Tales from the smallholding

One of our favourite blends from previous years, bright with acid from the Ashmead’s Kernel and full-bodied with tannin from the Dabinett. Variety Notes Source Dabinett 50% A late bittersweet apple from Somerset, widely grown, regular cropper. High in tannin. Trefaranon, Orcop, Herefordshire Ashmead’s Kernel 50% Grown as an outstanding russetted dessert apple from Gloucestershire.… Continue reading Dabinett & Ashmead’s Kernel blend 2024

An experiment in using dessert fruit that turned out successfully!

Single variety cider from an unusual apple

A new cider blend from a year of plenty.

An early blend of cider.

The first cider using mainly Hollow Ash fruit

The latest iteration of a classic Perry.

We were excited to find this critically rare Perry tree and to try making perry from it.

A medium-sweet single variety cider

The latest incarnation of the ‘Foxwhelp/Pig’s Face’ theme.

A full-bodied cider using fruit largely from Hollow Ash orchards.

An experiment using Black Worcester pear juice to make a Perry.

A rare Perry from the Monnow Valley.

A blend of the renowned and well respected bitter sharp apple, Dabinett, with the more acidic dessert apple, Ashmead’s Kernel, together producing a well-balanced cider. Variety % Source Dabinett 72 Orcop Ashmead’s Kernel 28 Hollow Ash Method Made in a small batch of 300 litres using the pet-nat method. The juice was fermented using wild… Continue reading Dabinett/ Ashmead’s Kernel blend 2021

Fermentation notes.

Dry Perry 2021 2021 was a good season for pears and one of the trees we had planted in our Two-acre Orchard in the winter of 2008/9 was loaded with fruit. The tree was planted as ‘Winter Nelis’, a late season dessert pear, which according to Hogg was ‘…one of the richest flavoured pears, flesh… Continue reading Jerry’s Perry