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The Cider Orchard Year
Watching the changes in the orchard thoughout year is a wonderful trip as the seasons come and go. Where does it start? With the dormant bare trees? The blossom in Spring? The fruitlets forming. The harvest of the apples. And then the cycle continues again. A circle without end. Or perhaps the p...
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Taunton Cider Company Cider Mugs
In 1805, a local farmers co-operative had formed to produce cider at Norton Fitzwarren. By the early 1900s, the Reverend Cornish had started produc...
Read moreThe Royal Wilding Cider Apple and its history
Hugh Stafford the C17th writes in the book “Treatise of Cyder-making” 1st ed 1753 part of a “letter to a friend” which emphasises the “Royal Wi...
Read moreEver wondered why apple trees are mainly self infertile although they have male and female parts in each blossom?
Apple trees belong to the largest group of plants by far - angiosperms. Angiosperm translates to “vessel seed” which refers to ovules being enclos...
Read moreWhy is apple blossom pink when it's stated bees cant see red?
Apples require cross-pollination for a sizeable crop, ie the transfer of pollen from one tree variety to another. Apple trees have evolved to use i...
Read moreAnatomy and physiology of Apple Blossom.
Although apple is usually self infertile, each flower or blossom contains both male and female parts. The female part, the gynoecium, has five carp...
Read moreWhy are Apples Red?
Now we have had a kōrerorero ( Maori: discussion) on social media here is my take on why wild apples are mainly red. The little neo-apple starte...
Read moreWhite Rot Fungus and the Carbon Cycle . The end of Coal
Whilst posting a photo I took yesterday of fungi on our dead wood at BeauVista orchard I did a little background reading and discovered that clima...
Read moreRegenerative Farming
Regenerative agriculture or farming is a movement that started small in the 1980s. However it is becoming a buzz word nowadays. It sounds positive:...
Read moreMetabolism and effects of alcohol in humans
Alcohol in drinks (ethanol) is metabolised in humans primarily in a pathway involving two enzymes—alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydr...
Read moreDevelopment of Pome Fruit : Genetics and Biochemistry.
In botany, a pome is a type of fruit produced by flowering plants of the tribe Malineae of the very large family Rosaceae. It is a false frui...
Read moreAll you need to know about Apple metabolism ( but were afraid to ask)!
Allowing apples to fall from the tree to the ground is not the best way to get the best eating apples! Apples for humans to eat maybe half a world...
Read morePome. What is in a word?
Pomes what does it mean? Apples are classed as Pome fruit. The word pome entered English in the late 14th century, and referred to an apple or an ...
Read moreDorothy of Caesarea
During the Middle Ages collections of hagiography were among the most widely circulated texts, serving as inspirational stories as well as instruct...
Read moreCider at Canterbury Priory/Cathedral
Orchards and cider are often associated with monasteries through the Ages. Monasteries were important centres of knowledge. As the Roman Empire col...
Read moreThe Earliest reference to Cider in England 1050s?
It is usually said that cider-making was introduced from Normandy to south-west England at the time of the Norman conquest, but conquests rarely e...
Read moreAlcopops and Cider
There has been a change in the language. Cider once meant an alcoholic drink fermented from apples. Before the process was commercialised by Hen...
Read moreThe Hereford Mappa Mundi and Apples
A mappa mundi is a medieval European map of the world. The name derives from the Latin words mappa (cloth or chart) and mundus (world). The cloth ...
Read moreOrchards and Biodiversity
In NZ we never had commercial traditional orchards. By the time NZ was being colonised higher intensity or bush orchards were being developed in t...
Read moreMedlars and Cider
Mespilus germanica known as the medlar tree is a small pome tree in the rose or Rosaceae family. The fruit of this tree, also called medlar, has be...
Read moreHolme Lacy Perry Pear Tree
The Holme Lacy Perry pear tree is an ancient tree, growing on the banks of the river Wye. Its origin is unknown but presumably was a wilding that b...
Read moreThe Cider Orchard Year
Watching the changes in the orchard thoughout year is a wonderful trip as the seasons come and go. Where does it start? With the dormant bare tree...
Read moreJohn Adams 2nd President of USA and cider
It seems John Adams reputation for drinking cyder is a little over egged. John Adams the 2nd President of the US wrote just 2 entries in his extens...
Read morePomona, the Roman Goddess for orchard cares
Pomona was the Roman goddess of fruitful abundance and plenty in their myths. Her name comes from the Latin word pomum, "fruit", specifically orch...
Read moreCider; yeast; and sulphur smells.
The general belief is that sulphur odours (rotten eggs) are created when yeast are stressed and lack nutrients, especially nitrogen. This is a true...
