The opinions expressed on this page are my own
.Please note, you may have been directed here from a link on another page which refers to a particular book. The links are mostly to this page rather than the book in this page, scroll down or click on an anchor link to finfd the book in question.
I have not offered comprehensive or
technical appraisals of the books in question, or even read every word,
just expressed my feelings about apple and cider books I enjoyed and which
might be helpful to readers of this site. I haven't taken money or favours
from authors or publishers although I have met Liz Copas, Julian Temperly
and Harry Baker and corresponded with Michael Phillips. We have an extensive
collection of old apple books, some very rare, collected from various second
hand bookshops throughout England and Wales over two decades from
antiquarian book dealers. Many books on fruit are of no great distinctiveness
or value and I haven't cluttered the site with reviews of every book in
my library. ISBNs are given where they exist.
Vigo
and Eco-logic
books are good sources of modern apple and cider books, the
supply in second hand book stores seems to have dried up where the older
books are concerned, but quality used book stores in country towns are
often worth a prowl, and specialist book dealers can look out things for
you, at a price. I add books to the list occasionally, most recent update
February 2005. If anyone would like to draw my attention to a worthy apple
book I haven't mentioned, try hayes373(at)btinternet(dot)com. The dates
on my notes are inconsistent, as this page has been added to at different times.
Some books are reviewed at length, others in 4 or 5 lines, this merely
reflects the mood I was in and what I felt at the time about the book,
although obviously I was moved by some books more than others. I
ramble off the subject a bit at times, e.g. on perry pears. If there are
any errors here, please forgive me, mistakes happen and details change.
I will of course correct anything wrong if alerted.
The
English Apple
Apples,
a Field Guide
The
Fruit Garden Displayed
Tree
Fruit Growing
The
Anatomy of dessert
Establishing
a Fruit Garden
The
Apple Grower
The
Book Of Apples
The
Fruit Expert
The
Good Fruit Guide
The
Good Cider Guide
Common
Ground Book of Orchards
A
Somerset Pomona
Sweet
and hard cider
Cider-the
Forgotten Miracle
Cider
and Juice apples: growing and processing
Perry
Pears
The
Grafter's Handbook
Not
on The Label
We both thoroughly enjoy "The English Apple" by Rosanne Sanders. I persuaded my mother in law (thanks Mum) to buy this for me for my birthday, it was obtained at Scotts nursery, Merriot, Somerset, although when we were there last autumn (2006) they didn't have any, and I couldn't find any at Hay on Wye when I was there in May 2007, although I only looked in half a dozen bookshops. I suspect it may not be easy to find a copy, but worth it if you can. This is a "coffee table" book in the sense that anyone even if not interested in apples can pick it up and enjoy it. After the introduction, the body of the book consists of watercolours by Ms Sanders of over 100 apples with accompanying historical and other information. This is a handy, although not infallible or comprehensive, book for identifying varieties, essentially a celebration of the apple. The watercolours are stunningly beautiful. There is also a brief but comprehensive section on growing apples by Harry Baker of the RHS, the grand old man of English Apples. It cost £19.95 in 1988. We used to take this book to most of our sales for it's sheer beauty and to help customers identify the apples they remember from the gardens of their youth, but it's physically wearing out so we don't tend to so much.
Apples,
a Field Guide by Michael Clark. Whittet books in association with
Brogdale Horticultural Trust, ISBM1-873580-57-6. Hardback,
175 pages. This is the newest apple book in my collection, obtained from
Landsman bookshop at last year's Bath and West show (I was there for the
cider and believe me, I got some!). Well worth the £20 I paid,
the bulk of the book is descriptions of apples, one per page for most of
the book, 2 per page for some of the newer up-and-coming varieties like
Alkmene, Braeburn, Elstar, Red Falstaff, Winter Gem, Princess and Scrumptious)
around 150 varieties featured. Each apple is colour photographed on the
tree and described in around 160 words e.g. history, season, flavour, good
and bad points. There is a box at the top of each page with dessert or
cooking, months ready, shape, flowering group and whether tip of spur bearer.
An innovation I haven't seen before involves a colour coded outline of
each apple (e.g. round, flat, conical, oblong), and Julia (who does more
markets and apple talks than me) has found this helpful trying to identify
customers' apples which they bring to us to try to name for them. The book's
very handy for that, and as a companion to Rosanne Saunders 'The English
Apple' it would help you to identify many common apples. Not as pretty as 'The English Apple' but more practical. I sometimes think
a good watercolour painting can show the apple's typical features better
than a photograph, nice to have both. But then, I am the apple maniac and
I am happy to have spent the equivalent of a premier league football club's
season ticket on my apple library.
