Cider # 6 - Prototype Orchard Plans

I've been thinking further about the design of the 'Barn Orchard'.

We would like Plums, Damsons, Blackcurrants, Redcurrants, Gooseberries, Raspberries, Mistletoe and a ground cover of Oats and soil-improving legumes.  The area will be stock-fenced to keep the sheep and alpacas off it when the trees are small, and later to train the Raspberries against.

The ground will be well covered with large rocks to try to retain heat from the sun and also to provide inviting habitat for worms.

This year the focus will be on preparing it for planting - the soil is heavy clay, so I'll be trying to add lots of organic matter through heavy mulching, chicken scratching, green-manure growing and pig-ploughing.  I may also try a bit of primitive drainage with the long, heavy bar that I use to make pilot holes for fence posts.

In the drawing below each square is 1m x 1m.  The top of the page is North, and the prevailing wind here is from the West.  The key to plants is:
1. Blackcurrant
2. Redcurrant
3. Plum Tree on St. Julien A rootstock (half-standard size tree).
4. Damson Tree on 'Pixy' rootstock (small tree).
5. Gooseberry
6. Raspberry

The North boundary is the wall of the hay barn, which in due course I'll paint a smart white.  The other boundaries will be stock fence, and there will be a wheelbarrow-width gate on the Eastern side (I've learnt my lesson with the various chicken runs / enclosures etc. that I've made - "Always make the door wide enough for a wheelbarrow!").  I'm hoping that the rasperries could be climbing varieties on the barn side, and, another possibility that has just struck me is that we might be able to train Hops up the barn side too.  Beer made from Oats and Hops?  Sounds like it might be possible, if not particularly delicious!

Cider # 4 - Prototype Orchard

Not strictly cider related but on the subject of fruit trees anyway.  I'm in the process of clearing an area against the South face of the hay barn to create a mini fruit plot.  If I paint the wall white I thought it would hopefully create a warm, sunny and neat-looking spot to experiment with fruit trees.  The barn is 24 ft long, and the rubbish-filled area which I'm clearing extends about 10 ft out from the barn, giving 240sq.ft of potential growing space.


The Site!

In order to clear the site I've been clearing some steel A-Frames from a long-forgotten project, partially completed and for the last 10 years or so slowly becoming part of nature again.  Its mostly been a case of angle-grinding them into wheel-barrowable sections (say 100kg) and then Polo'ing them to the scrap yard.

Taking down the A-Frame on the left of the picture above was an interesting experience.  It was attached to the main frame of the barn by two U-bolts which are normally used to hold leaf-springs onto commercial vehicle axles.  On the other end the frame was literally balanced (not attached in any way) onto a steel upright which, not having been placed correctly in the first place, had been extended with a flat plate bolted to the top.


"Old Tymawr" Engineering!

I'm quite glad that I never had a picnic underneath it!

Anyway, after angle-grinding the lower U-bolt through and leaving the frame supported by the top U-bolt and the flate plate above, I knocked the frame off the plate with a sledge hammer, leaving the whole frame (250kg) pivoting off the top U-bolt.

A final angle-grind through the top U-bolt dropped the whole frame fairly neatly onto the ground.

Frame on the ground

Ex U-Bolt

I've been reading Sepp Holzers's "Permaculture" http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sepp-Holzers-Permaculture-1-Holzer/dp/1856230597/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358629337&sr=8-1.  He has some really interesting techniques for fruit tree growing which I'll try to emulate here.  Main points are:

1. Grow green-manure crops around the base of the trees before and after planting.  Grass is too strong a competitor for the shallow part of a fruit-tree root system (see also http://www.amazon.co.uk/Agricultural-Testament-Sir-Albert-Howard/dp/8185569185/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358629637&sr=1-1 for a full explanation of this phenomenon).
2. Place large rocks around the planting area to absorb and slowly radiate heat.  These have the added benefit of encouraging worms to congregate underneath them.
3. Use pigs to turn over, plough in the green manure and add their own manure to the area prior to planting.
4. Use pomace left over from cider making to seed the area to produce root-stocks for subsequent grafting (a good idea I had which might improve this further would be to feed the pigs the pomace and let them manure and seed the area simultaneously!).

