Fruitfields highlights of 2022 and preparing for 2023…

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We had a great 2022 and it was our best year at Fruitfields so far. Winning the Three Counties Malvern Show with our apple juice and the district honey show with our honey meant a huge amount. We felt validated that our products were enjoyed and appreciated by other fruit and honey experts. It has provided us with a confidence boost about many of our processes as we continue to do everything possible to retain the quality and flavour of the raw product.

In the pictures below we were honoured to receive the best in show for our Worcester Pearmain/William Crump and Pitmaston Pineapple apple juice blended with blackcurrant. We also received Third Prize for the apple juice blend by itself.

     

At the District Honey Show we were again thrilled to pick up the Novice Trophy for our soft set honey. There was a very high standard of entries and it now means we are not a novice anymore!

Apple Juice Processing at Fruitfields

We mill our apples and a mash is produced and fills the grey buckets in the picture below. The mash is then put inside the middle of the hydropress. Under mains water pressure the mash is squished by the internal ‘bladder’ inside the press against the metal drum, pushing the resultant apple juice out of the small holes in the drum, down the outside to be collected by the green container. We then pour or pump the juice into holding tanks and barrels.

From the barrels we start our apple juice processing line. It’s a family business (!) and the apple juice bottles are washed and dried on the yellow tree and filled from the metal bottle filler before being pasteurised in our silver metal pasteurisers below…

 

  

The season

Despite no rain in July 2022 we had a great crop of most of our varieties of apple. We grow heritage varieties (mostly Worcestershire) and apple varieties which are good for juicing. We have a wonderful range from early apples like Redditch Doddin and Gladstone, mid-season apples such as William Crump, Worcester Pearmain and Pitmaston Pineapple and late varieties such as Ashmeads Kernel and our cider varieties.

We also grow apple varieties for our pink juice with names such as Tickled Pink and Red Devil and our Red Windsors can also be added to this blend.

Our honeybees have kept us busy as usual and we have enjoyed sharing them with c. 30 new potential beekeepers or those with an interest in these wonderful creatures during the 2022 year. We are looking forward to showing a similar number our honeybees through our bee experiences in 2023. We keep these experiences special by only have one or two persons at a time. You can learn and see so much more when you have our Fruitfields apiary to yourselves.  We had an excellent honey crop and our supers below were extracted as usual in the centrifugal branch extractor. 

 

Summer & Autumn 2022 at Fruitfields

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An unforgettable Summer & Autumn at Fruitfields during 2022. The UK recorded some of the hottest temperatures on record during July & August and our fruit trees were stressed, having received minimal rain (it was the driest July since 1935). Late summer rain saved the crop.

Interestingly, it has been the best honeybee season ever. We had a settled spring with copious clover and early hedgerow flowers such as blackthorn and hawthorn. Our hives have good access to water and shade so our honeybees produced an incredible honey harvest.

We extracted our main crop of honey in early August and were pleased to enter a few jars into the local district honey show and we won the Novices section, so we are not allowed to be Novices anymore(!) or enter this section again and our winners trophy has been sent off for engraving

With the more recent funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and start of the reign of King Charles III, continued war in Ukraine and the threat of significant increase in the cost of raw materials (including glass for our glass bottles and jars) and utility prices current times are unsettled.

Therefore, it is reassuring to see the fruit crop come on as usual. We have enjoyed picking the Pitmaston Pineapples, Worcester Pearmains and the William Crumps which gave us a Medium Sweet blend & gained us a Third at the Malvern Three Counties Show. Our blend of this juice with blackcurrant received a First & Best in Show which we are still ecstatic about!

We have picked our Red Devils & our Tickled Pinks for our Pink juice which we are to process this weekend. 

The remaining apples of Sandlin Duchess, Edward VII and Bramley, combined with Ashmeads Kernels and the sweeter apples such as Red Windsor, Red Falstaff and Limelight and Egremont Russet make up our Medium Sharp which will be available from the end of October.

 

Fruitfields 2022 pre-apple blossom update

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The cherry and pear blossom is in full bloom at Fruitfields and beautiful. We’ve already enjoyed the apricot, greengage and early willow catkins and blackthorn blossom.

Our Fruitfields honeybees have been bringing in the pollen from these different trees and shrubs, which varies in colour as they transport it in their ‘paniers’ back to our Fruitfields beehives. We have started our Fruitfields bee experiences this year and are now fully booked through to the end of the year. We do love introducing people to our Fruitfields honeybees.

We have ‘blossom walks’ and open afternoons taking place on Friday 6th and Saturday 7th May. All are welcome and we will be selling our cider, apple juice and honey from our orchard. There is no parking but it is an excellent walk or cycle from the canal or Upper Bittell reservoir.

