Pommes de Piddington - or Piddington apples
Piddington Apple Day
Apple Day 2020
Covid-19, of course, has meant that Apple Day has had to be cancelled - and in such a great year for apples too! Next year we hope there'll be an Apple Day, a cider vintage and regular Pop Up Pubs at which to enjoy it.
Apple Day 2019
Sad news from the Piddington Cider Alchemists ...
Piddington Apple Day this year has had to be cancelled.
Due to Jack Frost this spring we have had very few apples on the trees this year in Piddington and villages around. This is particularly the case with eating apples. Since we started making our own village cider, we have learnt that we need to have around 70% eaters in our blend of eaters and cookers to produce our celebrated Piddington Village Cider. With very few eating apples in the village we have reluctantly decided to cancel Piddington Apple Day this year.
There is still some of last year’s vintage to be had. Join us at the Pop Up Pub or order your own stock.
For those who cook at the Harvest Supper, please keep your recipes for next year. We will be back.
WASSAIL
Piddington Apple Day this year has had to be cancelled.
Due to Jack Frost this spring we have had very few apples on the trees this year in Piddington and villages around. This is particularly the case with eating apples. Since we started making our own village cider, we have learnt that we need to have around 70% eaters in our blend of eaters and cookers to produce our celebrated Piddington Village Cider. With very few eating apples in the village we have reluctantly decided to cancel Piddington Apple Day this year.
There is still some of last year’s vintage to be had. Join us at the Pop Up Pub or order your own stock.
For those who cook at the Harvest Supper, please keep your recipes for next year. We will be back.
WASSAIL
Apple Day and Harvest Supper 2018
It was perhaps too much to hope for another gloriously sunny one this year - although the weather in the days before and after were just that! - but Apple Day 2018 dawned with drizzly rain that quickly turned into a steady downpour, a chill wind and a feeling that there may not be as many apples or apple pressers as in previous years.
But we needn't have worried. This is Piddington, after all! Villagers were out in force to wash, chop, scrat, press and pour, and also to enjoy the nifty steps of the Long Crendon Morris and then, over a delicious ploughman's lunch, the fabulous music of Barney Newman and Tom Leary.
The result of 5 hours washing, chopping, scratting, chatting and pressing was approximately 170 litres of juice, which will all go to make next year’s Piddington cider. Not a single apple was left at the end of the day, and £100 was raised on the day to be split between the refurbishment programmes for the village hall and the church. Apple Day enthusiasts may notice that we ended up with more juice than last year. This is surprising, as there were a lot fewer apples. Two possible explanations come to mind. We could be getting better at squeezing the juice out of the apples. It is perhaps more likely that we will be fermenting Piddington cider diluted with Piddington rain!
A few hours of recovery and villagers were back in party mode enjoying a fabulous Harvest Supper spread. Yes, there was Fidget Pie - and many other delicious dishes too.
Many thanks to David Cook, whose brainchild the Apple Day is, and to Cynthia and Morwen for organising the food. The day was a real community event - the entertainment was funded by Vinyl Night and the ploughman's lunch by a donation from The Pantry. The bar was organised by Sandra and the Harvest Supper food came from volunteers too numerous to mention. Last but by no means least thanks to those who helped with the setting up and dismantling of the marquees. Villagers must now leave everything in the capable hands of the Piddington Alchemists and await updates later this year.
As all the apples brought along the day were used, we are asking villagers with any more fruit to spare to please drop it off at GWITH COTTAGE by SUNDAY 28TH OCTOBER. The Pantry need apples for Piddington Apple Juice and Apple Chutney. David will kindly store further donations before they are transported off for pressing and bottling.
Here are a few photos, taken by Maggie, Andrew and Francesca.
But we needn't have worried. This is Piddington, after all! Villagers were out in force to wash, chop, scrat, press and pour, and also to enjoy the nifty steps of the Long Crendon Morris and then, over a delicious ploughman's lunch, the fabulous music of Barney Newman and Tom Leary.
The result of 5 hours washing, chopping, scratting, chatting and pressing was approximately 170 litres of juice, which will all go to make next year’s Piddington cider. Not a single apple was left at the end of the day, and £100 was raised on the day to be split between the refurbishment programmes for the village hall and the church. Apple Day enthusiasts may notice that we ended up with more juice than last year. This is surprising, as there were a lot fewer apples. Two possible explanations come to mind. We could be getting better at squeezing the juice out of the apples. It is perhaps more likely that we will be fermenting Piddington cider diluted with Piddington rain!
A few hours of recovery and villagers were back in party mode enjoying a fabulous Harvest Supper spread. Yes, there was Fidget Pie - and many other delicious dishes too.
