I collected an estimated 3 cwt of cider apples from Worcestershire yesterday with the intention of repeating an exercise from two years ago which produced an excellent "real cider".
However, after a sleep and overnight worry, I've decided I have too many other commitments at the moment to spare the time to mill and press them. So, I'm hoping to connect with other enthusiasts in the Manchester/North East Cheshire area who might be interested in taking them on?
There's a bit of a mystery as to what variety of cider apple these are. The owners of the property did not plant the tree, it just appeared one year and they decided to let it grow (there are orchards in the area). The apples were examined by experts some years ago and were declared to be of an excellent cider producing variety but the owners have mislaid the slip of paper with the name on it! Here's a pic of one of the apples - Kingston Black, maybe (I'm no expert)? Whatever variety they are, the juice from the crop two years ago made a superb, single varietal cider - even my non cider drinking chums were impressed!
That year's crop was slightly larger than this year's and my home made press managed to produce 130 litres of juice from it, so I guess this lot should yield around 100+ litres.
The apples currently fill 5 1/2 B+Q rubble bags. If the estimated overall weight of 3 cwt is accurate, then the full bags each have something like 60 lb. of fruit in them. (All these weights are estimated as I have no equipment to weigh them on). I'm offering the bags at £15 each for a full bag and will deliver locally for the cost of my fuel (I'm in Tameside).
I will not make a profit from this sale as the price merely reflects what I paid for the apples plus the fuel to collect them from Worcs.
If you are interested in one or more bags, please get in touch. I'll check back on this thread as often as I can and will look out for PMs.
I hope the mods will tolerate me using this sub-forum for an advert as this seems to be the logical place for discussing all things apple and cider related.
Cheers!
