Apple Scrumping Day 2

It was a beautiful sunny day and we had an overflowing car park by 11.00 in the morning.  Everyone worked flat out all day chopping and squishing and pressing to turn the apples people picked in the orchard into juice to take home.  Huge thanks are due to Camilla and Amanda from Vigo who brought along one of their fruit presses and a big yellow muncher cruncher to chop up the fruit.  
Anyone who has more fruit than they can eat should certainly think about turning it into juice and a small Vigo press would really come in handy.  See www.vigopresses.co.uk or telephone 01404 892101.
We had such a lot of fun and the general public worked hard too, lots of dads and kids taking turns at the presses.  Thanks to Jasmine for the bacon butties, and to Fergus (not quite 7) who was her right hand man.

We're definitely up for it again next year.

Apple Scrumping Day

We’re doing something new on Sunday 12 September.  We’ll be offering to turn the apples people pick at the PYO into juice, bottle it and even give the bottles personalised labels.


Vigo, who provide us with equipment, are coming along to help and bringing some extra kit.  We’ll be chopping up the apples, pressing them for juice and pasteurising the bottles so the juice keeps.  So much easier than storing the apples for winter in the attic, and so much more fun to be able to offer your guests your own juice!


People can even make up their own blends from the fruit in the orchard - we have fifteen different kinds of apple to choose from and four different varieties of pear.


The sun is supposed to shine, and we’ll have a barbeque for hungry customers.


We look forward to seeing you all - West Bradley Orchards, 10.00 - 5.00 Sunday 12 September.

First PYO weekend of 2010 a success

Lots of people came to West Bradley for the first weekend this year of Pick Your Own.  The weather stayed sunny - more or less - and the fruit is looking really good.  People were filling wheelbarrows with apples and pears.  Many were intending to store the fruit until needed, and some said that their eyes were just bigger than their brains!  It is wonderful to see a whole orchard bursting with ripe fruit, each one a beauty.


Pick Your Own will continue on each weekend throughout September. All apples and pears are £1.10 per kilo. 


The harvest begins next week with our own pickers coming in during the week, and then it's absolutely full-on until Christmas.

Pick Your Own at West Bradley

Neil, Arthur & Fergus Macdonald - Juicemasters!

West Bradley Orchards is opening on each weekend in September for Pick Your Own.


West Bradley Orchards is one of the few orchards left in Somerset producing dessert fruit. The public is welcome to come on any of the weekends in September to pick apples and pears before the full harvest starts. All apples and pears are £1.10 per kilo.


There are fifteen varieties of apple to pick at West Bradley.  These include Cox, Bramley, Kidd’s Orange, Charles Ross, Jonagold, Russet, as well as four different varieties of pears.  Some of the first apples to mature are the delicious Worcester Pearmains with their strawberry-like flavours. They are highly sought after and will be ready in time for the first weekend in September.


APPLE SCRUMPING DAY


This year brings a brand new event - Apple Scrumping Day - on Sunday 12 September. 

Neil Macdonald of Orchard Ground Force, which manages the orchards, said “For the first time we are going to be making juice for people from the fruit they pick.  It’s a great way to store the goodness of freshly picked apples and pears, and you can see exactly what goes into the bottle.”


“It takes one kilo of apples to make one bottle of juice - and when you consider that two Bramleys can weigh a kilo it won’t take long to pick the fruit!”


“You can choose the apples that go into your juice - either a single variety or a blend of different varieties.  For a small charge we will juice the fruit for you, (or you can do it yourself), bottle it, pasteurise it quickly so it keeps, and you can even have your own personal label!”


Neil’s young children, Arthur and Fergus, are masters of the technique of making juice, but it is simple enough for even adults to get the hang of it!


After a very dry spring and summer the recent rains have been extremely welcome. 


Said Neil Macdonald “The dry sunny weather has given the fruit lots of flavour and sweetness and now the rains are coming at exactly the right moment to swell the fruit and make it really juicy.”


