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.