Many thanks to David Cook, whose brainchild the Apple Day is, and to Cynthia and Morwen for organising the food. The day was a real community event - the entertainment was funded by Vinyl Night and the ploughman's lunch by a donation from The Pantry. The bar was organised by Sandra and the Harvest Supper food came from volunteers too numerous to mention. Last but by no means least thanks to those who helped with the setting up and dismantling of the marquees. Villagers must now leave everything in the capable hands of the Piddington Alchemists and await updates later this year.
As all the apples brought along the day were used, we are asking villagers with any more fruit to spare to please drop it off at GWITH COTTAGE by SUNDAY 28TH OCTOBER. The Pantry need apples for Piddington Apple Juice and Apple Chutney. David will kindly store further donations before they are transported off for pressing and bottling.
Here are a few photos, taken by Maggie, Andrew and Francesca.
Apple Day and Harvest Supper 2017
Fellow Piddington Apple Hard Core Enthusiasts,
Hopefully you have recovered from your Apple Day exertions. We were again blessed with good weather, sufficient apples and boundless enthusiasm.
Firstly, thank you to everyone who provided apples this year. While generally there were fewer apples in the village, a number of trees performed magnificently. We managed to achieve our aim of having a higher proportion of eating apples in the mix. This will hopefully be reflected in a slightly sweeter cider for next summer.
Once again the Bayliss family gave a major boost to the Apple Day by bringing along their monster apple press and also managing to conjure up another scratter! Mike’s psychedelic cycle-powered apple scratter provided much entertainment and generated a queue of enthusiastic cyclists. It also prompted almost as many suggestions for modifications as it munched apples.
A big thank you to all of you who were there and worked very hard during the day and the evening. Commiserations to those who couldn’t make it this time around. A special thanks to the sponsors of the ploughmen’s lunch and the apple bobbing, particularly the major contribution from the Pantry. I am sure that Ken’s pickled onions and gherkins are getting bigger every year. The larger ones could probably be identified from outer-space! We need to congratulate and thank everyone who provided some delicious dishes for the Harvest Supper.
Thank you all for your donations before and during the day. They totalled £148.26. Two cheques for £75.00 will be on their way shortly – one for the Church and one for the Village Hall.
Andrew and Hazel have taken a load of apples over to Drovers Hill Farm. We await the return of the new season Piddington Village Apple Juice.
We have 160 litres of apple juice now bubbling away on the start of a journey that we hope will once again culminate in some excellent Piddington Cider. We will lose some of this juice in racking off, evaporation and the tiniest of quality control checks. With good fortune, based upon the experience of the first two years, this should again provide funds to the Village Hall of well over £500.00
This year we have fermenters Dick, Harry, Eric & Dave in play. Tom and Bert are still full of 2016 vintage cider which will hopefully keep us going until the 2017 vintage is released next summer. Our small elegant Italian glass fermenter has been renamed “Mario” after our small elegant half-Italian Cider Alchemist. Mario is of course lost for words at this great honour. This is the first time that any of the fermenters have been named after a villager in their own lifetime. We have three working demijohns, temporarily named Snap, Crackle & Pop. If you would to have one of these named after you, one of your loved ones or one of your greatest adversaries please let me know.
With very best wishes
David
Hopefully you have recovered from your Apple Day exertions. We were again blessed with good weather, sufficient apples and boundless enthusiasm.
Firstly, thank you to everyone who provided apples this year. While generally there were fewer apples in the village, a number of trees performed magnificently. We managed to achieve our aim of having a higher proportion of eating apples in the mix. This will hopefully be reflected in a slightly sweeter cider for next summer.
Once again the Bayliss family gave a major boost to the Apple Day by bringing along their monster apple press and also managing to conjure up another scratter! Mike’s psychedelic cycle-powered apple scratter provided much entertainment and generated a queue of enthusiastic cyclists. It also prompted almost as many suggestions for modifications as it munched apples.
A big thank you to all of you who were there and worked very hard during the day and the evening. Commiserations to those who couldn’t make it this time around. A special thanks to the sponsors of the ploughmen’s lunch and the apple bobbing, particularly the major contribution from the Pantry. I am sure that Ken’s pickled onions and gherkins are getting bigger every year. The larger ones could probably be identified from outer-space! We need to congratulate and thank everyone who provided some delicious dishes for the Harvest Supper.
Thank you all for your donations before and during the day. They totalled £148.26. Two cheques for £75.00 will be on their way shortly – one for the Church and one for the Village Hall.
Andrew and Hazel have taken a load of apples over to Drovers Hill Farm. We await the return of the new season Piddington Village Apple Juice.
