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Oliver's Cider and Perry

Posted by Unknown Monday, April 8, 2013 0 comments

The man above is Tom Oliver, a really nice person who is one of the best cider and perry makers you'll ever meet. If you're in Herefordshire, keep an eye out for brown signs showing you where the cider farms are:

Better still find (or download) the Herefordshire Cider Route, and if you're near the delightfully sounding Ocle Pychard, look out for Moorhouse Farm:

Here, in an old hop kiln, is where you'll find Oliver's Cider and Perry:

Inside is an Aladdin's cave for fans of cider and perry:

There's single varietals like Dabinett, Kingston Black or Yarlington Mill Ciders, and Blakeney Red, Swans Egg, Oldfield or Rock Perry. It's fascinating learning the stories about how these apples and pears got their different and sometimes unusual names. What's in stock depends on when you visit. Some varieties, like Coppy, only produce a decent crop every 3 or 4 years - so you may have to wait for that.

You can taste before you buy:

Tom also does blends, and a good cider maker like Tom will also mature the vintage ciders in oak barrels to give another dimension to the drink.

At the back you can also see some of the numerous awards that Tom has won:

Besides the cider and perry there's also cider vinegar and rock perry vinegar:

The rock perry vinegar (which is served on the Sticky Fried Chicken Wings at the Disco Bistro in London) has revolutionised my salad dressings. Rick Stein gave Oliver's Cider & Perry "Superhero" status, and I imagine Rick used it when he made Warm chicken liver salad with perry vinegar dressing.

There's also (frozen) sausage for sale, made with rare breed pork from Noggin Farm in Much Marcle and Tom Oliver's cider.

I could have stayed and talked to Tom for much longer.... I never even found out about his work as a sound engineer and tour manager for rock groups - as he had to go and rescue a lamb that had got stuck!

Oliver's Cider and Perry Ltd.
Moor House Farm
Ocle Pychard
Hereford
Herefordshire
HR1 3QZ

Tel: 01432 820569

Web: www.theolivers.org.uk

Ledbury - Three Counties Cider Shop

Posted by Unknown Saturday, February 2, 2013 0 comments

I don't need an excuse to return to Ledbury - it's one of the best towns in the country for good independent food producers. But I've now found yet another reason to visit this lovely town - Three Counties Cider Shop.

When they built the Barrett Browning Institute (named at the famous poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning) at the end of the 18th century, they helpfully erected the fine clock tower shown at the top of this post. When you've found this, you've found the Three Counties Cider Shop which is directly opposite:

Once inside:

you're surrounded by good cider and perry! The shop is owned by Once Upon A Tree who were featured in this blog last year, just before they won Best Drinks Producer in the BBC's Food & Farming Awards. So you'd expect to find their ciders and perry:

At the back of the shop there's draft cider and perry:

Some of my finds included Butford Organics:

Their Ganymede cider was commended in the Soil Association 2012 Organic Food Awards and they also sell Aurora and Sadira - naturally produced organic bottle conditioned perry.

I was recently talking to Tom Oliver, who is one of my favourite cider producers. Tom will be featured in this blog later this year and you can buy Olivers cider and perry in this shop. It's amazing how different the tastes can be of cider and perry, even when they're made with the same varieties.

It's interesting to study the differences between the label designs in this shop. The Ross-on-Wye Cider & Perry Company have pictures of the apples:

Hogans Cider in the Malverns is one of a new breed of artisan cider makers and has a stylish label:

I must also visit the Orchard Centre, at Hartpury in Gloucestershire, where Out of the Orchard cider is made:

Whilst on the subject of labels, Wilce's Cider:

which is made less than a mile from this shop, features the fantastic Market House in Ledbury (see here for a picture of the real thing).

Not all the cider is from the Three Counties, the rare Abbey Lands Tyson's Tipple:

is made from a blend of dessert apples and pears at Ryedale Vineyards near York. In fact the great thing about this shop is you never know what you're going to find. Stocks vary depending on supplies (most of the suppliers are relatively small producers) and the time of year.

If you fancy something stronger, there's liqueurs:

like Gun Dog damson, raspberry or rhubarb fruit gin from Putley, or Slightly Foxed Orange Liqueur, Number Nine and Bloody Furlong from Celtic Marches (the last two won Gold in the Great Taste Awards).

There's Pixley Berries blackcurrants cordials:

they're made, not far from Dragon Orchard, with fruit juice, sugar, water and nothing else.

They sell mustards from the Three Counties Gourmet:

like Sizzling Sausage Mustard and The Connoisseur's Mustard (great for gourmet sauces or salad dressings) and Delia's White Wine & Chilli Mustard (a great alternative to Dijon Mustard). If you don't like mustard, you can marinade your chicken with Delia's Natural Sweet Chilli Sauce .

They also have Once Upon a Tree's delicious jams jellies and chutneys:

flavours include Medlar Jelly (a nice present for the in-laws?) and Quince Jelly.

Three Counties Cider Shop
5a The Homend
Ledbury
HR8 1BN

Web: www.onceuponatree.co.uk/visit/three-counties-cider-shop.html

Once upon a tree

Posted by Unknown Monday, November 19, 2012 0 comments

I think Once Upon A Tree is a great name for this business. It's situated in the heart of Herefordshire, surrounded by fruit farms at Ann & Norman Stanier’s Dragon Orchard. They run Cropsharers and the Sponsor A Tree schemes so you could have a direct involvement in this business!

