Apples, orchards and cider in the South West

by Graham Wheeler

I am not an expert in the orchard culture of South Somerset, there is far more intimate knowledge within the community than I, in a single life span, could ever accumulate .

My background is in trees, forestry and woodland management, however within my degree I focused on agroforestry, that is the place of trees within an agricultural landscape, be they ancillary, that is for shade or windbreaks, or specific, directly contributing to the agricultural income, fruit or woody product, willow etc.

Having grown up in Somerset I had taken orchards and cider for granted as simply the way it is.

As with many things, it is not until you begin to look harder that an intriguing story emerges.

The origins of Apples

It is thought that the first apples, genus Malus, originated in SW China in the Tertiary period, between 1.8 and 5.3 million years ago, and evolved through reproductive chance and later human ingenuity into the huge varieties of apples available to us today .

They would have travelled by natural distribution along large mammal migratory routes from western China and into central Asia where fruit forests developed in an area known as Tian Shan, an area now encompassing Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan made up of a series of E-W parallel ridges and valleys .

This is where it is thought the modern apple began to develop.

The oldest records of sweet apples come from China, around 2,300yrs ago, these would have travelled with other goods into Europe via the Silk Road. Arriving in Turkey and the Asia rim, where Romans, Vikings and Celts would have become familiar to the sweet apple, as opposed to the wild ‘crab’ apple indigenous to western Europe. Roman reference AD 276 speaks of Germans eating wild apples Malus sylvestris while Romans prefer cultivated or sweet apples, Malus pumila.

It is commonly thought that the Romans introduced the sweet apple and its culture to Britain. However Celtic place names pre date Roman arrival prefixed ‘av’. In France for instance, Avallon in the Bourgogne region, and here the Isle of Avalon and Ynys Avallach, would suggest that we were familiar with the sweet apple.

It is undisputed that the apple Malus pumila (the sweet apple) was well established here before the Romans but they certainly gave it more prominence. It wasn’t until the Norman invasion that the orchard, apple and cider culture that we see today became a familiar part of the agricultural landscape.

It is thought that monks from France had already brought the cider culture to Britain pre invasion, settling just north of Bridport. However, the soils and landscape of Dorset is not particularly well suited to apple growing and the orchards soon migrated towards Devon and Somerset.

The development of varieties

The development of apple varieties has gone hand in hand with the development of agriculture.

Apples do not come true from seed. Therefore a natural improved wild seedling is a matter of extreme chance. It has taken the observation, patience, and ingenuity of human intervention to create the majority of the varieties we have today.

To get an apple to come true it must be grafted. That is to take genetic material of the desired variety and attach it to a new host plant. Grafting was a common practice in China in relation to mulberries for silk production. As It was common practice in southern Europe 3,800 years ago in relation to improving grape varieties. It is thought that dwarf apple trees were known in in the west some 2,300 years ago, probably brought from China via Armenia.

I am going to jump a few centuries here to our more recent history, and a social evolution that we may be able to relate to.

Cider

Cider, as a product with sweet or cooking apples, has always been an apple option of varying importance pending local culture.

Post the Norman conquest, in rural communities it was received as part of manorial or church tithes.

In 1588 the physician to Charles IX of France listed 82 known varieties of cider apples.

The culture undoubtedly grew in Britain. Sweet and cooking apples were grown across the country for both domestic consumption and a commercial crop to centres of population.

Cider on the other hand took on slightly different role.

There was an agricultural slump in the late 1600’s, which sent farmers and estates looking for profitable supplement to their incomes. Cider orchards were seen an attractive option. The orchards could be grazed beneath, the apples took little care, the cropping and processing came in after the main harvest were in, the by product (the Pomace) could be fed to pigs.

The cider itself was an agricultural currency, a cider allowance being part of an agricultural wage, it was also readily transported in barrels to centres of population where it found a ready market competed with the ales of the time.

This rise in production and popularity heralded a desire to improve the general ciders and specific varieties began to emerge. In Hertfordshire the “Redstreak” emerged as a notable and desirable variety. Another, the “Foxwhelp”, was known for its full bodied “vinous and musty flavour”.