When I am evaluating a book on apples I always like to look up the fruits
I know have particular problems and see if the writer has been honest about
them. For example Spartan is very prone to canker, Miller's Seedling to
biennialism, Idared is tasteless, Egremont Russet can get bitter pit. Clark
mentions the first 3 faults but not the last. (maybe he has better conditions
for Egremont-we have to foliar feed with calcium/liquid seaweed each year
to minimise bitter pit in Egremont The section on propagation is admirable, telling you with pictures how
to chip bud and whip-and-tongue graft (although having tried all styles
I prefer and reccommend saddle grafting) and you will be able to graft your own trees
with this advice and a very sharp knife ( I reccomend a small stainless steel Opinel number 6) plus a bit of polythene cut from
a freezer bag. There is also brief and to the point information and illustrations
of planting, pruning and pests, and a useful number of references and contacts.
The bulk of the book however is the colour photos of apples and their descriptions.
Well worthy of adding to any apple growers library, and probably the single
most useful book I have come across to help you identify apples from 'the
old tree in my garden'.
Tree
Fruit Growing by Raymond Bush. Penguin paperback, 1943. There are
3 books in this series, the first is all about apples. Mr Bush wrote in
a very down to earth style and very practically, although the book is clearly
dated-for example, they used lead arsenic spray then before DDT came in!
Many of his trenchant observations still ring true, for example (he worked
as a consultant as well as growing his own orchards) he mentioned that
often when he was called to an orchard whose cropping had fallen, his advice
was to cut down every other tree. If the horrified grower conceded, the
orchard was cropping heavier and better in 2 years. People OFTEN
plant trees far too close together, thinking this will give more fruit
but all it does is deprive fruit buds of light and air so the apples are
small and don't colour up so well. (cordons are of course a special case
and an exception to this, but they must be managed carefully, Mr Bush explains
how) There is an awful lot of instruction for such a small book and I have
proven the truth of a lot of what I followed from it-for example not putting
trees too close together, and his illustrated advice on grafting and pruning.
It is a humorous and humane book, including pictures of mistakes like
a badly pruned Bramley in a workhouse garden 'the
best place for it!' and a tree killed by a neglected tie which had
cut into the bark. There are some lovely old black and white pictures including
one of the author's son under a tree of Peasgood's Nonesuch, eating a cooking
apple nearly as big as his head. Long out of print, it is a book that turns
up now and then in Oxfam shops and the like. I saw a few in Hay on Wye in May 2007. Worth getting for the period
details as well as the tips. Raymond Bush also wrote 2 other books which
I have, "Frost and the Fruit Grower"
and "A Fruit Grower's Diary", I
can highly recommend especially the diary if you are lucky enough to find
a copy.
Some of the books that inspired us the most are now pretty much unobtainable. One such is "The Anatomy of dessert" by Edward Bunyard. Published in 1927 and reprinted in 1933 with a section on wine, this is an appreciation of the manifold flavours of the English apple as grown then, it reads like a wine taster's notes and reminds us there is SO much more to apples than sugar and crunch.. The author writes about his feelings, opinions and memories about the flavours of different fruits. Quotes from this book appear in many articles about the forgotten flavours of the apples our great grandfathers used to know. I searched for a copy of this book for years before finally tracking down (by chance) a limited first edition in an antiquarian bookshop in Maidstone, Kent, near where the Bunyards lived and worked. A month later, another copy turned up from one of the book men I had looking for me! A few quotes....
In praise of the apple...."What fruit can compare with the apple for its extended season, lasting from August to June, keeping alive for us in winter, in its sun-stained flush and rustic russet, the memory of golden autumnal days? Through all the seven ages of man it finds a welcome, and we now learn that not only does it keep the doctor from our house but ourselves from the dentist. Is there any other edible which is at once an insurance, a pleasure, and an economy? "......On ripeness......"The Reinettes, such as Blenheim Orange, Cox's Orange, Orleans Reinette, and most of the russets, have their vintage years, of which 1921 will remain long in the memory. All varieties, too, have their optimum moment of aroma and also of acidity. A Cox's in October is a little too acid, but as the acid gradually fails, the aromatic ethers develop, and the end of November and early December sees them at their height. It then slowly declines, very slowly if properly stored, and even in May, after a sunny summer, it is still worthy."
Although this is one of the most quoted books on the apple, apples only comprise one chapter, Bunyard writes about other fruits. Here he waxes lyrical about chestnuts... "Chestnuts are most happily met with before dessert, in my opinion, but who can quite resist them roasted in the shell around the school-room fire, or in those ambulatory stoves which winter sometimes brings forth in London and Paris?.....I remember walking down the Rue de la Paix..."
