Tidying and Sorting - Bottling machine

After the busy festive period, January gives us an opportunity to catch up on a few tasks around the cidery - rearranging, repairing, upgrading – things we just don’t find the time for during the rest of the year.

In an effort to improve efficiency, a few months ago we bought a second hand bottling machine – finally we have got time to give it a good clean down and work out how to use it – hopefully we should see an end to the ‘cider river’ that flows out under the barn door during bottling sessions!

This month sees the return of ‘Wassailing’ at B&B HQ – an hour or so fun being creative with apple themed games, making clay pots, lanterns and noise makers, as well as cooking dough twists over the fire – followed by a flaming torch procession through the orchard whilst making as much noise as possible to ward off evil spirits, culminating in ceremony to bless the trees for a fruitful harvest in the coming season – all very traditional and pagan in origin.

We are quite excited to be joined by the Lewes Skull Drummery this year – they should really help us make some proper noise! All finished off with soup, sausages and, of course, mulled cider!

Give us a shout if you would like to join us – tickets are virtually sold out!