Over the last 3 months we have pruned the whole of our plot closest to the reservoir. As a result we hope to have given these trees the best chance of a bumper fruit crop. We’ll see!

 

Summer & Autumn 2021 at Fruitfields

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It has been a mixed summer. Quite dry but not a huge amount of sunshine. Both our apple and honey crops have been reasonable. Everything has cropped late this year and the cider apples and later apple varieties are still being harvested.

We have been hugely thankful to family and friends and local supporters. Much of the apple juice process relies on bodies (unless you completely mechanize for thousands and thousands of pounds) to help with apple picking, apple washing, milling, pressing the pulp and tanking the apple juice prior to bottle filling and pasteurising. These helpers have made the harvest relatively easy this year and helped with various other projects.

We continued the bee experiences over the Summer which were extremely enjoyable (I think we just had one experience of an elusive queen) and these experiences ensure we are not complacent with our amazing honeybees.

We had tree work completed in our coppice by Hopwood Tree Surgeons who have made safe our historic Ash & Oak, we have had School groups and the Scouts to the Orchard as well as the Eventures (Home Schooling) families on three separate occasions.

We continue to relish the onset of Autumn and the literal ‘fruits of our labours’. We had the first good crop of ‘William Crumps’ apples (a Worcester Pearmain/Cox cross) which bode well for future years and the best year ever for our Pitmaston Pineapples.

We enjoyed our open day in the rain in early September. Well done to the brave souls who joined us and we look forward to the pre-Christmas stalls over the next couple of months. A good year through to harvest. Thankyou to all of Fruitfields supporters.

& we launched our Fruitfields cider. Check out our online shop!

Many of the pressing, milling & bottling crew 2021!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bottle Filling

Bottle Levelling

 

 

 

Fruitfields honeybees loving the summer sun.

Glorious Egremont Russets.

Our Red Devils with dragonfly.

Capped frame of honey waiting to be extracted.

Honey frame uncapping.

Fruitfields honeybee swarm collecting.

Bottles!

Fruitfields cider

The launch of our 500ml Fruitfields Cider bottle

 

Storage Creation Crew

Chief Panker

One of our Picking days, Autumn 2021

Ready for our Fruitfields Open Day, Autumn 2021

Greg & Sian, Mid-harvest at Tardebigge Cider, 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter & Spring 2021 at Fruitfields

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We have had a proper Winter with good amounts of snow. Due to the Global Covid Pandemic we have not been able to host our annual Wassail in conjunction with Barnt Green Parish Council or progress our Fruitfields stall at any Farmer’s markets or events. All retail outlets have been closed through to April in line with Government guidelines.

However, positively, the local community have been extremely supportive of our direct delivery of apple juice & honey on Fridays and as the restrictions ease, events are to recommence externally from May 17th and normality should resume from the 21st June (but we will see!).

We managed to prune all our trees from January – March and all but one of our beehive colonies survived the winter. We have re-planted replacement trees where they have succumbed to deer and rabbit damage. We are now enjoying the first of the 2021 blossom and have made a start splitting our beehive colonies and on our ‘bee experiences’ which are proving popular.

We look forward to the summer and seeing the effects of the pollination of the blossom and the fruit buds coming on.

 

2020 at Fruitfields

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What a year it has been at Fruitfields! Despite the challenges of the COVID pandemic, Brexit, the American election and more we are not just surviving but thriving due to focusing on our bees and trees and the support of our apple juice & honey stockists and everyone who has bought our products.

Throughout the Spring and Summer we tended to our fruit trees and beehives. We are pleased to have doubled the number of honeybee hives we have and our fruit trees are starting to establish themselves. We caught a couple of honeybee swarms at the end of May and one of these stocks has become quite prolific with a strong laying queen. We cross fingers they over winter well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During mid-summer we took advantage of the season, and were able to carry out a great amount of work in the orchard soon after sunrise. We have always thought it a stunning location with the combination of the North Worcestershire Countryside and Upper Bittell Reservoir adding to the surroundings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have been able to develop some nucleus bees from splitting our existing beehive colonies to help prevent swarming and to grow the number of colonies we have. It has been good to pass on beekeeping skills and introduce members of the public to our honeybees via our beekeeping experiences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From August on-wards we have been extremely busy with the harvest. Starting with the extraction of our Fruitfields honey in August before apple picking throughout late August, September and October. Having picked the apples we then wash, mill and press the fruit before bottling and pasteurising the apple juice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are part of an amazing local community. Apple pickers included friends and colleagues, the Barnt Green Girl Guides and many families, individuals and members of the network of villages which we form a part.

