Bodger
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My weekend awayWe arrived at Broome Farm, Peterstowe, Hereford at 8.00pm on Friday night . The proprietor Mike has about 40 acres down to cider apple growing with a small percentage of perry pears.
The bulk of his fruit goes under contract to Bulmers but the rest he uses on the farm to produce award winning cider and perry.
Our party then met up in a local hostelery for a meal before returning to the B&B on the farm for a couple of jugs of cider before bed.I think that we all slept like the dead.
After an excellent breakfast we watched Mike and a number of locals making cider. Here are some photographs of the procedings.
Thats me looking into the barn at the back. 
Cider making goes on inside an open barn. Here we can see that what is termed as the 'cheese' is about to be pressed by a hydraulic press worked from power produced by the tractor.
The apples are fed through a shredder which again is worked by the tractor and then the resulting squished apples are folded in to sacks and then the individual sacks of mush are placed into a pile one top of each other ready for the pressure from the press to force the juice out in a cascade towards the waiting barrels
This lady had to stand on a milk crate to be able to get the layers of cheese to the required height.
Apples being washed before being shredded.
Not quite the finished article yet but the juice from the pressing is then poured into 40 gallon oak barrels obtained from the distilling industry. The barrels have either been used in whisky or rum brewing and depending on what the barrel has had in it dictates whether you get what is termed as rummed or whyskied cider.
Cider making is now very much on the up and there are lots of enterprises similar to Mikes producing a really good product.
Heres Bodgers Cousin, yours truly and Rosas bottom sucking in the atmosphere and making sure we don't get our hands dirty.
In the day I think that they made in the region of 120 gallons.
The six of us then went to the Westons Cider Factory and did the tour to see how the big boys do it.
Everyone should go on a pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime. Forget looking for the Eddie Stobbart lorries , try these !
Just a few of the Michelin and Daubenet variety of cider apples waiting to go down in a sort of log plume effect down into the factory.
This is one of two massive fruit presses that Westons have. They were bought from olive oil producers from Italy and Greece and can each deal with 9 tons of mushed apples. These machines extract 30% more juice than the old presses and are worked by one person instead of fourteen.
The barrels at Westons held a little bit more than those at Broome Farm !
Some of these barrels were in excess of a hundred years old. They had dozens of them . I hope you can get an idea of the scale involved. The apple juice ferments in them for either four weeks or six months depending upon what type of cider they were producing.
So there you have it ! We have had a look at two ends of the cider producing scale .
I hope people have found it of interest.
I'll be going there again next year as well. Unfortuntely as good as technology is you can't get an idea of the tastes and smells involved.
Our next trip is being designed to take in a trip to Hereford or Ludlow Races.
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Jonnyboy
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Excellent pics. Did you prefer the small scale cider making or the westons?
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hedgewitch
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Great pix - you really do get an idea of the atmosphere, even without the scents
Oh -- and I especially liked the one of Rosa's bottom sucking in the sucking in the atmosphere  
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Rosa
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Cousins - eh!
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hedgewitch
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| Rosa wrote: | | Cousins - eh! |
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Bodger
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Both experiences were great in their own way but I think that everyone who attended will agree that the experience at Broome Farm was much closer to our hearts.
The Halloween party that we went to on the Saturday night in the cider cellar would have knocked spots off anything seen on River Cottage.
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KILLITnGRILLIT
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**Quote**"This lady had to stand on a milk crate to be able to get the layers of cheese to the required height. "**
Good to see common sense overtake Mr.H&S
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Treacodactyl
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Thanks for the story and photos, glad you had a nice trip. Now, 40 gallon oak barrels....
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Bodger
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TC
They get their barrels fairly cheaply from Scotland but there's the slight problem of the cost of transport.
I'd like to get my hands on some of the smaller 11 gallon ones.
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Nick
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| Treacodactyl wrote: | | Thanks for the story and photos, glad you had a nice trip. Now, 40 gallon oak barrels.... |
All over eBay, 20-30 quid a pop. Where do you live?
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Treacodactyl
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| nickhowe wrote: | | Treacodactyl wrote: | | Thanks for the story and photos, glad you had a nice trip. Now, 40 gallon oak barrels.... |
All over eBay, 20-30 quid a pop. Where do you live? |
I’ll only want them when I move and have plenty of apples. To be honest I wouldn’t fancy buying them from an unknown source on eBay if I was going to use them for food use.
When I get somewhere I may have to do it the hard way and visit Scotland, go on a distillery tour and pick up a few barrels. Bugs and I could even visit Gil on the way or pop in on Rob and pick up half an animal of some sort.
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@Calli
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I have to say I prefer the traditional look of the process in the smaller 'cider factories' - you sort of feel "(One day )I could do that"
And as for the strategic use of crates...what else?
Bodger, the apples waiting to go down the process would make a great wallpaper!!
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