And on Pears, ...."Can we omit Beurre Hardy, so solid and masculine in its coat of russet and red, with its rosewater perfume and pink-tinged flesh, or Fondante d'Autonne, more like an apple than a pear in form-but its russet skin conceals a melting flesh and an aromatic fragrance which place it quite in the first rank."
If I had the time and energy I'd write the whole apple and pear sections of this book out on the web for its olde-worde quaintness and dated upper-class charm, but the thing that interests me most is the fact demonstrated in every paragraph that people in the 1920s enjoyed a range of English-grown seasonal fruit that we can only dream of today. Variety, seasonality, locality and the culture of fine fruit correctly ripened and served-all gone. OK, Bunyard was wealthy, but even the super-rich can't get these fruits today unless they grow them themselves. Rare old books like this have inspired us to believe that such things could be again. By the way, my 'spare' copy of Bunyard isn't for sale, Michael Phillips has it in New Hampshire.
"Establishing
a Fruit Garden" by Geoffrey
F. Bell, published by the Garden Book Club in 1964 pops up occasionally
in second hand bookshops and rummage sales, and is well worth reading.
Its a story by a school head teacher who decided to retire while he was
still enjoying the job and establish a fruit farm of about 6 acres (not
so different from us) and how he approached the problems of turning a field
into an orchard without an agricultural background, and then marketing
the apples and other fruits. Very readable, well observed, honest, and
lots of useful tips. We would have done better if we had followed more
of his hard-won wisdom. "I
have wasted a good deal of money on machinery; early enthusiasm soon led
to that common mistake of over-capitalising a small venture....there are
several machines which lie idle for most of the year and then won't work
when the passing moment comes......If there is one piece of advice more
than another which results from experience, it would be to choose a dwarfing
rootstock for the orchard trees." And on sales,
"Provided a reasonable
market is available, it pays to have a "natural" store and to remain salesman
as well as grower." He gives precise instructions with diagrams
and photos about how he built an apple store from breeze block. Very practical,
down to earth and human scale, down to giving us the first
names and pictures of his little band of workers.
To me, the value of this book is that it was written from experience by a man who came to agriculture late in life and learned by doing-and from his mistakes. It is also very encouraging to us because it shows that such a thing can be done, although it was probably easier then than now because the stranglehold of the supermarkets and the globalisation of the fruit market was less established and the planning laws weren't so prejudiced against 'good life dreamers' who wanted to live and work on 5 acres. But what was done, could be done again, and perhaps any renaissance of small-scale fruit growing, and indeed of British agriculture, may be greatly helped by mid life career changers with 5 acres and a dream, if they are given half a chance-and that must mean a change in the law to allow genuine people to build a house or live in a caravan on a GENUINE smallholding as they build it up. (declaration of interest) A few years ago, "hobby farmer" was a term of contempt, but what this man did is what we're trying to do, and now that the average profit from a 500 acre farm has fallen to as little as £2,500, who's crying now? We all should be. A quaint little book from a gentler time. I have to admit though, that I planted too many Sunset partly because Dr Bell praised it so highly in this book. It was also praised by Lawrence Hills who was a great apple authority and described it as 'the best of the thronging Cox taste-alikes). Sunset is a good apple, but fashions change and today's customers will not tolerate softness in an apple so Sunset is hard to sell as it tends to go slightly soft (although still has a great flavour) after a month in storage. Take this lesson from me and be careful never to plant too many of any apple variety, however highly someone reccomends it (even me!) until you have proved it in your soil, climate and market. Still a very good book, and I saw one in Hay.
Along similar lines, but a more modern and sophisticated book, I found "The Apple Grower" by Michael Phillips surfing the net late one night and got my copy a few weeks later. Like the Geoffrey Bell book, it is the story of the establishment of a small apple orchard, but it is much more. Published by Chelsea Green in 1998, (ISBN 1-890132-04-7) it is a beautiful mixture of the practical, the philosophical, the instructional, the historical and the dream of the apple and of growing on a small scale and selling to a local community who feel they have a stake in the orchard. Michael Phillips' orchard is organic in every sense of the word, and he is an fervent advocate for this style of food production, but the book is philosophically committed to the 'organic' approach, but thankfully devoid of the customary set-piece attacks against those who feel the need to use some chemicals. On conventional apple growing wisdom, he writes "Each orchardist needs to define his or her constraints, both economic and environmental, and proceed from there. Doing the best you can do at this particular time is enough-......Few people can afford to go totally organic on any kind of significant commercial level, yet its vital that here and there we begin to figure out integrated organic systems. Small growers can lead the way for larger growers to take what are now perceived as incredible risks." And Mr Phillips and his partner David have taken incredible risks on their Lost Nation orchard in New Hampshire. True, their income is only around 50 cents an hour, both relying on "working wives" to bring some money in, yet the enterprise as described is a thing of very great beauty and surely has a lot to teach any small-scale modern grower, not least about "unique selling point" marketing to a local community. Food miles and stakeholders again. I have since been in touch with Michael -he emailed me after a friend told him I hhad favourably reviewed his book on my site and I hope to visit him one day (New Hampshire, Old Hampshire...see the connection?) Ah, the wonders of the web...
