Learn & Discover
Learn & Discover
What makes a good harvest?
Harvest is often seen as a magical time of abundance, but for the agricultural workers whose labour is tied so closely with that of their orchards, the run up to harvest can be an anxious time. Without apples to harvest there would be no cider to drink or sell. Consequently, there is no income—a travesty for both maker and consumer.
Part of this anxious magic is that no two harvests are the same; vintages exist in order to help categorise a fruit and their juice by the year they were grown. So what elements are at work to make one harvest differ to another? Is there such a thing as a good and a bad harvest? What is needed to make a harvest one of abundance over anxiety?
Rachel Hendry
A wine and cider writer, featured in Wine52’s Glug magazine, Pellicle magazine, Burum Collective and Two Belly. The mind behind wine newsletter J’adore le Plonk and an untiring advocate for spritzing every drink she can get her hands on.
What Makes a Good Harvest?
Harvest is often seen as a magical time of abundance, but for the agricultural workers whose labour is tied so closely with that of their orchards, the run up to harvest can be an anxious time. Without apples to harvest there would be no cider to drink or sell. Consequently, there is no income—a travesty for both maker and consumer.
Part of this anxious magic is that no two harvests are the same; vintages exist in order to help categorise a fruit and their juice by the year they were grown. So what elements are at work to make one harvest differ to another? Is there such a thing as a good and a bad harvest? What is needed to make a harvest one of abundance over anxiety?
Rachel Hendry
A wine and cider writer, featured in Glug, Pellicle, Burum Collective and Two Belly. The mind behind wine newsletter J’adore le Plonk.
Location, location, location.
Deciding where to plant an orchard is not dissimilar to deciding where to place a house plant in your living room. Will there be enough sun? How often is it going to get disturbed by pests? Will it get the warmth that it needs to flourish?
Orchard placement is a whole topic in itself, but for now let’s just say that orchards that have been cared for – not overwhelmed with chemicals and receive a generous amount of warmth, sunlight and water. This lends itself to a greater chance of success.
When I asked Bill Bleasdale of Welsh Mountain Cider about what constituted a good harvest. It is with the trees that his answer began:
“Lovely big old gnarly trees in old, unsprayed extensive orchards give tastier more complex fruit and cider than bush fruit grown intensively in glyphosated [chemicalised herbicide] orchards,” he tells me.
So if the trees themselves haven’t been given a second thought, then chances are the cider will taste just as lacking. Exactly like the drooping, shrivelled up fern forgotten about in the corner of an office.
Location, location, location
Deciding where to plant an orchard is not dissimilar to deciding where to place a house plant in your living room. Will there be enough sun? How often is it going to get disturbed by pests? Will it get the warmth that it needs to flourish?
Orchard placement is a whole topic in itself, but for now let’s just say that orchards that have been cared for – not overwhelmed with chemicals and receive a generous amount of warmth, sunlight and water. This lends itself to a greater chance of success.
When I asked Bill Bleasdale of Welsh Mountain Cider about what constituted a good harvest. It is with the trees that his answer began:
“Lovely big old gnarly trees in old, unsprayed extensive orchards give tastier more complex fruit and cider than bush fruit grown intensively in glyphosated [chemicalised herbicide] orchards,” he tells me.
So if the trees themselves haven’t been given a second thought, then chances are the cider will taste just as lacking. Exactly like the drooping, shrivelled up fern forgotten about in the corner of an office.
“…no two harvests are the same; vintages exist in order to help categorise a fruit and their juice by the year they were grown.”
— Rachel Hendry
“…no two harvests are the same; vintages exist in order to help categorise a fruit and their juice by the year they were grown.”
— Rachel Hendry
Or LOG IN for unlimited access to Learn & Discover
JOIN CAMRA
Or JOIN CAMRA for unlimited access to Learn & Discover
Section sub title goes here
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam lobortis vel sapien nec faucibus. Morbi consectetur pulvinar lectus, vitae sodales tellus. Sed sagittis aliquam convallis. Duis mollis libero eu massa luctus, id euismod urna fringilla. Aenean condimentum accumsan leo nec eleifend. Maecenas ullamcorper est non justo pulvinar accumsan. Nam facilisis, lacus a aliquet ornare, metus velit mattis leo, eget sodales quam ligula et nisl.