We have 160 litres of apple juice now bubbling away on the start of a journey that we hope will once again culminate in some excellent Piddington Cider. We will lose some of this juice in racking off, evaporation and the tiniest of quality control checks. With good fortune, based upon the experience of the first two years, this should again provide funds to the Village Hall of well over £500.00
This year we have fermenters Dick, Harry, Eric & Dave in play. Tom and Bert are still full of 2016 vintage cider which will hopefully keep us going until the 2017 vintage is released next summer. Our small elegant Italian glass fermenter has been renamed “Mario” after our small elegant half-Italian Cider Alchemist. Mario is of course lost for words at this great honour. This is the first time that any of the fermenters have been named after a villager in their own lifetime. We have three working demijohns, temporarily named Snap, Crackle & Pop. If you would to have one of these named after you, one of your loved ones or one of your greatest adversaries please let me know.
With very best wishes
David
Some photos of Piddington Apple Day, 7 October 2017. As always, if you'd rather not be included in a photo on this website, let me know and I'll remove it.
Thanks to Andrew Coleman, David Cook, Kim Elliott, Marie-Claire Nixon-Davingoff, Maggie Pearce for the photos.
Apple Day and Harvest Supper 2016
Piddington Apple Day, 22 October 2016. Photo: Mario Terzino
A big thank you to everyone who helped to make the 2016 Apple Day and Harvest Supper such a success.
This year’s Apple Day was a much bigger event than our first one last year. The weather was perfect (again!), lots of people turned up to sort, wash, chop, scrat, pour, press and even dance to the great live music from Barney Newman and Tom Leary. The Harvest Supper afterwards was lovely, with lots of villagers contributing to the delicious spread.
This year’s Apple Day was a much bigger event than our first one last year. The weather was perfect (again!), lots of people turned up to sort, wash, chop, scrat, pour, press and even dance to the great live music from Barney Newman and Tom Leary. The Harvest Supper afterwards was lovely, with lots of villagers contributing to the delicious spread.
The results are in ...
The Cider Alchemists have already begun the mysterious process of turning the juice into cider, and the vessels, hidden away in their top secret winter quarters, are now quietly fermenting. Their progress will be documented in The Cider Alchemists' Journal, so keep an eye out for updates.
In the meantime, enjoy 'Piddington Apple Day 2016 – The Movie!' below, together with other photographs of the day and the evening. If you have any more photos or videos of the event you'd like to see included here, let me know. By the way, the music on the video is all by Barney Newman and Tom Leary, who played for us so gloriously during the day, and made Apple Day 2016 go with such a swing.
- Every last apple was used! – either pressed for juice or taken off for pressing and bottling as Piddington Village Apple Juice, which will be available to buy at The Pantry and of course will also be available at village events and pub nights.
- We had a much better control of the Piddington provenance this year. Last year it transpired that a few apples made their way through apple security from such places as Bicester, Marsh Gibbon, the New Forest and St Albans Ocado. This year, every apple was a Piddington-grown apple.
- We more than achieved our cider juice target. Just over 250 litres of juice went in to the fermenters and demijohns – a 78% increase on last year’s 140 litres!
- Proceeds from the auctions and donations from everyone totalled £208.32. The Church and Village Hall will both receive £104.16
The Cider Alchemists have already begun the mysterious process of turning the juice into cider, and the vessels, hidden away in their top secret winter quarters, are now quietly fermenting. Their progress will be documented in The Cider Alchemists' Journal, so keep an eye out for updates.
In the meantime, enjoy 'Piddington Apple Day 2016 – The Movie!' below, together with other photographs of the day and the evening. If you have any more photos or videos of the event you'd like to see included here, let me know. By the way, the music on the video is all by Barney Newman and Tom Leary, who played for us so gloriously during the day, and made Apple Day 2016 go with such a swing.
The apple mountain begins to grow. Photo: Kim Elliott
You need concentration at the chopping table. Photo: Kim Elliott
|
'Are we bobbing or washing?'. Photo: Kim Elliott
|
Scratters just wanna have fun! Photo: Ben Elliott
Even more scratting. Photo: Andrew Coleman
David and the magnificent apple press he made. Photo: Andrew Coleman
Mastering the Great Press takes some skill - a stripy apron always helps when giving advice. Photo: Barbara Allen
Preparing for lunch. Photo: Kim Elliott
Barney and Tom made everything go with a swing ... Photo: Kim Elliott
So you just can't help dancing ... Photo: Kim Elliott
A solemn moment - the last bottle of the 2015 vintage cider is raffled. Photo: Kim Elliott
|
Yet more scratting. Photo: Mario Terzino
Apple bobbing. Photo: Kim Elliott
Putting scratted apples in the Great Press. Photo: Andrew Coleman
One of the smaller presses. Photo: Kim Elliott
Another small press. Photo: Kim Elliott
Harvest Supper preparations. Photo: Kim Elliott
The Fidget Pie is brought to the table at Harvest Supper. Photo: Kim Elliott
|
Our first Apple Day - 2015
This was a huge success, helped by the best possible weather for 31st October. A big thank you is due to the 70 or more villagers who attended and all those who worked hard during the day. It was hard work, but working alongside friends and neighbours, it was a great opportunity to make new friends and laugh at some of our successes and failures.