If possible I'd like to grow soft-fruit bushes around the fruit trees and amongst the green manure crops (peas? beans? mustard?) to maximise the use of the space.  Finally, we've got plenty of mistletoe around the farm at the moment, it would be great to deliberately encourage it into the fruit trees too.


So, once we're cleared up I think I'll put the chickens on that area to scratch it up, then spread compost and sow some green manure.  This will start the slow process of preparing the area for tree-planting this time next year.

Cider # 5 - Disasterous Apple Season!

After a promising start, this apple season has been a bit of a dead-loss.  I would estimate that we have around 1/20th of last year's crop.



Bardsey Island Apple - One of Two!

The Bardsey Island Apple tree which did really well last year has only produced 2 (!) fruits this year after a pretty comprehensive 'June Drop'.  However, they do at least look delicious.  I'll have one in my packed lunch tomorrow and Jo will enjoy the other one!  No cider this year unfortunately!

Cider # 3 - Blossom development!

It seems amazing that only a few weeks ago I was posting photos of apple blossom - I've had to use the flash to take these so they're a bit bright, but you get the idea!

Looking good so far, can't wait to see these fully developed, fermented and in a pint glass!

Cider # 2 - Stone Age!

We have often thought of these stones as slightly dubious garden 'ornaments', especially with a toddler (soon to be two toddlers I think if Kate keeps up with her kicky-leg exercises!).  I had also thought that they were something to do with the milling of flour, and wondered how and why they had ended up in an area traditionally more known for permanent pasture than wheat growing.

However, a recent visit to the brilliant and eclectic Usk Museum of Rural Life (www.uskmuseum.org/) showed me the fantastic truth!  They are the two parts of the apple-juicing process.  I was very stupid on our visit to the museum and forgot to take any photos.  However, the first photo above is an apple-crusher, a device to make the 'pomace' or crushed apple needed for subsequent pressing.  I found the photo below:

On the Leominster Reclamation & Architectural Salvage website (www.leorec.co.uk/cidermills_mill_stones.htm).  It shows the two stones as they would have been assembled, with the woodwork.  This kind of pomace mill would have been driven by a donkey, horse or Ox I guess.

I haven't been able to find a photo for the second stone, but basically it is the base of a conventional screw-press.  Two large wooden uprights would have been placed either side, a large cross-member and then single or possible double screw assembly would have been used to apply the pressure to extract the apple juice.

My aim of course now, is to use these stones as a major part of the Tymawr Farm cider enterprise!  The current plan is two acres of traditional Monmouthshire cider apple trees, a simple shed, probably of 'modern' construction located within the orchard, and the stones located inside.  I need to think about the right way to re-activate these mechanisms, my current ideas are for a hydraulically operated 'bottle-jack' type mechanism for the press itself (much like a larger version of my current prototype, see Cider #1), and either a 2 stroke or possibly even human-powered mechanism for the pomace-maker.

Cider # 1

The apple blossom is coming along wonderfully this year - what a lovely pink colour!

And the delicious cider that the apples produced last year!  I've had some tonight so may be a bit erratic in my posts!

Homemade cider press - fun but not very efficient!

The tree - despite its unpruned state it is really healthy and produced more than 30kgs of massive cooking apples last year.  About 10kg ended up in the freezer and have provided loads of lovely crumbles through the year, the rest went into the cider, along with lots of other apples that we picked from the Bardsey Island apple tree (www.bardseyapple.co.uk/) and from various other friends and family's trees. 

The cider is quite nice - quite palatable, nice 'appley' smell, not too dry, but very acidic and probably a bit too strong.  I need to study my cider books this year before making the 2012 batch.  I think the main problem actually is that good cider is made from cider apples, not random cooking and eating apples!  I'd love to plant a decent sized orchard here one day, using 'proper' cider varieties, ideally old varieties that are very local and proven over time.