A weekend break with a difference. Pick apples and pears from an organic orchard and press them yourself on a traditional farmhouse cider press. You will also use a small scale commercial press and pasteurisation unit to make your own apple juice which will keep for up to a year.
Take home 40 pints of juice to fermant into cider, and a case of freshly pressed apple juice .
Organic food included
Talk on Cider making
Picking pressing and gently imbibing
Hot Tub (optional!)
We are aiming for a relaxed informative weekend. Morris Tim and Matt have been making Cider and Perry here for ten years. On Saturday morning we will go out picking in a local orchard. These are traditional unsprayed trees. We collect the apples and pears, and head back to the farm for lunch.
In the afternoon we will press the apples which should take about five or six hours. Saturday evening is a time to talk about theory and techniques, either over a pint in the local pub or a glass of apple juice or last years cider.
On Sunday we will take the press apart and have a good Sunday Lunch (organic home grown food!) and then we will try and visit a local perry maker to see his set up and taste his award winning Perry. The juice and cider to take home will be heavy so you may want to think about transport, or else leave it here and pick it up later in the year.
The weekend is held on a small farm overlooking the river Wye in the Forest of Dean. The farm is run on permaculture principles, and there will be a chance to look around the farm during the weekend. There is a good local pub 15 minutes walk through the fields.
