Journal

A running account of the orchard — what's happened, what's happening, and what's next.

Picking Up the Thread

The orchard didn't start this year, and it won't end with it.

Autumn 2024 was a reminder of what this place does when everything lines up — fruit coming in steadily, the usual mix of picking and gathering, and the quiet satisfaction of a crop that made sense.

By early 2025, attention shifted back to the trees themselves. Winter work was practical rather than delicate — shaping the orchard to keep light and airflow moving, and making sure machinery could do its job when needed.

Nothing dramatic. Just getting things into a state where the season could begin again.

The orchard didn't start this year — more on how it came to be.

Related entries

Blossom, Properly This Time

Spring arrived with a bit more conviction than the year before.

Blossom came early and held — Dabinett, Browns and Michelin all flowering well, with no late frost to undo it. Pollinators had a clear run at it, and fruit set followed.

If you were here, it looked like the kind of season you'd hope for — rows of trees in full bloom, bees working through it, everything quietly getting on with the job.

That's about as much as you allow yourself to say at that stage. Anything more tends to get corrected later.

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Dry Ground, Growing Fruit

From May through August, rain was in short supply.

The trees worked harder for it, but the upside was clear enough — sugars building in the fruit, the kind of conditions that usually lead to a better fermentation later on.

On the ground, the farm carried on as it does in summer — orchard, nursery, guests, and everything else running alongside each other. It's the point in the year when it all overlaps.

You don't manage much at this stage. You mostly watch and wait.

The orchard sits within Bowhayes Farm, where stays and the wider farm life continue alongside the work here.

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Harvest & Press

September brought the rain the orchard had been waiting for.

The fruit responded quickly — swelling, taking on juice, finishing the job the summer had started.

From there, it was straightforward: fruit in, press running, keep it moving. Nothing complicated, and best kept that way.

By October, the work was done — or at least moved on to the next stage.

What happens next — pressing and fermentation — is straightforward, and covered in more detail in what makes good cider.

Related entries

Planning, Clearing, Starting Again

Once the trees were bare again, attention shifted forward.

The FiPL application went in late 2025 — a step towards extending the orchard properly, not just adding to it piecemeal.

Through the winter and into early 2026, ground for the new orchard was cleared and prepared — finished by March 2026. Not especially interesting to look at, but necessary. The sort of work that only makes sense later.