There are plenty of quotes from the long history of apple growing in the USA and elsewhere, plenty of practical wisdom and new insights on old problems, and an honesty which I find refreshing in an "organic" book. For example, there is a photo of a bar of soap hanging from a deer-damaged tree, with a caption saying that obviously the deer in Lost Nation were unaware that the soap should have deterred them from biting the young apple trees. Elsewhere, the writer speaks of the need to try to educate the apple buying public to be more tolerant of blemished fruit, and the many alternative ways of "value adding" apple, e.g. by making chutneys, "jellies" (jams), "cider" (apple juice) and "hard cider" (cider) (Americanisms abound-forgiveable I suppose in an, er, American book!), all of which suggest a practical approach to the problem of fruit that doesn't "grade out" well enough to be sold as raw fruit. We sympathise earnestly, after all, we spray conventional chemicals (minimally) and this year (written in 2001) still lost most of our Spartan and half the Red Pippin crop due to apple scab (Joni Mitchell's "spots on my apples" (Big Yellow Taxi) do not merely uglify fruits, they can wipe out a crop and destroy trees. Even organic growers like Michael are compelled to spray permitted 'organic' fungicides like copper sprays)
This book is a must for anyone contemplating growing apples organically on any scale, and I would say any serious apple book collection would be deficient without it. A literate and poetical view of an orchard, balanced with a useful amount of technical instruction and the right amount of photos, woodcuts, stories, poems, diagrams, references and quotes. $35 (USA). There is a second edition out now in which Michael (with whom I swapped my spare Bunyard 'Anatomy of dessert' for a copy) very kindly mentions me in the acknowledgements and looks forward to us sharing a glass of honest cider 'on hallowed ground' to which I say 'Amen!'
The Book of Apples by Joan Morgan and Alison Richards, first edition 1993. A heavyweight tome published in association with Brogdale Horticultural Trust. Brogdale of course hosts the English national apple collection of some 2,000 varieties and the latter third of this book lists them all with brief facts about each variety. A4 sized and at £30, it mainly deals with the ancient and modern history of the apple and the orchard trade, also looking at the apple in literature and mythology, apple customs etc. If money is no object, I would say it is a very good, perhaps definitive, in-depth guide to the apple. As well as the history and cataloguing there is a useful section on growing as well as nice illustrations. Essential addition to library for apple maniacs, a bit heavyweight and dear for those with merely a passing interest. ISBN 0-09-177759-3
The Fruit Expert by D.G.Hessayon, pbi publications, ISBN 0-903505-31-2. Now in a new edition, we have the 1st impression, paid about £9 I think. This is the fruit book you are most likely to come across in the garden centres etc (there is a series of 'The**** expert'), and it covers much the same ground as the Fruit Garden Displayed, if a bit less authoritatively. Very readable, well illustrated, easy to dip into. Lots of colour pictures of apples, pears etc with handy tables next to them giving period of ripeness, pollination groups etc and some brief comments. I prefer the RHS book, but this is thoroughly workmanlike, easier to read if you are a complete beginner and you won't go wrong if you follow the advice here. The author made some comments about several of my favourite apples I didn't agree with, I'm not saying which, but that's OK-better than regurgitated 'received opinions'. Perhaps the most practical, and inexpensive, book for someone who doesn't know much about fruit gardening and wants to make a start.
The Good Fruit Guide by Lawrence D Hills. This slim paperback, ISBN 0-905343-12-3, was published by the Henry Doubleday Research Association in 1984. The HDRA would be your best chance of finding a copy. Mine is very tattered now, and was the main source of information available to us when we planned our orchard a dozen years ago. After an introductory chapter or three, the late Mr Hills (who in his day was a well known advocate of the organic movement and was often on press and TV) gives us his descriptions of what he considered the best fruits for flavour. There are growing notes and useful lists of for example apples that do well in restricted forms, those which are best for flavour, the best cookers. He also deals with plums, pears and soft fruit.
