Here are some very special events that we recommend in Somerset.

Know of other events? Leave the details of the event in the comments below.

Walters Farm, Tintinhull Wassail – 7 January 2012 at 7pm

Wassail ceremony for the orchard’s old apple trees followed by music, giant hot dogs, danish pastry and cider punch. Parking at the village hall. Tickets £5 adults, children free. Please contact Anette Lorch to book before 2 Jan 2012. 01935 824868

Mid Somerset Show Wassail Evening – 12 January 2012 at 7pm

At the village green orchard at North Wootton. There will be music, noise, singing, toasting the apple trees, shooting the evil spirits plus bonfire, cider, soft drink bar and pig roast. There is no charge or booking needed for the outdoor part of the evening. Afterwards there will be entertainment in the Village Hall for members of the Society at £5 per head. This will include a ploughmans supper, apple muffins and entertainment. Members should book tickets with Bill Bartlett 01749 343091

Rich’s Cider Farm Charity Wassail – 14 January 2012 at 7.30pm

At Mill Farm, Watchfield, Highbridge, Somerset, TA9 4RD. Come and join the Scrumpy & Western band the Mangledwurzels to serenade the orchards of Rich’s Cider Farm with hot mulled cider and a pig roast. Run in association with the Burnham-on-Sea Rotary Club. All profits go to charity. Tickets £9.50 available from Rich’s Cider Shop. 01278 783651 jan@richscider.co.uk

Somerset Rural Life Museum Wassail – 14 January 2012 at 7.30pm

At Abbey Farm, Chilkwell Street, Glastonbury BA6 8DB. There will be music from Rapscallion, barn dance, family activities and seasonal refreshments. Tickets £8 for adults, £5 for children. Pre-booking is necessary. 01458 831197 heritagelearning@somerset.gov.uk

Kilmersdon Wassail – 21 January 2012 at 12.00 noon

At Kilmersdon Village Hall, Radstock, Bath BA3 5TD. Ploughman’s lunches will be available and the 2012 Wassail Queen will be crowned at approximately 1.15pm. The Village Band will be in attendance and the Cam Valley Morrismen. This will be followed by a procession to the Community Orchard where the ceremony will take place and then on to the Old School House for tea and apple cake. The event is FREE apart form buying a ploughman’s lunch if you want to..

For further information contact Martin Horler 01761 437372

Featuring Mike Johnson at Ross on Wye cider, and Dave Mathews from the Welsh cider society.

I think the bikers are converted! They learn about cider traditions, cider making and blending , and have at pressing local apples at Ross on Wye during the annual cider festival.

View on iPlayer (the cider fun starts – 14 minutes in).

The legends of the West Country, The Wurzel’s have been tracked down by the Real Cider web site, so we can ask them about their love of cider.

1. How did your love of cider start?

In January 1968 at my first ever Wassail at the Butchers Arms at Carhampton near Minehead.

2. What’s your favourite place to drink cider?

In the garden on a lovely sunny day with family and friends, or on one of our excellent West Country beaches.

3. What’s your favourite cider, and why?

Any made by Ivor Hyde, who has kept my accordions in working order for years, and brews a mean drop with the apples pressed through a manual press over 100 years old.

Commercially, any made by Rich’s Cider of Mark, Somerset.

4. What makes cider so special, compared to other drinks?

Every brew is different.

5. What’s the perfect accompaniment to enjoy your cider, special mug, cheese, pickles?

Just that, exactly right, plus good company.

View their 2011 Christmas video:

Starring our friend Roger Wilkins

>> Watch it now

A new event happening stateside this autumn/fall – New York Cider week, October 16 – 23, 2011

 
Ask an American producer of hard cider ‘what’s your biggest obstacle?’ and the answer is likely to be: ‘consumer understanding.’

Hard cider is very misunderstood. Makers of real hard cider – craft cider makers who start with real apples – are generally small orchard-­‐based producers.

Already busy with growing apples, making cider, and getting their products to market, they must also dedicate an enormous amount of time to educating consumers, but the growing contingent of real cider enthusiasts is can replicate what was achieved by the craft beer movement.

