Does anybody have experience in using such a device for real in a cider orchard or is it still faster to get down on your knees and pick them up two hands at a time?

Orchard Cider is made from 100% local cider apples and is being trialled in selected outlets in Cornwall and Devon.

Joe Keohane, of Sharp’s, said: “Our introduction to Cornish Orchards was the Eden Project. We are incredibly proud of the cider produced as a result of this partnership.” Orchard Cider is the only draft cider available at local tourist attraction the Eden Project.

Sharp’s said there are plans to extend the distribution of Orchard Cider next year.

Another brewery, Bath’s Abbey Ales has launched Hell’s Bells, produced by the Tricky Cider Company, situated in the Blackdown Hills in Somerset.

Abbey Ales managing director Alan Morgan said of his company’s new product: “We will be offering it to our existing customers initially, and in our own pubs, the Star, the Coeur De Lion and The Assembly Inn.” Distribution will be extended later in the year.

Orchard losses ‘threaten species’

Traditional fruit orchards are vanishing from England’s landscape – with serious consequences for wildlife, conservationists have warned.

The National Trust says 60% have disappeared since the 1950s, putting local varieties of apples, cherries, pears, plums and damsons under threat. It is launching a £536,000 drive to reverse the decline of the orchards. Their trees provide important habitats for species such as the noble chafer beetle and lesser spotted woodpecker.

The orchards – some with as few as five trees – also offer sources of pollen and nectar to bees, which are thought to be declining partly because of a lack of suitable food. Pressure from commercial fruit growers has led many small-scale producers to develop their orchards or convert them to other uses.

via BBC NEWS | England | Orchard losses ‘threaten species’.

I’m taking notes because it helps me to learn and remember:

The saddle graft is quick and easy. 1060 Rootstock Queen cox variety

using an Opinel french locking penknife locking number 6 stainless steel

cut down to a wedge on the rootstock

cut a V into the scion wood

knife needs to be sharp

soak in methylated spirit to keep sterile

locking thumbs

The two parts of the saddle graft fit nicely together live wood to live wood.

wrap with cut freezer bag or similar material.

no air space firm contact

label your trees

Manmade Eden is published by Redcliffe Press ( available by mail order) or through the Amazon ukcider bookstore ( out of stock last time I looked )

Manmade Eden: Historic Orchards in Somerset and Gloucestershire

The blurb says:

The West Country is famed for its orchards, but why are they here? As the campaign to save and celebrate English orchards gathers momentum, this book explores their fascinating and – until now – neglected history. Why is Glastonbury known as Avalon, the Isle of Apples? What made Redstreak Cyder the most popular drink of the seventeenth century? Who was Dr Ashmead, cultivator of the connoisseur’s favourite apple, Ashmead’s Kernel? How did a Somerset vicar come to make cider for Queen Victoria? This rich, wide-ranging book takes a long historic look at changing fashions and fortunes – asking why thirteenth-century monks and Edwardian landowners planted orchards, and why post-war governments paid farmers to destroy them. The author argues that Apple Day (October 21) should be made our national autumn holiday. He examines the role of Common Ground, the National Trust and other organisations in preserving and restoring orchards, and asks: what can we do to make our orchards as profitable as they were in centuries past?

Pruning the bramley apple tree, the famous cooking apple. The Bramley apple has a red flush, and it’s a good quality cooking apple which ripens to a yellow sweetness if kept long enough. But  the tree can be challenging. You need plenty of space between the trees. The one in the video was planted 10 years ago. The bramley is a big tree. In an ordinary garden you may want to put it on a small rootstock, to restrict the growth and eventual size.

Each year we want the tree to do three thing. Production of new growth, formation of new buds , and fruit on old buds. Bramley is a tip bearing tree so don’t go round snipping off all the tips, that’s the wrong way to prune it. Take out downward growing branches. Or any that are too high. We don’t go up trees with ladders any more.

Looking at the pruning saw, more important than the secteurs. Needs to be sharp or else not fit for purpose. Cut on the back stroke. Japanese silky fox. Removing a branch which is to low, to show how to use the saw. Not touching the tree. Stabalise by holding the branch. It goes right through in two cuts. Definitive pruning cut up against the collar.

Spur pruning. Fruit buds turn into spurs after a few years then get crowded. Overgrown spur systems need to be thinned. Cut out the lower groups to produce only 3 or 4 apples per system instead of 8 or 9

Although its late in the season if you have a fruit tree and want help with harvesting please contact us – you will get the first share.

( Probably a  bit late now, but worth flagging up for next year )

There are lots of recipes but also information and advice on orchards, produce including cider, contacts etc. The Apple Source Book is available from Amazon at £10.19 and from the Apples and Orchards category page at the ukcider bookshop

The Apple Source Book
by Sue Clifford and Angela King with Philippa Davenport
for Common Ground
Hodder & Stoughton, October 2007 304 pages b&w illustrations

a philosophical and practical guide to
growing apples communally or for yourself
eating them simply or in style
whilst enriching both our culinary and cultural landscapes.

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Common Ground,
Gold Hill House, 21 High Street, Shaftesbury, Dorset SP7 8JE UK
+44(0)1747 850820

www.england-in-particular.info – local distinctiveness
www.commonground.org.uk – archive, arts and Apple Day
www.corrugated-iron-club.info – world wide sheds