One reason to get a copy if you can is the author's passionate plea
for real and distinctive flavours from the garden, as opposed to the globalised
apple the industry finds it convenient to sell us (see 'Not on the Label'
review below). Rather like a modern day Bunyard (whom he quotes). Here's
a few samples......"We
live in an age of thick skinned tomatoes that grow over a hundred tons
of watery weight to the acre, lettuces with just a faint flavour of corks,
and imported apples with
no more taste than sugared water. Even the Cox has lost it's savour......We
have come a long way from "The Anatomy of Desert", the forgotten classic
written in 1928 by the late Edward Bunyard.......Today, sweetness from
the hidden sugars in soft drinks to the cyclamates and synthetic substances
of the slimmers are the ever present background "musak" that dulls our
tastebuds, until we can no longer appreciate the perfection of a pear at
the peak of condition. This explains the rise in popularity of Golden
Delicious, which is not so much an apple as a permitted sweetener...The
synthetic flavours of today, like the bacon or turkey tastes added to textured
vegetable protein or savoury nut roasts, are as 'loud' as discotheque music,
and slowly we lose our sensitivity and appreciation..complex chemicals
that make a strawberry ice taste so much more like a strawberry that modern
children are disappointed with their first real strawberries and cream..."
Similar comments might be made about the accountancy-driven plastic
filth sold as popular music and TV today.
Favourite Lawrence Hills quote,, "It takes two
people to plant a tree, and they should take their time over it, for they
cannot have anything more important to do with the time saved by haste."
"The
Good Cider Guide" has now run to, as far as I believe, 2 editions
and a third is in preparation. For more on this see the archives of the
Google ukcider group! The first, edited by
David Kitton is, as in the Ronseal adverts "what it says on the
label". The book is essentially in 3 sections, there is some discussion
about what cider (and perry) is, details about the main producers including
where to find them, what sort of ciders they produce, etc, and to some
the most important section, which pubs throughout the country sell real
cider on draft. My 1990 copy has inspired one or two weekends in and around
Somerset which included some remarkable meetings e.g. with the incredible
Naish brothers, two good old boys growing cider in the shadow of Glastonbury
tor, whose scarecrow tweed jackets really
were done up with binder twine. I couldn't believe the rough scrumpy
they sold me out of huge old rum oak barrels for a silly price, £3
a gallon or something. At Mudgeley, I remember asking the formidable Mr
Wilkins for a taste and being given a half pint glass and free run of a
cider house with barrels taller than me and with laughter ringing out from
jolly boozers on Sunday pre-lunchtime. In Street I saw the inside of a
real Aladdin's Caves of cider barrels and bottles, including really rare
delicacies like single-pomme varietals like Morgan Sweet and Kingston
Black. There was a half hour leaning on an orchard gate discussing
rootstocks, cider history and apple varieties with the cider grower. The
Good Cider Guide helped me find all these delights-most of the places really
worth visiting were off the beaten track and you won't find many of them
unless you have this book or are very badly lost.
NB one of the Naish boys has taken ship into the West, God rest him,
but Wilkins is still very much at it. When we visited Mudgeley at apple
pressing time last year it was the same routine 'call me Roger and here's
a half pint glass to taste from the (huge) casks.
I have another edition (unlike beer, which CAMRA produces annually,
this is an occasional event) edited by David Matthews. I slightly prefer
my older version but this is more up to date, vital if you are planning
to go on a cider cruise since growers come and (sadly) go. The new edition
which is due out sometime this year, I think, will be worth waiting for.
My advice is take the car to Somerset with this book, an empty boot, oh,
and a teetotal driver! ISBN 1-85249-104-3 (first edition)
The "Common Ground Book of Orchards" is an absolute delight. Its very easy to dip into and appreciate in small bites, a bit of a "cider-table" book but much more than that. Coming from Common Ground, as you would expect it is more dreamy-whimsical than agro-technical, and as such will probably appeal to people who are into conservation but don't own a pair of secateurs much less an apple tree. There is a lot of apple and orchard culture and history, on the front cover it says "conservation, culture and community", and of course a good deal about Apple Day, the new October festival started by the organisation, which gets bigger every year. With pictures on most pages, including 50 outstandingly beautiful black and white photographic studies of West Country orchards by James Ravilous, this is very much a book to "get us in touch with our feelings" about the great tradition of apples and orchards in England, a tradition that Common Ground has done more than anyone to try to renew and revive. The back end of this book is absolutely stuffed full of references, addresses and phone numbers to do with all things of the apple, worth it's purchase price ( £18.99) as an apple information source alone. ISBN 1-870364-21-X . Recommended for schools and anyone interested in establishing a community orchard.