The orchards will be open 10.00 - 17.00, Friday to Sunday on each weekend in September.  Free entrance and parking.  Bags and containers provided.


West Bradley Orchards, West Bradley, BA6 8LT 
2 miles off the A361 between Shepton Mallet and Glastonbury
Tel: 01458 850 227

Gold at The Great Taste Awards

Neil Macdonald & Andrew Quinlan

The Orchard Pig was delighted to receive three Golds at the Great Taste Awards 2010.  Its Medium Sparkling Cider, Apple Juice and Ginger and Sparkling Jonagold Apple Juice were all declared winners in this year’s Awards.

Andrew Quinlan said “ It’s the first time we have won three Golds in one year and we’re absolutely thrilled. The Fine Food Awards are a real benchmark of quality, because each product is tasted by several judges, and Gold Stars are only awarded when everyone is in agreement, so we are honoured to have made the grade once more.”

Neil Macdonald said “It always comes down to the quality of the raw ingredients and we’re improving on that year by year in our orchards.  Our techniques and understanding are getting much better too so its great to see that someone thinks we’re doing it right!”

The Kingfisher Award Scheme 2010

Neil Macdonald, from The Orchard Pig, West Bradley, was one of the judges at this year’s Kingfisher Award Scheme Prize Day, held on 15 July at Home Farm, Curry Rivel, Somerset.


The Kingfisher Award Scheme was launched in Devon in 1992 at the instigation of the late Poet Laureate Ted Hughes and his friends.  This is the third year it has been running in Somerset.


The Scheme links children from Primary Schools with the natural environment through a Field Day, where they visit a farm to explore a wildlife theme.  This year the theme was ‘Orchards’ and the children visited one of the orchards at The National Trust’s Barrington Court.


What they learned on the Field Day about animals and insects and wildlife was then explored in a Project they continued at their schools.


Finally the Projects were judged and awards given.  150 children attended the Award Day and enjoyed a picnic together with entertainment provided by a Storyteller, barn owls and bees. 


The winning school keeps the Kingfisher Award, a beautiful hand-carved kingfisher, for a year, and each child receives a certificate and a badge.  


This year the winner, Sedgemoor Manor Junior School, was also invited to bring the entire year group to the orchard managed by The Orchard Pig at West Bradley.


Runners-up, High Ham Primary School, received a cheque for the school and an apple tree to plant.


Neil Macdonald said “We simply could not believe the quality of the work the children produced.  The standard was exceptional and as judges we had our work cut out making a choice.”


Sedgemoor Manor Junior School created huge painted insects for their Project.  They sprawled across the floor and were an object of fascination to everybody.  


Said Jim Gillard, Head of Year 3, “Lots of the children don’t get out into the countryside much.  We wanted them to see what is on their doorstep.”


The children also enticed the judges with their home made smoothies, made from yoghourt and orchard fruits.


The judges were Dennis Silk, ex-teacher and Somerset cricketer, Neil Macdonald from The Orchard Pig, Henry Lang, farmer, Kate Merry from The National Trust,  and Michael Brown, founding partner of Brown & Forrest Smokery.


Michael Brown said “It really opens the children’s eyes to so many aspects of wildlife.  This is learning by discovery. Now, whenever they see long grass, they will know what’s underneath it!”

Open Farm Sunday

It was a lovely day for our Open Farm Sunday event and the people who came enjoyed tractor and trailer rides around the orchard and tours of the bottling plant.

Our elderflower pickers had been out since early morning picking the flowers that go into our special Apple Juice infused with Elderflowers.  We put the blossoms into net bags and sink them into our thousand litre vats of apple juice to infuse overnight.

One enthusiastic helper was Fergus Macdonald, age six, seen here helping to put the elderflowers into the big vats.

The fresh aromatic juice is a bestseller for our sister company The Orchard Pig and is a huge success with adults and children alike.