harvest Archives - Real CiderReal Cider

If you grow apples, be it a single tree or a whole orchard let us know how much you harvested and how affected you have been by the weather this year. Good or bad? Let us know in the comments below.

The following report is from Orchard Pig Groundforce in West Bradley, Somerset.

We are thrilled to report that we have actually ﬁnished the harvest.
Some people have not been so fortunate and our hearts go out to them.. we’ve seen lots of waterlogged orchards.
It was a predictably poor crop and a very difﬁcult season. The dessert crop at West Bradley was about 65% of normal, whereas last year was 110%.
The modern plantings on wires have been the least affected by the weather and Falstaff has performed particularly well. Cider fruit has been on average a 45% crop for us as well as everybody else we know, but the trees look good, the fruit bud is forming, a good cold winter is forecast so let’s look forward to next year!

The hot spring and cool summer conditions have brought early and bumper autumn crops.

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:

What was your apple harvest like? Add to the 2012 crop report here

Bumper apple harvest 2011

The hot spring and cool summer conditions have brought early and bumper autumn crops.