Heaven in the orchard
April sees the West Country’s famous apple trees explode with blossom. Steph Wetherell describes the beginning of cider-making magic on Burrow Hill Farm in Somerset
In springtime, the orchard is full of promise,” Matilda Temperley muses, explaining to me what it’s like to stand in the heart of the Burrow Hill Cider Farm orchard right now, encircled by the blossom crowned apple trees. She describes the flowers, varying from bright whites through to a deep blush pink, how the petals cluster around the cusp of each branch, making the trees look like they’re clad in a thousand tiny soft clouds, each hinting at the bounty the trees will bear by autumn.
I close my eyes and try to imagine the scent of the blossom. At the time of writing, lockdown restrictions mean that the face-to-face visit I had planned has to take place over the telephone instead, relying on the power of Matilda’s narrative to evoke what is so special about the awakening season.
Her father, Julian, moved to the 101-hectare farm in the 1960s. While he started out as a sheep farmer, there was already an established orchard on the land: “Kingsbury Episcopi is an area that’s renowned for its cider apples, so historically it always got better money for the apples because it was considered a superior terroir,” Matilda explains. Her parents started making cider from the orchard and as Julian’s interest grew, he began to plant more orchards, hunting down local and regional varieties of cider apples, both for flavour and diversity.
“We have 40 main varieties on the farm, but we’ve got lots of oddities too, so there are probably 100 different types in total,” Matilda reveals. She tells me that if I were visiting, she’d take me to see the Bulmers Norman trees, heavy under the weight of their blossom. As one of the first trees to bloom, she says, the effect of bountiful white bloom is breathtaking, with the first petals starting to drift down and pepper the grass underfoot. The profusion of this blossom tells her that it’s been a good spring for these trees. Fluctuations in weather mean different varieties flourish each season – while some prefer warmer temperatures, others thrive in drier conditions – and this means that each spring in the orchard is unique.
Variety is key when it comes to cider-making. You can group apples into four different flavour profiles: sharp, bittersharp, bittersweet and sweet. “What you’re looking for in a cider apple is the mouthfeel, the tannins, the sharpness,” Matilda points out, explaining that the art and craft behind making good cider comes in selecting and blending the mix of apples.
Next, our theoretical tour would take us into the Kingston Black orchard where the trees are sporting a dainty and delicate pink blossom, which later this year will be covered in highly sought-after bittersharp apples. My apple variety education continues.
“Some of the names are great! Sheep’s Nose, Slap-Ma-Girdle, Cider Lady’s Finger…” Many of the varieties are specific to the region, but some originate from the farm itself: “Burrow Hill Early comes from here, and Porter’s Perfection, Red Worthy and Dabinett all originate a few fields away.”
BIRDS AND THE BEES
What else is distinctive about the orchards right now? The smell, says Matilda – a soft, delicate and heady scent that lingers all around you. With flowers come bees, and these insects provide an important role in the cider-making process: pollination. The cider farm has patches of wildflowers and scrub that have been left to encourage bees and other wildlife, along with bee
“The bountiful white bloom is breathtaking, with the first petals starting to drift down”
hotels and cleared south-facing banks that are a favoured habitat for solitary bees. She describes how the gentle hum of these bees contrasts with the erratic tapping of woodpeckers, often heard around the orchard but difficult to spot through the lush spring foliage.
To support and encourage this wildlife, the Temperleys avoid using insecticides on the trees, instead using different techniques to manage their orchards.
“We plant in an environmentally conscious way,” she points out. “We choose traditional or standard trees that take 15–20 years to mature, and plant them at a low intensity.”
The large, broad trees are planted in wide avenues at a generous spacing to make them less susceptible to disease and pests than the more often seen and smaller bush trees, whose intensive planting requires more inputs to prevent diseases.
The other natural management technique, she explains, is currently bounding around the feet of the apple trees. Lambs, some only a few days old, are busy scampering around their empire while their patient mothers look on and carry out the work for which they are employed: grazing.
“They’re basically our mowers,” Matilda jokes. “It stops us needing to use diesel in the orchards.” Their low-impact approach also extends to the animals. “They lamb out in the orchards and we go around and check on them.”
MANY HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK
The arrival of the blossom marks the end of the main work of the late winter and early spring: pruning.
“This time of year is really about resetting after the busyness of harvesting and pressing, and pruning is hard work but a beautiful job,” she says. Each tree is different and might involve climbing up into the tree to cut off suckers, or using a long-handled chainsaw to trim broken branches.
“You thin out the new growth to make the tree the right shape so it grows and fruits better,” she adds, telling me about the old theory that you should be able to throw your hat up through the canopy. While it sounds
straightforward, there are more than 10,000 trees on the farm, so pruning is no small feat.
“We’re a team of around 10 on the farm, and we all do everything, so you might be pruning one day, distilling the next,” Matilda points out.
While the main part of the cidermaking process happens in the autumn, half of the cider they make undergoes a further transformation through distillation.
Their three 1950s French copper stills – Josephine, Fifi and Isabelle – are busy at this time of year, turning the 6%-proof cider into a 70% spirit called ‘eau de vie’. While some of that is bottled fresh, a majority of it enters the next part of its journey in oak barrels, where it emerges as Somerset Cider Brandy.
Bottled at between three and 20 years, it evolves from being a light, fruity and fiery drink to caramelised, dark and soft. As the shelves of oak barrels lining the barrel bond show, this is not a quick process.
“You don’t start off making a brown spirit out of apples if you want to make money,” Matilda laughs. “You’ve got to be in it for the love, because you’re in it for the long haul.”
Thankfully in this case, this unique tipple is very much worth the wait.
A FARM WITH A VIEW
Where would be the final stop on our journey, I ask? “Walking up the eponymous Burrow Hill of course,” Matilda replies. Officially classified as a tump at a mere 77m high, she tells me how the hill – crowned with a single sycamore tree – provides an iconic focal point wherever you are in the orchards. And while the ascent is short, the view is magnificent – the Somerset Levels stretching away in all directions, the land fresh and green, hinting at the harvest to come.