or the wrong way, depending on where you sit.
So you just joined our community. Your curiosity has led to something. An open invitation. From now on, if you want to, you are welcome to join us. Join us on our picking days, join us for our wassailing and cider wakenings, join us on our pressing, bottling and pruning days. Above all join us in making and enjoying a simple, natural drink whose history stretches back over centuries and whose production has always required the coming together of a group of like minded people to do that.
But there’s no rush for that. Join in when you’re ready and if you feel like it. Meanwhile we’d like to share our story with you, explore the themes and values that seem to matter more when you make cider, and pass on those rare moments of insight you sometimes get in life, which cider making seems have blessed us with many times. Even if those insights usually come the hard way...
Welcome to our gang. Beards are optional and all noses are beautiful.
Bignose Phil and Beardy Steve