During the first‐ever Cider Week, over 75 establishments in New York City and the Hudson Valley will prominently feature real (hard) cider. Cider enthusiasts can learn more at tastings, classes, and special events.
 
Participating restaurants include Gramercy Tavern, Marlow & Sons, PRINT, Jimmy’s No. 43, DBGB, Astor Center and Astor Wines, and 67 Wines and Spirits.
 
A complete list of participating venues and their promotions can be found at www.ciderweek.com.
 
Each location will feature cider in its own way with special cider lists, tastings, dinners, and more.

If you are going please get back to us with a review of the event, and your thoughts!

Ingredients

225g (8oz) onions, chopped
900g (2lb) apples, cored and chopped
110g (4oz) sultanas, raisins or chopped dates
15g (½oz) ground coriander
15g (½oz) paprika
15g (½oz) mixed spice
15g (½oz) salt
340g (2oz) granulated sugar
425ml (¾ pint) malt vinegar

Method

1. Put all the ingredients into a preserving pan. Slowly bring to the boil until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Simmer for 1½-2 hours, stirring from time to time to stop the chutney sticking to the pan.
3. When it is very thick and you can draw a wooden spoon across the base of the pan so that it leaves a channel behind it that does not immediately fill with liquid, the chutney is then ready.
4. Put into sterilised jars, seal and cool.
5. The chutney is best stored in a cool, dark cupboard for two to three months before eating (if you can wait that long!)

There is a plentiful supply of fruits, seeds and berries and many trees are already showing their autumn colours.

The conditions follow a record-breaking dry spring, a drought in parts of east and southern England, and a rainy and cloudy summer. As a consequence, orchards are said to be bursting with apples and pears.

Tim Wale from Tutts clump cider in West Berkshire said:

I thought last year was good, but this year its bonkers, so many apples in west Berks…!!!

Mark Shirley from Rockingham forest cider blogged this description:

Shaking down the very large crop of Yarlington Mill cider apples. Five of the seven trees are cropping heavily this year, though sadly some of the the trees have suffered as a result. The very dry conditions seem to have made the wood drier and less flexible and the very heavy crops and high winds have caused several large branches to break under the strain.

Robin Barnwell already has his cider racked off into the second set of demijons. He uses local apples near Birmingham, Midlands –  This photo shows the final racking off the lees.

Could well be ready by Xmas! I use whatever I can get my hands on. This year came from our orchard plus nice people in Rushall who let me strip their tree.

Second racking off, ready for Xmas?

Big tree cider busy with juicing the apples

A day in the life of Big Tree Cider

 Totterdown Press in Bristol at the ‘Apple Chapel’ 

Totterdown Press in full swing!

Tweet from @bigtreecider

Tweet from @uddersorchard

Finally a report from BBC Suffolk on the bumper fruit crops this year:

1. How did your love of cider start?

I began drinking cider as soon as I could. I remember having an incredibly sweet tooth as a teen so would often dismiss the lagers and bitters my friends were drinking and I’d go for a certain brand of cider beginning with a “W”, but I won’t go into that as I’m ashamed of my sordid cider past! As my tastes matured and I began socialising in public houses more often I discovered something called “Old Rosie”, a drink which was a bit of a rarity back then so it really was a treat if I stumbled upon it. Now in my thirties, I’m proud to say that I’m part of the real cider scene and often bring cider back from the producers for the pubs I frequent… and then drink it all!

2. What’s your favourite place to drink cider?

Without any shadow of a doubt, Ye Olde Cider Bar in Newton Abbot. It just feels so perfect drinking cider in an old style mug, in an old style cider house, in the middle of Devon. Despite living in the North of England I still manage to get down there a fair few times a year and I being there. I’m hoping for my ashes to be scattered there when I go to the big cider farm in the sky!

3. What’s your favourite cider, and why?

That’s a hard question to answer as I’ve come across so many on my travels and there are new blends and even new producers popping up all over the place!