A 10.00am start was planned for the Saturday. Work started the afternoon before with the erection of the marquee by an enthusiastic team of helpers. Preparations on the day started shortly after 7.00am with the first delivery of apples and equipment.
Apples arrived by the car, van and barrow load throughout the morning and into the afternoon. We had apples donated from at least 18 different families in the village, each recording their location on a map in the village hall. Apples were sorted into cookers, eaters and mixed apples, allowing each batch to be a mixed as the day proceeded. We believe we had about 15 different varieties that made up our blend for the day.
We'd like to give a big thank you to Tim Soar of Long Crendon Manor for the loan of his press and crush as well as the advice he has given us along the way. We were delighted to find that the village already had two apple presses that also came into their own during the day. Many thanks to Mike and Sandy Mackenzie for allowing us to use their ‘baby’ press (as yet unnamed) and to David and Mandy Bayliss for bringing along their home-made press.
Sorting, washing, chopping, crushing (technical term 'scratting', apparently), pressing and chatting were all found to be essential stages in the Piddington cider-making production line. It was good to see the children getting stuck in and helping at every stage. They took control of the baby press and greatly enjoyed the Halloween themed apple bobbing.
A 10.00am start was planned for the Saturday. Work started the afternoon before with the erection of the marquee by an enthusiastic team of helpers. Preparations on the day started shortly after 7.00am with the first delivery of apples and equipment.
Apples arrived by the car, van and barrow load throughout the morning and into the afternoon. We had apples donated from at least 18 different families in the village, each recording their location on a map in the village hall. Apples were sorted into cookers, eaters and mixed apples, allowing each batch to be a mixed as the day proceeded. We believe we had about 15 different varieties that made up our blend for the day.
We'd like to give a big thank you to Tim Soar of Long Crendon Manor for the loan of his press and crush as well as the advice he has given us along the way. We were delighted to find that the village already had two apple presses that also came into their own during the day. Many thanks to Mike and Sandy Mackenzie for allowing us to use their ‘baby’ press (as yet unnamed) and to David and Mandy Bayliss for bringing along their home-made press.
Sorting, washing, chopping, crushing (technical term 'scratting', apparently), pressing and chatting were all found to be essential stages in the Piddington cider-making production line. It was good to see the children getting stuck in and helping at every stage. They took control of the baby press and greatly enjoyed the Halloween themed apple bobbing.
We need to thank the Pantry team, who kept us supplied with refreshments, and also all those who brought along cakes, many of which had fully embraced the apple theme.
Lots of people collected some delicious apple juice to drink at home, and all donated apples remaining at the end of the day were taken for pressing and bottling – look out for Piddington 'Cider Day' Blend juice, available for sale at The Pantry on 5 December.
In total we produced about 170 litres (about 37 gallons!) of apple juice during the day – well beyond our expectations. Most of this is now in a top secret location. With some skill and with some luck this may eventually bear some resemblance to cider!
Lots of people collected some delicious apple juice to drink at home, and all donated apples remaining at the end of the day were taken for pressing and bottling – look out for Piddington 'Cider Day' Blend juice, available for sale at The Pantry on 5 December.
In total we produced about 170 litres (about 37 gallons!) of apple juice during the day – well beyond our expectations. Most of this is now in a top secret location. With some skill and with some luck this may eventually bear some resemblance to cider!
The other winners from the day are the rare breed pigs who live near
the railway line in Ludgershall, only a short walk across the fields.
These are looked after by John Wilkins, also the butcher at The Pointer in
Brill. He collected 25 heavy bags of ‘pomace’ – this is what is left
over after all of the apple juice has been squeezed out. The pigs say
thank you and ask if there is any more!
Ludgershall pigs and piglets awaiting their lunch
|
Micro piglets escape under their fencing and head for their mid-morning snack
|
Not waiting to have their pomace served in the trough, they form a disorderly queue inside the bag
|