Lots more challenges in the coming year, bring it on!

River Cottage – Real Cider

As a prize I’ve won free access to some online courses about mushrooms, game, pigs and fishing. River cottage do sell some ciders through their online shop but it’s not a very exciting selection. Eventually I’m sure there’ll be an online how to make cider membership course, unless perhaps we decide to make one first?

Cheers and welcome to blogging Mark and Karen, with a great initial post about

Picking apples in the Welland Valley

already followed by two more substantial and illustrated articles about apples and pears and milling and pressing

Wonderful. Keep it up!

Fruitwise Heritage Apples

This is the new index page, I will be keeping a sort of diary here through the apple season.

Welcome to blogging, Stephen and Julia!

On the 5th August there is a sorry tale of another local shop closing, with some typical pithy commentary:

There is something wrong with a society where a populous local community (and it’s the same in our village of Botley) can support a supermarket, a betting shop, estate agent, several pubs and restaurants, 2 take aways, several hair, nail and other beauty shops (maybe a cancer-inducing tanning salon too) but where it is uneconomic to run a shop selling that most basic necessity of all, fresh vegetables and fruit. Too bad.

So if you are interested in following the story of small scale apple orchard production in southern England I would recommend a subscription to Fruitwise ( RSS ) , and wish Stephen happy blogging with the new site.

I am a very big fan of the cider. Oh yes, much research has been done in that department. Sadly though the East End of London isn’t quite the best situation for such a taste, so it’s nice to see the Guardian cite an online shop dedicated to the love and purchase of good apples.

I was even more pleased to see that they’ve been visiting the UK Cider Wiki – which I myself have rummaged around in recently. I have (vague) plans to try my hand at cider-making this summer or next; either way, Rose Grant’s contribution on Cider By Rosie is entertaining.

Thanks Emma, I’ll add your food blog into the sidebar here.

New Forest Mini-break – Day #2 – Burley and Cider

..then up the road towards the busy little scrumpy cider farm (woo hoo!), found out they do borough market once a week too(!) -

- where I scored a small bottle of “medium” (very nice indeed) -