We still have apples for sale, and should continue to have Jonagored, Golden Delicious and Karmijn de Sonnaville until the end of February. We will also have Bramley’s Seedling cookers until around this time, and also, apple jelly, plum jam, strawberry jam, and Karmine apple juice.

We have just begun to try making our juice in a new package. The system is called “bag-in-box”, and you may even have seen wine in this type of pack before. The technology for putting the juice into the box is more complex than we use for our glass bottles, so we had a group of people over from Germany with their own equipment to do the operation. According to them, this system has become very popular in Germany because the package is much lighter than a glass bottle, and also because the box part is re-usable and the plastic bag part can be completely re-cycled (at least in Germany).
Another advantage is that less heat is required for pasteurisation, providing further environmental benefit.
The package size that we have tried is five litres, and it comes with a one-way tap. This means that you can place the package in the fridge (if you like the juice cold) or on a shelf in your kitchen, and use the tap to fill a glass whenever you like. As long as the box is not moved from this position, air will not re-enter, meaning that the juice will stay fresh in the bag for up to five weeks, even though you are using the juice from it.
And just like our glass bottles, unopened, the bag-in-box juice will hold for a year.
When you finish the five litres (and this does not take long for some people), you can open the box and dispose of the bag (there will be re-cycling facilities for this type of plastic from next year), and come to us for a new bag for your box.
If you are interested in trying this system we have a small number ready in our farm-shop for you to try. It’s only an experiment this year, but if you like how it tastes and how it works, we will do some more from next year on.

The recipe for these small apple pies dates from medieval times, although at that time real meat would have been used.
You will need:
Shortcrust pastry
Four Bramley apples, peeled, cored and grated.
Four heaped tablespoons of pre-prepared mince “meat” (as used in mince pies)
Three tablespoons of sugar, a pinch of mixed spice
The whites of two eggs
2 oz (50grams) castor sugar
For the shortcrust pastry you will need:
8 oz (225g) plain flour, 2oz (50g) icing sugar, 5oz (150g) margarine, one
egg yolk, one tablespoon ice cold water, 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice.
Beat the latter three ingredients (egg yolk, water, lemon juice) together.
Then make a firm dough using this and all the remaining pastry ingredients;
wrap in cling film and leave in the refrigerator for one hour.
Roll out the pastry and line eight individual greased tartlet tins. Bake
blind in a preheated oven at 190ºC (375ºF) for 10-12 minutes.
Mix the grated apples, mince meat, three tablespoons of sugar and mixed
spice; then spoon into the tartlet shells.
Beat the egg whites until stiff, adding the two ounces of castor sugar
gradually. Spread or pipe this meringue mixture over the filled tartlets and
bake for a further 12-15 minutes, until the meringue is light brown.