We used the facilities at Tardebigge Cider in order to scale up our position to process the 5 tonnes of apples collected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have also invested in bottles fillers and our own mill and hydropress which give us the ability to process smaller runs of apple juice such as a limited number of pink juice using a single variety called ‘Red Devil’. From our harvest this year we are delighted as a business to now be offering the following products:

A medium sweet apple juice (Made from Browns & Dabinett)

A medium sharp apple juice (Made from Bramley, Sandlin Duchess & Ashmeads Kernel)

A single variety Ashmeads Kernel apple juice

A single variety Red Devil apple juice

Honey in both 1 lb and 8 oz jars and either liquid or soft set. All these products are subject to availability!

Our winter wassail in conjunction with Barnt Green Parish Council

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On the 27th December, 2019, two community walks set out from the centre of Barnt Green at Millenium Park. The first walking group undertaking the 5 mile round trip comprised 42 adventurers and the 3 mile route was made up of 50. With approximately thirty people coming to our orchards directly or on their own walks, a crowd of c.130 made for a wonderful 3rd Barnt Green Wassail.

It was the first year we had members of Alvechurch Morris dancing on the top track and we were again able to process round the trees with Jez on the drums and Andy on the melodium. We were also joined by Steve as green man, aka ‘the hedge’. He really is a sight to behold, (if you notice he is there).

As the sunset and the mist came in, the crackling bonfire lit up our Fruitfields stall and Sian and myself were busy running the Wassail and dishing out the hot & cold apple juice & hot & cold cider.

We hit pots and pans and made noise as we processed around the orchard. We enjoyed a few wassailing verses and as well as hanging toast on our trees with the help of children (to attract the robins the guardians of the orchards and the noise was to keep away evil nasties) we ‘toasted’ with a ‘wassail’ and ‘drink hael’ response.

We wished the health of the apple trees for another bumper harvest in 2020 and to thank them for their bounteous crop we’ve experienced in 2019.

Thanks to Barnt Green Parish Council for their help leading the walks and promoting the event. It seems to be building each year and this year was certainly bigger & better than previous years…

Love and joy come to you and to you your wassail to… Here’s to a great start to 2020!

We must thank James Crockford (James Crockford Photography) for capturing some great shots of this event:

 

Summer & Autumn at Fruitfields

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It has been a fun summer tending to the trees and making sure they are well staked. We continue to check that our growing apples are bug and disease free and that our bees have the best possible chance to develop and be strong enough to gather nectar to make honey.

High winds and gales and our lack of thinning the apples have meant for a couple of broken apple tree limbs but this has provided a lessen for thinning apples in oncoming years.

Highlights of the summer have included running beekeeping experiences and being up close and personal with the bees. This has been sooo much fun and it is great to introduce new people to the life and setup of the honeybee.

Our apple varieties are coming on now. We have had small crops of Redditch Doddin & Pitmaston Pineapple as earlies and the Worcester Pearmains, William Crumps and other varieties such as Red Devil, Sandlin Duchess and Ashmead’s Kernel are on the way.

 

Storms before the calm? March 2019 in the UK

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We’ve had a few weeks now of rain, wind and challenging conditions here in North Worcestershire in the UK. We are hoping this is the ‘storm before the calm’ and all settles down for the main blossom and pollination period in May.

Pictures speak a thousand words and we have at last worked out why our fruity pictures from last season would not upload (pixel size). Therefore we are pleased to share with you some of the pictures from the 2018 harvest and from the last few months. We have been busy pruning the trees, cutting our willow and selling our apple juice and honey through local stockists.

If you want to contact us please look at our facebook site @fruitfieldsjuice

Fruitfields on tour & loving working with local stockists

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We loved the build up to Christmas & New Year and are delighted to be selling our apple juice through local stockists including:

Warwick’s Butchers, Barnt Green,

Blackwell Village Shop,

Burcot Garden Centre,

Willowbrook Garden Centre,

Melbicks Garden Centre,

Rowberry’s Garden Centre,

Alpaca Park Farm, Snarestone,

We hosted the 2nd Barnt Green Wassail on December 27th, 2018 and c. 70 community walkers came out to our orchards for mulled cider and apple juice. The crackling bonfire and pots and pans bashing & hanging toast & processing around the apple trees helped to wish their health for the year to come & thank them for their bounty for the previous year. The fire and music: consisting of both drums and melodeum made all the difference and we are looking forward to the next occasion at the end of this year.

We are working out what events we are to be attending during 2019. We will announce our plans once they are finalised. Do let us know if you like our apple juice and please follow and like our adventures on facebook and Instagram.