Read moreThe history of riddling
Riddling is the term for the most common way of concentrating the lees in bottle fermented or sparkling wines and cider. (A stage not performed wi...
Read moreGraft Incompatability in apples and pears.
After a talk I gave on the history of cider which mentioned grafting, I was asked a question, why do grafts in humans fail but not in apples. I w...
Read moreNew Cider Book: The Lost Orchards, rediscovering the forgotten cider apples of Dorset.
I highly recommend this new book on apples by the acclaimed cider and apple writer Liz Copas with Nick Poole The Lost Orchards: Rediscovering the ...
Read moreGeorge Villiers, Duke of Buckingham and Lord Scudamore in C17th Century English Politics
In Seventeenth Century England the Kind was God’s appointed instrument of justice and Governance on Earth. This held through the reigns of James I ...
Read moreMyths and Legends of Cider
In this section I am keen to find any evidence of facts behind cider myths. Julius Caesar recorded Celts drinking crab apple cider on his 55 BC ...
Read moreJohn Evelyn, Life and Cider
John Evelyn was born on his father’s estate at Wotton Surrey, on 31 October 1620; he was the grandson of George Evelyn, introducer to England and ...
Read moreThe Curious case of the Hartlib Papers
Samuel Hartlib 1600 - 10th March 1662 was a great but mainly forgotten intelligencier of the 17th C, with links throughout England Europe and Amer...
Read moreLord Scudamore
The first Viscount Scudamore was born in 1601, and was baptised at Holme Lacy, the Scudamore’s primary residence in Herefordshire, just downstrea...
Read moreChristopher Merrett Physician and founding member of Royal Society
Christopher Merrett was one of a group of 17th century gentleman scientists, nobleman and polymaths who established the Royal Society. Merrett was...
Read moreSir Paul Neile, Royal Society and Cyder
Son of Richard Neile, Archbisop of York, ( and incidentally interrogated the last namer to be burnt at the stake for heresy, Edward Whitman in 161...
Read moreRoyal Society and Cider
The Royal Society originated on November 28, 1660, when 12 men met after a lecture at Gresham College, Bishopgate, London, by Christopher Wren (th...
Read moreCaptain Silas Taylor, cidermaker soldier, antiquarian musician and spy!
Little is known about Silas Taylor although he was an important person in the story of cider. Time has been harsh to many. History concentrating o...
Read moreGlass making Newcastle and Cider!
Nowadays, Newcastle upon Tyne is rarely associated with glass making, let alone its principal players. However it had a prominent roll to play. A ...
Read moreAlan Turing and the apple
On Monday June 7, 1954 Turing died in his bed in Holly Mead, his house in Wilmslow, a town in Cheshire, where he lived close to his work at Manche...
Read moreNitrogen and cider
A topic of the moment with agricultural emissions run off and degradation of waterways and climate change high on the agenda here in NZ is nitrog...
Read moreCider things that make me happy (in no particular order)
With credit to Adam Well and Cider Review. Please compil and post your list Knowing that more varieties of apples and pears are used to make ...
Read morePercy Bulmer
The founding member of Bulmers Cider was Henry Percival "Percy" Bulmer, the younger son of the rector the Reverend Charles H. Bulmer and his wi...
Read moreThe punt in a bottle
Ever wondered why a wine bottle has a dimple on the bottom? Some people have suggested so the sommelier looks cool as he serves the wine! Certainl...
Read moreThe Origins of Domesticated Apples
On the forested flanks of the Tian Shan mountains; Alexander the great is credited with finding apples in Kazakhstan. Apples started their jour...
Read moreRalph Austen. Horticulturist and Puritan
An early and often overlooked author in orchard husbandry cider history is Ralph Austen. Born about 1612 he was embroiled in the Reformation and ...
Read moreCider making and religion in C17th England
A question that has intrigued me. Why did cider making blossom in the early 17th Century England? Wine making did not experience a similar develop...
Read moreMuseum of Cider
The Cider Museum is a museum in Hereford, England, about the history of cider. The museum was set up as a Trust in the 1970s by Bertram Bulmer, ...
Read moreWilliam Lawson
The second writer in the 17th C of note on cider and orcharding. c.1554-1635. Lawson was a graduate of Christ Church College Oxford and vicar of ...
Read moreRev John Beale
Rev John Beale, an extraordinary vicar. Central to the early development of quality cider in England He was baptised in the village of Yarkhill w...
Read moreAbscission of apples
Apple trees are now often seen with apples but no leaves into autumn. This is because of climate change. The change in prolonging warmer temper...
Read moreJohn Taverner Certaine Experiments Concerning Fish and Frvite
The history of English Cider works of antiquity starts in mid C17th. I until recently would consider Ralph Austen to be the first major english la...
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