Rame Head Apple Juice

26/11/2025

Well that was challenging!! We started pressing apples on the 31st July, it was hot, sometimes really humid, not good conditions for fruit. At Boconnoc, where we help out with their orchards, one variety, unidentified as yet, the fruit rotted on the tree and ground almost as we tried to collect. but …. moving forward two full seasons of weather and into early winter we found ourselves, almost unbelievably, at our last pressing day! We finished harvesting a couple of weeks ago, finished pastuerising and bottling for a couple of late customers and ourselves. Today was for cider, we’ve pressed a record amount of apples for both juice & cider this season, honestly it’s been a complete gas to just immerse ourselves in this whole process, every single day since July 31st has had The Pomona involved in our lives and we have loved every minute of every day of the experience! But today, it’s a a strange feeling, we used to get it after finishing building a big opera set, it’s done, finished , we felt that very same feeling… except with apples it isn’t!! We now have the constant monitoring, testing of this year’s production and the blending and bottling that goes along with some of the current seasons produce and, very much so, last season’s. So today we fell into place, picked up the fruit, switched on the kit and knuckled down for eight hours or so and produced the final 750 litres of juice that will be a beautiful cider! Now I’m going to sleep but I bet I’ll still think of apples 🍎 🍏🍎!!

22/11/2025

We are a pressing away from finishing this season….. we came out for some air this morning and this evening….

20/11/2025

It’s getting colder, frosty apples this morning, slower fermentations, suddenly wearing more clothes!! We’re nearly there… another week or so of sorting, pressing and bottling and pastuerising…. more in a bit!!

21/10/2025

Good evening all, we have just finished another day of pressing and sat down to relax with a glass of our Rame Head Dry Cider and toasted National Apple Day… set up by the incredible Common Ground community… Happy Apple Day to you all… sorry the post is a bit late but it’s all to do with the Apple 🍎!!

04/09/2025

Wow! We are busy! The fruit has been available for collecting from the early cropping trees from the beginning of August, in past years, in small, sensible amounts… this year has been a full on tsunami of early cropping varieties…well… cropping really early!! It’s caught us on the hop a bit but we took it all in our stride and collected, pressed & bottled over 1500 litres last month of really lovely apple juice- unprecedented for this time of year! Yesterday and today we’ve been catching up on collecting and sorting out our new Cidery, boy is that space making a difference! The photos were taken from one spot this afternoon , on my knees ( usual this time of year!) and show a very small fraction of the fruit that is coming… bring it on we say!!! We love this season!! More soon…

20/08/2025

It’s still only August but the unprecedented yield of fruit in our orchards has caught us out and now we’re collecting and pressing as quick as we can to catch up! We’ve never seen anything like this before but it’s a challenge we’re happy to deal with! On top of this we are reusing all our returned bottles for juice and whilst it’s yet another challenge we seem to be getting on well with them, hard work but rewarding. We have now got our cider vinegar bottled and this will be available very soon, our new logo appears on the label, the whole thing conceived and designed by Nick Warren at N9Design, we’re delighted with the results! The link to our film is here, take six minutes off, turn up the volume and have a look at site and the amazing area we live in! Hope you enjoy it….

Here's a short film of our orchards near Rame Head and how we produce our apple juice and cider. Since 2020 when Giles first started filming here, things hav...

03/08/2025

Well where to start..? The last 91 days have been non stop , week on week, bar the fortnight we had off walking in The Black Mountains… our first fortnight’s holiday in thirteen years… it was amazing! However back here at Rame HQ it’s been crazy busy but we are slowly seeing light at the end of a very long tunnel! We hope to move into our new Cidery within the next fortnight, it’s going to be stage by stage but just to be pressing in there will be fantastic! We were paid a visit by our Environmental Health Inspector last week, spot check, as it should be, no point in trying to dodge around the paying publics safety, we were fine, good reports all round and impressed with Lou’s detailed record keeping! We have had a lovely time with our owls.. wherever we have lived, even in the centre of Leicester, I have always put bird boxes up and, where there has been a tree, an owl box… I have never failed in attracting a couple. This spring was no exception, the young ones seemed very inquisitive about us! To watch them being taught to hunt by the parents was terrific… they loved the orchards, flying low and silent, we hid ourselves away so we could watch them in the dusk. We have already done one large pressing, terrific flavours in the juice, really happy with it and with the trees are very, very full of fruit, everything is early, we’ve never pressed in July before. The weather over the last few months has been nigh on perfect for our trees and gardens and it is still looking great over the next few weeks. More soon, our short film, our endeavours to recycle all of our bottles ( going very well!!) and everything and anything to do with our favourite season in the year!