"A Somerset Pomona" by Liz Copas is a book which will mainly be of interest to the true cider aficionado or anyone who wants to plant apple trees specifically for the production of quality cider. Cider, that underrated, misunderstood, abused and neglected drink which at its best can be as good as wine and far more ecologically sound than beer , can be made from the fermented juice of any apple, but vintage cider requires West Country vintage cider apples such as Kingston Black, Somerset Redstreak, Bulmer's Norman, Dabinett, Chisel Jersey and the rest. This lovely book contains text, diagrams and photos of all the best known Somerset cider apples, with much information about cider production past and present. Discussions on the uk cider group confirm that this book is a favourite with lovers of real cider, both here and in the USA......The Dovecote Press, ISBN 1 874336 87 3 £9.95
The distinctive thing about these wonderful West Country cider apples is tannin, a series of complicated and little understood organic chemical compounds which occur in true cider apples which give distinctive flavour and mouth-feel characteristics. If you bit into a bittersweet cider apple such as Tremlet's bitter or Harry Masters Jersey, as I have done, you would spit them out, not because of the taste but because the tannins tend to strip the skin form the inside of your mouth, at least so it feels. But taste these apples in a properly blended cider-ahhh!
Incidentally, I do find it amusing that while we are failing to develop, maybe even losing, our great traditions of cider in England, various honest but I feel misguided enthusiasts struggle desperately against nature by trying to produce grape wine here. Of course they have to use German hybrid vines grown for their tolerance of miserable weather and not specially tasty, and they have to add sugar to get an acceptable alcohol level for wine, and only get a crop 3 years out of 5. Meanwhile, if you cross the channel to Normandy they make the best use of the growing conditions God has given them and produce-cider! Not until you get 100 miles south do the first vineyards appear, and wine lovers will know that the northerly wines of the Loire are only so-so compared with the richer flavours the grape gives in Languedoc or Bordeaux. I think we should forget growing outdoor grapes and grow apples instead, and more people should follow the noble example of (arise Sir) Julian Temperly of Burrow Hill in Somerset and distil apple brandy like the French do. He had to struggle against seven kinds of boring pathetic little beaurogits before finally being allowed to do so, even though his enterprise was obviously going to restore a tiny little bit of national glory, pay tax and create employment. What kind of country.....
It is (unless like (arise Sir) Julian you have struggled through fire
and water, or indeed firewater, to obtain a licence) against the law and
very naughty indeed to distil cider to make apple spirits (Calvados, applejack,
cider brandy....) but if just out of interest you wanted to find
out how it was done, or if perchance it is legal where you live, there
are precise instructions in "Cider", a very thorough and useful book
of instruction concerning all things to do with making "Sweet
and hard cider". by Annie Proulx and Lew Nichols. ISBN 0-88266-969-9
Storey books, Vermont (www.storey.com) Recommended if you want to make
natural apple cider, which is of course perfectly legal. Another American
book, it acknowledges the English contribution to apples and cider and
mentions the different types of cider which can be made, comparing and
contrasting the Old England and New England styles. There is extremely
practical advice about making vinegar, grafting, troubleshooting, care
of barrels, etc. There is a description of the tricky and not always reliable
process of 'keeving' which is how the French produce naturally sweet ciders
(if you want to do this but can't obtain this book, try Andrew Lea's Wittenham
Hill cider website). There is also a mention of dear old Johnny Appleseed,
a sort of Pomological new world version of Sir John Barleycorn except that
he was a real individual. The reclusive Hamble Delta blues man Ramblin'
Steve Appleseed was inspired by the Johhny Appleseed legend. A very
readable book which balances the technical/instructional side with the
touchy/feely/dreamy aspect, I would say at the present time this is probably
the most useful book for the home cider maker, although you need Liz Copas
too, especially if you are English. Vigo
stock it.
"Cider-the forgotten miracle" by James Crowden is not a book of instruction but will be enjoyed by all who love the mystery and romance of apples, orchard and cider. James has had an interesting life-soldier, traveller, Himalayan hermit, shepherd, student (at Oxford) labourer, engineer and poet. Recently he's been heard on radio 4 on a funny programme called the landscape detectives or something. The book is beautifully printed on cream paper with lots of apple and cider history, myths and traditions. poems and tales, all told in the author's inimitably wistful and contemplative style. On the front cover is an extraordinary engravng entitled "Adam and Eve in Somerset" * which sets the scene for the book's contents. Don't buy this is it's practical instruction you are after, but for the true cider aficionado it is an essential companion. ISBN 0-9537103-0-0. This remarkable author has produced a few other books which we have, I would recommend 'Blood, earth and medicine' which is a book of Ted Hughes-esque poems about the yearly cycle of an agricultural labourer, 'In Time of Flood' which is photos , narrative, history and poetry about the Somerset Levels (a remarkable little corner of England which we visited in November 2004. A long weekend here can take you through Glastonbury-where you can visit the abbey orchards, Wells with it's marvellous mediaeval cathedral and close, Cheddar Gorge with its striking geology, the willow and basket centre (please buy something to keep them in business), and some of the best cider makers, as well as an ancient wetland landscape described in 'In time of flood'). He also collaborated on 'Working women of Somerset' which is again pictures and interviews with, working women in Somerset. Fascinating and delightful, if not much to do with apples, but again everything's connected. You can read more on his web site, Google on James Crowden.
