There is an old working Cider Press at Orchard Barn which I’ve owned and used for nearly 25 years. It’s been repaired and repositioned in an ideal location undercover in an adjoining Cider Barn attached to the main house. Its surrounds have been purpose built with red rustic antique floor tiles, giving enough space for the ratchet bar to be manoeuvred between the barn upright beams, enough height for the apple mock (layers of apple pulp wrapped in Hessian sacks) to be stacked up to 7 ft high above the press bed with an enormous slate slab under the press lip.
It has a single screw, (technical jargon of having one central and very heavy cast iron screw positioned in the middle of the press bed and housing the press top on a ratchet system some 8 ft above the bed) with oak top press and a large old 9ft square pressing bed made from oak beams with an adjacent and original crusher. The crusher itself is driven by a belt and pulley system powered by an old 1952 Fergie T20 grey tractor and together with 40-50 friends and helpers a single annual pressing enough to fill one 50 gallon oak barrel.
The Apple Pressing Day itself, usually in October is a fun and traditional day for all the family starting with a gathering coffee at 10am in wellies and waterproofs……once troops are mustered with excited children in fancy dress armed with buckets, ladders, and some 25 Hessian sacks everybody mounts one of 3 tractors and trailers and heads to the first of two apple orchards owned by neighbouring farmer Colin and Olive Hellier from Southwood Farm. It takes about an hour to climb and shake the trees and for everybody to pick up the windfalls, and those rattled and shaken from the many old and majestic cider apple trees in the orchard – this is a children’s favourite with high spirits and apple fights aplenty coupled with several short but fun tractor rides to and from both orchards nearby.
Once all 25 bags are full they are loaded onto one trailer and everyone mounts up on the remaining two trailers and return to the Cider Barn and off load. The T20 is started up (the traditional domain of Iain Glendinning who likes this job!!) the bar is opened and the Jail Ale 4.5% starts to encourage the CAMRA buffs for what is ahead in terms of hard work!! and baskets of apples are then passed up to the crusher man in a relay who tips them slowly into the crusher hopper. The resultant apple pulp is sluiced into clean bins and again relayed round to the press where another team are busy preparing and building the apple layers. Children then relay early juices to the barrel shed and filter the sweet amber liquid through a purpose made filter funnel straight into the oak barrel.
The layers are known as Cheeses and are foot thick layers of apple pulp wrapped in Hessian sacking placed and carefully filled one on top of the other – once all 25 bags of apples are crushed and carried round and layered the resultant stack of cheeses, now referred to as a ‘Mock’ is about 6-7 ft high and has the central screw running right through the centre of the stack.
The top press is then turned and screwed down to meet the top of the Mock and thereafter with a relay of manpower using a long and heavy purpose built bar inserted into the ratchet socket and at first an easy movement of the bar, the pressing phase itself starts. The apple juice now pours through the perforated Hessian sacking as the Mock is pressed between the top press and the bottom oak bed – this process gets progressively harder as the torque is increased and the manpower required moving the bar increases. Children love to have a go and early shifts are often Girls only….after a while though the ‘heavy brigade’ are required and last year we even attached a rope to the bar to make a tug of war style team sufficient to extract the last required juice to fill the barrel. This pressing phase also takes about an hour and is usually interrupted by a scrumptious luncheon in a marquee erected on the croquet lawn to facilitate the necessary sustenance (usually chilli or curry with puds to die for and then cheeses various) everyone has a job although there is little direction needed as such because old hands have helped annually over the 25 years I’ve been Apple Pressing in both Christow and more recently here in Dunsford.
Once the barrel is full the top press is wound back up and the Mock (dry apple cake used now as cattle fodder) is shovelled back into about 10 bags and stacked for Tony Chadwick to feed his animals. Equipment is then washed and Hessian rinsed and hung up to air dry, buckets stacked, the whole area is hosed down and all apple spillage cleared away and tidied up – tea is then served, best dressed children’s fancy dress award made, words of appreciation and thanks given to all helpers and the gang slowly disperse with cries of ‘Great Day, magic Jail Ale, etc. and tired but happy parents friends and children alike make their way home.
This is a very special day and one which keeps an ancient tradition alive – Cheers!!
Ian Corner
Orchard Barn Bed and Breakfast