By the end of the 17th century the major areas of cider production were Herefordshire, Shropshire and the Welsh borders, the south Hams area of Devon above Exeter, areas around Taunton and the Somerset levels, and the area around Martock, Kingsbury Episcopi and Stembridge are of particular importance. The soil, lush grazing and climate are particularly well suited to cider orchards.

By the middle of the 18th century a cider allowance had become established as part of a farm workers wage. At harvest time a scythesman could be consumed half a gallon before breakfast. The poundhouse where cider was made and stored became the focal point of many farms.

Social change

By the 1870 however there were many changes in our society. Wages were preferred to cider allowances (in fact this traditional practice was made illegal in 1878), general agricultural production and markets had improved, and the industrial revolution had centralised populations taking many workers off the land. Cider was out of fashion. Many orchards fell into decline.

The revival

However, all was not lost. In 1893 Sir Robert Neville Grenville set up laboratories in his house, Butleigh Court near Glastonbury. His intention was to explore the improvement and quality of cider utilising the techniques developed by Pasteur on the chemistry of fermentation. This initiative attracted government support and led to the setting up of the National Institute of Cider Research in 1903 at Long Ashton near Bristol. Here a collection of cider and perry pears was established and the expertise of biological and biochemical sciences was applied to the production of cider. Heralding a new era in cider production.

Modern cider

There are many excellent craft cider producers, retaining much of the variety flavour and character of the traditional Farmhouse ciders. Hat’s off to them.

The knowledge and understanding provided by research institutes has facilitated different manufacturing techniques to be developed producing a much more consistent and stable product, that can be mass produced and sold to a much broader market than was ever possible before.

This has given rise to new cider “factories “rather than the traditional farm presses: Bulmers—founded around 1887—now Westons, Taunton Cider, Showerings and more recently Gaymers, to name but a few.

The science was also able to identify what farm cider makers had intuitively known for years: attributes of region. For instance, ”Sweet” cider, attributed to Devon, identifying specific sweet varieties, Sweet Alford, Slack-my-girdle, and Sweet Coppin. Whereas the Somerset ciders were known to have “Bittersweet” characteristics also known as “jersey”, Chisel, Royal, and White Jersey. Another type peculiar to this area are the “Bittersharp” varieties, the most notable being the Kingstone Black.

The ability to be able to scientifically determine a cider type enabled manufacturers to focus their product, for instance the light summer apple types. Morgan sweet and Court royal, enabled manufacturers to have a cider ready for Christmas.

Cider now

In the 60’s farmers were encouraged to grub out their cider orchards to make way for more profitable use of the land. Now there is a trend to plant new orchards and look at it as a 30 year rotation crop, planted with efficient mechanised cropping in mind.

Disappointingly these crops are often left on the trees as not profitable to gather—a fickle market.

On a positive note, cider is far too deeply engrained in our regional identity and heritage to ever disappear.

Hopefully, the vagaries of large market will create new opportunities for the artisan craft producers of Somerset, where the French style of natural cider making prevails, without the use of sulphur dioxide and artificial sweeteners. We may all be able to enjoy a good cider over ice on a hot summers day—echoes of Laurie Lee’s classic “Cider with Rosie”.

I have tried to give an overview, and an insight into the complexity of apples in our culture. I hope this will encourage curiosity among you. The knowledge held in the books below is vast and comprehensive. Enjoy.

For further specific and in depth reading I would recommend:

The New Book of Apples, Joan Morgan & Alison Richards ISBN 9780091883980

The Story of The Apple, Juniper & Mabberley, ISBN -13:978-0-88192-784-9 www.timberpress.co.uk

Sweet apple ID:

The Apple Book, Rosie Sanders, ISBN 987-0-7112-3603-5, available through the RHS

Apples, A Field Guide, Michael Clark, ISBN 1-873580-57-6, Brogdale Horticultural Trust

Cider Apple ID, (The Bible):

Cider Apples, The New Pomona, Liz Copas, ISBN 978-0-9568994-2-2