* Incidentally, nowhere in the Bible does it say that the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden was an apple.
Cider
and Juice apples: growing and processing edited by R.R.Williams,
University of Bristol printing unit. This is a highly specialised paperback
about commercial cider growing and production. It is of interest only to
the person who intends to grow apples for cider and juice, but I would
say if that is you, on however small a scale, this is indispensable. Again,
from Scotts of Merriot, I believe it's still in print. Sound technical
information about everything to do with making proper cider, but not the
easiest or most attractive book and the Proulx and Nichols cider book book
and particularly Liz Copas' lovely book on cider are much nicer reads.
But for a serious cider orchardist, you need this too. Pretty technical.
Perry Pears The National Fruit and Cider Institute, Long Ashton. Edited by L C Luckwill and A Pollard, this rare book published by the University of Bristol in 1963 is the only book I have ever come across or heard of devoted to this subject. It is a complete book with history, geography, technology and in the most interesting section a series of black and white photos of mature specimens of the winter-bare trees themselves with a facing page of information about the variety. Perry pears seem to belong to Gloucester, Hereford and Worcestershire for the most part. There are also colour plates of some of the better known varieties. You are not very likely to get your hands on a copy of this beautiful rare old book, I think I got mine from Scott's nursery of Merriot, Somerset, a dozen years ago, try them (you'll have to write, no web site. Scotts Nurseries, Merriot, Somerset, TA16 5PL). Or try Vigo, or the bookshops of Hay-on-Wye.
Perry is harder to make and perry pear names are even weirder than Cider apples: we are talking about Hendre Huffcap, Harley Gum, Rock, Butt, Thorn, Flakey Bark, Merrylegs, Green Horse and the sinister Dead Boy. Perry pears live to a great old age-I remember visiting relatives in Shropshire one spring and seeing these great towers of blossom which were ancient, giant perry pears growing in meadows. Regrettably, perry is even harder to find than real cider and due to the lack of economic value, new orchards are not being planted and old trees are gradually dying of neglect. There is a beautiful colour photo in the 'Common ground book of orchards' of a 48 hectare perry pear orchard in Combe Florey, Somerset, in full blossom. A small caption on the facing page says how this orchard was cut down to make way for subsidised arable crops. A crime in my view as bad if not worse than burning a Van Gogh painting (and I like Van Gogh very much). I appeal to anyone who has enough land, plant JUST ONE perry pear on a big rootstock-these trees can grow 50 feet high, put on a towering show of blossom before the apples bloom that people will see and enjoy for miles around, and in good years produce maybe a quarter ton of fruit, which if you can't use you can probably sell to a perry maker (again, try the ukcider gang on Googlegroups). The tree may live for 200 years and if the trunk is kept fairly straight by skilful pruning will hopefully make very fine and rare timber for the craftsman cabinet maker. There is an old saying 'He who plants pears, plants for his heirs.' Of course you can get pears sooner on a dwarfing rootstock, same as apples, but full-sized pears are strikingly beautiful and you will be a benefactor should you be able to give one a home.
The only commercial maker of perry I know is Westons of Herefordshire. There are a few small makers, Gloucester and Hereford is a likelier hunting ground than Somerset and Devon if you are looking for perry. We planted 5 perry pears but horses ate them except a Butt and Winnal's London. I grafted some of the latter on dwarf rootstocks, made 2 gallons of perry from it, so bitter it was undrinkable. I should have been patient and kept it for a couple of years, instead I blended it with some weak cider, which it improved. That was 3 years ago, we had to move the trees (planted in the wrong place) and haven't had any crop since. We are growing on 2 seedling pear rootstocks in our coppice, they and the Butt are putting their energy into growing not fruiting-these big trees like to grow very big before they eventually fruit. Ask me in another 5 years.
NB a note on perry. It is usually made from a single variety, not blended like apples for cider. There is little literature, I do not know how 'evidence based' this is-I have heard of fermentations that are very slow to start, perhaps due to a lack of malic acid or nitrogen, and some traditions suggest adding say 20% Bramley apple juice to your perry juice must. There has been a fair amount of discussion on perry on the ukcider group (now moved from Yahoo to Google).
The
Grafter's Handbook by R J Garner. First published 1947.
Another book that "does what it says on the label", published in association
with the RHS, ISBN 0-304-34274-2, obtainable from eco-logic books £16.99.
This book is mainly of interest to the commercial grafter and has more
information than most orchardists will ever need, and it isn't only
about apples, but if you want a book on grafting, this is the one. I am
going to put some practical advice on simple grafting techniques on this
site in due course, hopefully by the winter (grafting should be done in
late winter/early spring) so I won't say too much more, except that my
grafting skills have improved since reading relevant sections of this book.