As I can’t name one, or the reason why I like just one, I can only list some of my favourites which include Green Valley Dry Cyder (Clyst St. George, Devon), Oliver’s SV Yarlington Mill (Ocle Pychard, Herefordshire), Udder’s Whisky Cask (Huddersfield, W. Yorkshire), Sunnybook Medium (Thorverton, Devon), Big Tree’s Appley Ever After (Hartley, Kent), Sarah’s SV Browns Dry (Bosbury, Herefordshire), Moorland’s Medium Farm Cyder (North Newbald, E. Yorkshire), Sam’s Medium (Winkleigh, Devon), and a certain cider by Solway (Wigton, Cumbria).

Picture the scene, you walk into your usual boozer order a pint of cider, and the landlord says “don’t you want a pint of this?” as he points to a pump climp reading “Solway – Cider Mike”. It was only a one off batch, but it was great, not too sweet and not too dry, much like myself! I do wish Garry at Solway would make some more though as it was rather amusing hearing people ask at the bar for a “Cider Mike”.

There has been a couple of bottled ciders which have stood out for me too. Namely they are Pips Medium (Dorstone, Herefordshire) and Once Upon A Tree Kingston Redstreak (Putley, Herefordshire) which are great ciders to try with food. I recommend them both.

I’m pretty certain that by the time this is published and read that I’ll have tried many others and my list will have changed again.

4. What makes cider so special, compared to other drinks?

It’s simple, pure, and it’s as natural as it gets. There’s no fizz which often gives people that bloated feeling and no chemicals, in particular very little or no sulphite which can agitate things for us asthma sufferers.

There’s also many, many different types of real cider. I can often be seen proving just how different each producers blend can be in my local by practically forcing people to re-try it after hearing them tell me they “didn’t like that stuff much”. Sooner or later, they always find one they like!

Another reason why I love it so much is because I’ve visited many of the producers, seen where it is made and how willing they are to show you around their farms. Compare this openness to the big industrial producers who have enormous factorys with tall fences around them like they have something to hide! I think that speaks volumes when it comes to trusting what you’re drinking.

5. What’s the perfect accompanient to enjoy your cider, special mug, cheese, pickles?

I have to say the pork scratchings at Ye Olde Cider Bar, they’re the biggest scratchings I’ve ever seen in my life! I was tempted to say sunshine, but I’m forever telling people that “Cider is not just for Summer”, much like like the old saying “a dog is not just for Christmas”.

The article is a great insight into the dilemma of where cider lovers, cider makers and buyers see cider in the busy world of wine and beer sales.

One of the ubiquitous dilemmas facing people all round the world is where to put the cider. I’m not talking about the fridge or the pantry but about its ‘positioning’ (if that is the correct marketing jargon?) Its not beer, its not wine, its somewhere in between… somewhere… isn’t it? Well, technically, it is a wine because its fermented juice from a fruit, but its not ‘Wine’ as the world knows it.

Read the full article

Here are her responses to our questions for cider drinkers:

1. How did your love of cider start?
   Cider figures in some of my earliest memories. My mum and dad often used to have a bottle with Sunday lunch and I was sometimes allowed a very small glass of it. It tended to be Woodpecker or GL (Gloucester Lager as some people call it). When I was officially old enough to drink my dad used to make a great cider punch for my birthday parties.
2. What’s your favourite place to drink cider?
   At a festival – of cider or music. As long as it’s outside in the sunshine amongst friends.
3. What’s your favourite cider, and why?
   Difficult to say as it depends on the occasion. I love Aspall’s Peronelles Blush as a wine substitute on a hot day – I think it stands up to being drunk with food and is equally drinkable on its own. I also love Ross-on-Wye cider company’s rum-cask cider. That’s probably a better one for indoors in the winter. And Weston’s Herefordshire country perry is another of my favourites.
4. What makes cider so special, compared to other drinks?
   I like it because it can be refreshing on a hot day, because the flavours are often very complex and because you can find a sweet cider if you’re in that mood, or a very dry cider if you’re not. It can be lots of things. I also like the heritage – I grew up on the Gloucestershire/Herefordshire border so I really associate it with home.
5. What’s the perfect accompanient to enjoy your cider, special mug, cheese, pickles?
   Something from the Snowdonia cheese company, a pork pie or maybe some pork scratchings. We usually drink it out of glasses from one of Clytha Arms cider festivals we went to.