Orchards are our heritage

*add cool explosion sound effects here*

Greetings, Ciderling! 

How’s it going?

We had a bit of excitement down on the farm recently when a batch of Ridgeback cider came of age in an unexpected way. 

Ah. They grow up so fast. 

Nature’s unpredictable. This batch whizzed through its fermentation adolescence in its own special way. Some of the bottles came out as fizzy, some still. Same box, same batch, same bottling session, different result. For once, not our fault. Nature did it 🤷♂️

We’re used to mood swings, even volatility. Once or twice even an explosion. So we decided to open and reseal all 350 bottles, let off a little steam if it was needed, and determine which had gone through an awkward rebellious stage and which were playing by the rules.

What we discovered was surprising and delightful.

Effervescent cider 

It’ll come as no surprise to you that we have strict rules around alcohol sales in this country. And rightly so m’lud *doffs cap* . To count as “sparkling”, a cider has to have at least 3bar pressure and needs a ‘mushroom’ stopper (think champagne style cork, but plastic). 

The mature Ridgeback is a delicious bottle conditioned and aged cider coming in at a knock-yer-socks-off 8%. But it's not as bubbly as a “sparkling” cider, so just normal bottle caps suffice. 

We’ll call it “effervescent”, coz it sounds classy. It’s an extremely limited run of just 12 cases, we’ll be releasing it exclusively to email subscribers (i.e. you) first so look out for our email at the end of Feb with details. 

SOO - Save Our Orchards!

Did you know, over 90% of England’s traditional orchards have disappeared since the end of the second world war? 

Britain does a crap job of biodiversity, so it’s a crying shame we’re losing orchards. They’re such a rich habitat.  Any gathering of more than five trees counts as an orchard, so the tree total is huge. We’ve done our bit locally helping bring several orchards back to life, but it’s a group effort. Can you lend a hand in your area to try and save your local orchards? If you feel extra inspired, maybe you could help start one? The Orchard Project has some great resources to help. We’ve got the seed (not apologising for that apple pun) of an idea for our local area so if you’re around Framfield keep your eyes peeled (or that one). 

Chop, hack, saw

Having been all “save our orchards”… sometimes you’ve gotta be cruel to be kind. Each year we give the apple trees a good harsh cut back. It makes sense to do it while the sap is all sleepy and still. 

Why prune at all? Well, left to their own devices the trees grow any which way (bit like Beardy’s beard), blocking out the light and making it harder for our creepy crawly buggy pals to pollinate. Hopefully no pollinating insects venture into Beardy’s beard, though. Especially because he’s allergic to bees. Inconvenient, eh? 

Anyway, pruning (trees) feels cruel, but it promotes vigorous growth and more fruiting buds. Unless you get it wrong and snip all the ends of tip bearing trees or cut the wrong part off a spur. So watch where you’re waving those secateurs.

The Experiment. 

Last time, we teased you about an experiment we’ve got on the go. Well, we can now reveal…

We’ve been playing around with wood chips to flavour a batch of oaked Spirit Of Cider. Well done Sam for being the closest guess with “barrel aged cider”. More info to come soon on the process and (most importantly) the results! But for now here’s Beardy having a jolly good sniff of the woody goodness.