At the orchard there's an attractive shop where you can look out at the orchards, and buy delicious food and drinks. There's also work, like jewellery, by local artists for sale:

Depending on the time of year you may be able to buy their own apples, pears, plums, and quince etc. There's delicious chutneys and preserves like Czar or golden plum jam, or damson jelly, made from their own fruit. They also sell chocolates by School of Choc in Hereford, made with their own cider and perry.

However it's the juices, ciders and perrys that I've come for. They're in the final three of the "Best Drinks Producer" category of this year's BBC Food & Farming Awards.

It's unusual to see a cider apple juice for sale (as many are too bitter as they are), but try their Brown's apple juice. There's something for every taste, as I'm writing this I'm enjoying their Herefordshire pear juice - a blend of Conference and Comice pears.

However the real stroke of genius was to team up with Hannah and Simon Day. Simon Day's father, Tom Day, helped set up the famous multi award winning Three Choirs Vineyard, 8 miles away in Newent. If you've been put off traditional cider (and I have had some bad ones over the years) this is the place to come. Simon has made wines all over the world and applies the same attention to detail to his ciders.

They've won numerous awards in international cider and perry competitions. There's blends and single variety ciders and dry, medium and sweet versions to suit every palate.

There's also cakes for sale including Wye Valley Beer Cake (which won a Gold Great Taste Award) and Cider Cake which are made by Franks Luxury Biscuits in Hereford.

They also make ciders and perrys using the full traditional Champagne method, which would make a lovely gift:

I've left one of the best items until the end. It's about as far removed from the traditional cloudy scrumpy as you could imagine! They do a dessert cider and a dessert pear wine. You might think they're rather expensive until you taste one and realise it would give good competition for some of the best fruit liqueurs.

We'll be having the Blenheim Superb Dessert Cider 2009 on Christmas day with our cheese course, a little goes a long way!

I called at Once Upon A Tree on a Sunday, next time I'll make sure I go on a Saturday so I can also visit Tom Oliver (7 miles up the road) who does more traditional ciders and perrys. I don't regard them as competition, they make slightly different products and I enjoy both. But the main reason for going on a Saturday is so that I can also visit the newly opened Three Counties Cider Shop in the lovely town of Ledbury (which has already had seven mentions in this blog). Here I can buy all the ciders I've mentioned here and some others as well!

Stop Press: Congratulations to Once Upon A Tree for winning Best Drinks Producer in this year's BBC Food & Farming Awards:

Once Upon A Tree

Dragon Orchard
Putley
Ledbury
Herefordshire
HR8 2RG

Tel: 01531 670263

Web: www.onceuponatree.co.uk

Local to Ludlow

Posted by Unknown Saturday, July 28, 2012 0 comments

Ludlow has had numerous mentions in this blog already, it's in a lovely area full of artisan food producers. Local to Ludlow organises the Ludlow Local Produce Market and promotes food and drink produced within 30 miles of the town. This weekend it's organised Get Closer Open Days - an opportunity to visit some of these producers (some of which are not normally open to the public).

My first visit was to Forest Pig Charcuterie. It was great to see pigs wallowing:

Jeremy and Sally Levell only raise a small number of rare breed pigs, like these large blacks:

The older pigs live in the Wyre Forest and I believe have very happy lives.

We learnt how they made their fantastic salami:

with fantastic flavours like Fennel and Spiced walnut:

Their air dried pork loin cured with black pepper and juniper berry:

is (in my opinion) better than the finest Parma or Serrano ham. They're not normally open to the public, but you can buy from shops featured in this blog (see here for details) or online.

Forest Pig Charcuterie

Web: www.forestpig.com

My next visit was to Kim and Rob Hurst's The Cottage Herbery, another business not normally open to the public - apart from special events:

I'd heard Kim talk about herbs, and their culinary uses, some years ago at Ludlow Food Festival.

She's very knowledgeable and enjoys finding and growing rare and unusual plants like African blue basil, buckler leaf sorrel and myoga ginger.

I bought some Good King Henry:

Which is a cut and come again perennial spinach type herb, which once was more widely grown. Kim told me the flowers are also eddible and could be an alternative to asparagus.

I'm going to grow their cut and come again salad leaf mix:

with Greek cress, curled and French parsley, tree spinach, chervil, corn salad, 2 sorts of rocket, bulls blood beet and other baby salad leaves besides.

You'll think ordinary strawberries are tasteless, after trying their wild strawberries:

Kim's enthusiasm is infectious so I ended up buying quite a few other plants!

The Cottage Herbery

Web: www.thecottageherbery.co.uk

Augernik Fruit Farm is at Hopton Wafers, - a South Shropshire village where I worked on a farm for a year as a teenager.

The Auger family produce fruit and nuts without any artificial inputs or chemicals so their produce may not win awards in supermarket beauty contests, but does taste good.

Sadly the cherries were over, but they had plenty of gooseberries and I picked some blueberries

to go with my gooseberries.

Augernik Fruit Farm

Hopton Wafers

Cleobury Mortimer

Kidderminster

Shropshire

DY14 0HH

Web: www.augernikfruitfarm.co.uk

My final visit was to Mahorall Farm Cider:

Your sat nav is unlikely to find this farm, so check here for details on how to get there.

Their cider is made from 100% pure apple juice and fermented by wild natural yeast. You can buy their cider from the barrel or in bottles:

They're keen on conservation on this farm and there's also a nature trail on the farm.

Mahorall Farm Cider

Nash

Ludlow

Shropshire

SY8 3AH

Tel: 01584 890296

Mobile: 07977811626

Web: www.farmcider.co.uk

I really enjoyed this event, and was sorry that I couldn't visit all 21 venues. It's great to meet the producers, who are all clearly passionate about what they do, and taste and buy their fantastic produce.

Web: www.localtoludlow.org.uk/opendays