Saddle grafting is the technique I find most useful.
Not on The Label (What REALLY goes into the food on your plate). Felicity Lawrence, Penguin, 0-141-01566-7, £7.99
This is not primarily a book about apples but the UK food trade in general , including apples (as in 'The Kent apple blossom trail has been cancelled as so many orchards have gone bust and been grubbed up') . It details the extreme lengths the industry goes to to squeeze a few more percentage points of profit out of the food trade and maintain the illusion of 'perpetual global summertime'. Ms Lawrence has not done this book by sitting at her PC and reading reports, she has been out there as you can read, working on the line in a 'chicken factory', seeing at first hand the conditions of the immigrant workforce in Lincolnshire, and sharing a meal with some unfortunate north Africans living in a rubbish dump among the discarded pesticide kegs not far from holiday homes in southern Spain where YOUR salads are produced before being driven 1,000 miles in refrigerated juggernaughts to England. She painstakingly documents the lives and conditions of the illegal and barely legal migrant workers in Europe including the UK, (effectively slaves but without the job security. At least slaves represented an economic asset to their owners so were fed, housed and clothed-the poor souls written about here are nowhere near so cared about, they can die in the gutter and be buried in the rubbish tip-plenty more where they came from.), the ingredients that go into chicken nuggets (no, we haven't eaten any since reading this), the exhaustion of the soils of southern Europe, the chemicals in washed lettuce, et cetera. It is horrible and if you (like me) shop at TescoSainsAsda you are a stakeholder in this system which is FAR FROM PLEASANT. You probably don't want to know about the 'scalding tank' in the 'chicken factory' but if you intend to go on eating chicken you probably should. Yeeecch! This is not a pleasant read, but if enough people read it and get angry enough to DO SOMETHING it might help, amongst other things, the cause for decent apples locally grown. It quotes a Kentish apple grower who is getting out due to the inability to make a living because the supermarkets drive down prices paid to the grower to an unrealistic level. When his agreed price was cut down to below his production costs and he protested, he was told 'We can always buy cheaper overseas' (due to zero workers rights, illegal subsidy and minimal environmental protection there).
There are 'beauty parade' digital machines which can be programmed to reject apples which stray 2 or 3 percentage points either way on the red cheek on one side of the apple. 30% or more of good fruits are rejected because they do not fall within narrow size bands-designed to make 4 apples weigh just over a pound so you spend a bit more in the shop. Not rejected for disease or unripeness, but WRONG PERCENTAGE OF RED SKIN COLOUR. Farmers forced to meet the cost of BOGOF (buy one get one free) promotions, deceitful labelling, the Prince of Wales' organic Duchy carrots rejected as they are not shiny enough. And more. If you read this book, you will probably get angry. It is also to be hoped that you might support local growers and markets-if you are lucky enough to still have any. The author's anger is not prejudiced and ranting (unlike this review, which is) but measured and focussed, and is well supported by a wealth of factual information, some of it collected working undercover at the sharp end. It is thoroughly well researched and indexed and I commend it-fighting, hopping mad angry with a system in need of change I do.
As the Holy Scripture says (James chapter 5 vs 4-6) 'Look!
The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying
out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the
Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self indulgence, you
have fattened yourself in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered
innocent men who were not opposing you!' Strong and scary
words which regardless of your faith are just as true now as when the apostle
James wrote them around 50 AD.
Stephen Hayes. most recently update June 2007
re beer vs cider, from the ecological point of view. I am one of those people who makes and enjoys both drinks, but many folks are definitely one or the other. Far be it from me to tell people what they ought to drink (although I am uneasy about teetotallers-I mean, Mohammed, Hitler, Khomeini, George Bush, Osama Bin Liner......what kind of world might we have if they had drunk up their wine, beer or cider like normal human beings?!?) but if you want to save the planet, cider is the drink. To make beer, you have to (EACH YEAR) plough, harrow seed and roll your field, control weeds, harvest your barley, dry it, thresh it and store it. then to make malt, you soak it, warm it, turn it, then heat it to 70C or thereabouts. Having made your malt, it is then cracked, then soaked in hot water at 60-65C for 90 minutes. The 'wort' is then run off and boiled with hops for 60-90 minutes. It is cooled then fermented. It can make a great drink, but is very costly in energy and carbon emissions.
By contrast, cider is made from the juice squeezed from crushed apples, which are a permaculture crop which soaks up carbon dioxide and require zero to minimal inputs of energy to keep them going. The process can be done entirely by human and/or horse power. It is clear from the above that the process of making beer uses far more energy than making cider.