ILMINSTER AREA NEWS: A great year for county’s cider apples

A NATIONAL Trust cider expert has welcomed the “sweetest” year for Somerset apples – thanks to perfect weather conditions.

More than 650 gallons of cider has been pressed at the National Trust’s Barrington Court estate near Ilminster in Somerset in a year that the charity’s cider expert claims has produced the sweetest apple crop for a decade.

Gardeners and volunteers at the Somerset estate pressed the last of the apple crop on Monday, November 21, 2016.

Over three months volunteers picked more than 12 tonnes of apples in Barrington Court’s orchards – equivalent to the weight of two African elephants.  The apple crop is expected to produce over 1,000 gallons of cider and apple juice.

Rachel Brewer, National Trust gardener and pommelier at Barrington Court, said: “This year's apple juice has been one of the sweetest that I can remember making in the last ten years.

“I was worried that a too-sunny summer would stunt our crop.  Thankfully, a little rain late in the summer left us with lovely sweet and juicy apples – which should produce strong cider.  With the recent storms, we were lucky that we got our apple crop harvested in time.”

It will take around 13 weeks for the cider to naturally ferment; the cider made this week should be ready to drink by Valentine’s Day.

Rachel added: “It’s said that you should never drink the cider until you hear the first cuckoo in April.  But I’m sure there’ll be a few love birds taking a quick swig of cider a few months early.”

PHOTOS - ABOVE: Courtesy of Barrington Court, of the National Trust.

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