Monday, 21 November 2011
Spiced Beetroot Wine
Apple harvest
We picked masses of apples from our usual two sources. One of them is Hilary Wilson's orchard where she grows an amazing variety of apples. We call her the "Apple Lady" because what she doesn't know about apples isn't worth knowing. The following day we milled and pressed all the apples, gaining 220 litres of juice. That is now fermenting well.
Unfortunately Apple Day at Acorn Bank was cancelled because the fields were water-logged. We had such a good day last year!
About two weeks after processing the apples, Alison Freeman from BBC's Look North came to film and interview us about apple wine. We had to get some apples from a third source so we could be filmed. In contrast to the crew of 6 for Countryfile, Alison was a one woman band! As yet it hasn't been shown.
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| Hilary's orchard |
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| Second picking - note use of Sainsburys boxes! |
Unfortunately Apple Day at Acorn Bank was cancelled because the fields were water-logged. We had such a good day last year!
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| Alison filming close-up of pressing |
Thursday, 6 October 2011
September news
We expect you've all been on tenterhooks, wondering who won the case of wine for the most popular picture. We can now reveal that it was Eddie Potts's picture of Nichol Chair. Congratulations, Eddie!
The Countryfile programme was shown on September 4th. We were only on for about 2 minutes and they didn't say who we were but we had a number of enquiries as a result. Even though the programme showed us only starting to make this year's wine and Matt giving Clare Balding "their last bottle" of last year's wine it didn't stop people ordering beetroot wine! We are going to have it ready by the beginning of November. It's certainly a fantastic colour!
We've had a busy month dealing with damsons and elderberries. Most of the damsons came from Colby but a few came from the walled garden at Highhead Castle, a fascinating ruin, owned by Christopher Terry. There has been such a bumper crop of damsons this year that we've had to turn people away. We crushed the damsons and they are now fermenting happily.
Elderberries are our least favourite fruit to harvest. So many bushes have a mixture of completely ripe fruit, completely unripe fruit and all states in between! This year we even found flowers with the berries! We have bushes in our field but we also have to go out on the lanes. Then we have to strip the berries off the stems with a fork. This is very labour intensive and monotonous, leaving us with purple hands, but we get a lot of TV watched!
As part of the Eden Artists Open Studios we visited Haydn Morris in Tirril. As a result we have agreed to make him some wine from his prolific harvest of grapes grown in a poly tunnel. They are now fermenting. Our Rondo grapes on the fellside are not in such good condition!
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| Eddie Potts with winning picture (photo from The Herald). |
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| Pressing beetroot. |
We've had a busy month dealing with damsons and elderberries. Most of the damsons came from Colby but a few came from the walled garden at Highhead Castle, a fascinating ruin, owned by Christopher Terry. There has been such a bumper crop of damsons this year that we've had to turn people away. We crushed the damsons and they are now fermenting happily.
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| Crushing damsons. |
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| Dense bunches of ripe elderberries. |
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| Flowers and berries on the same bush! |
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| Presssing Haydn's crushed grapes. |
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| Our Rondo grapes - waiting for the compost heap! |
Saturday, 3 September 2011
The last week
We had a stall at our local agricultural show of Dufton. Ron helped Angela set up and then cycled back to the winery to open. Angela had a successful day, only slightly marred by the incessant commentary from the nearby show jumping. She had no idea there were so many horse riders around. We did not enter any of the wonderful classes in the industrial tent like 'cake made by a man', 'the most items in a match box' and '3 carrots'.
The art exhibition finished on Bank Holiday Monday and the next week was occupied with taking down the exhibition and paying the artists who had sold works. We sold over 40% of the work, which in the present climate we are very pleased with.
We counted the votes for the favourite work of art and will announce the winner soon when we've told her/him and arranged how to publicise it. Watch this space!
We've also been pressing beetroot for our spiced beetroot wine. This has a spectacular purple colour which is seen here.
The art exhibition finished on Bank Holiday Monday and the next week was occupied with taking down the exhibition and paying the artists who had sold works. We sold over 40% of the work, which in the present climate we are very pleased with.
We counted the votes for the favourite work of art and will announce the winner soon when we've told her/him and arranged how to publicise it. Watch this space!
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| Our stall at Dufton Agricultural Show |
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| Dufton Show with Dufton Pike in the background |
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Countryfile
19th August: The BBC Countryfile film crew arrived. Two weeks earlier we'd found ourselves sitting on the next table to John Craven at Fusion Cafe, Brougham Hall. He was filming a programme called Britain at Risk, to be broadcast in 2012. On the way home we'd discussed an idea that Countryfile should make a programme about some of the businesses that had been awarded diversification grants after Foot and Mouth, to see how things had worked out. Not 30 minutes after we arrived home, Countryfile phoned! However they hadn't read our minds; this was a different idea. They wanted to be involved in making one of our wines, but the only one we make in August is our spiced beetroot wine. So when it came to filming, Matt Baker picked some beetroot at Carleton Farm near Penrith, and brought it to us to be made into our spiced beetroot wine. Matt helped Ron mill the washed beetroots and then pour the mush into a fermentation tank. Finally Matt tasted some beetroot wine we'd made earlier - our last bottle from 2010. It was all a good laugh with Matt being very willing to pose for our personal photo record taken by Sam, our son-in-law. Matt even put up with me standing on his dancing foot! No idea how much will be on TV but it's scheduled to be transmitted on Sept 4th.
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| Matt, Ron and Producer discussing next scene. |
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| Further discussion. |
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| Action - the beetroots are delivered! |
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| Watching the action. |
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| Preparing for the tasting. |
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| Shooting the tasting. |
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| Take 2. |
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| Angela treads on Matt's dancing feet! |
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| Matilda gets in on the act. |
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| Angela sells Matt some wine and flapjack. |
More Rhubarb
5th August: With the latest period of rain, rhubarb has made a comeback and so today we picked 26 kg of the stuff from the garden of Tirril Brewery (Thank you guys). Many of the stalks were monsters.
8th August: Another project which has been underway for almost a year is conversion of one of our barns into self-catering holiday lets. Today we progressed a bit further. We got really filthy clearing ancient straw and hay and rotten flooring from upstairs in the barn until customers arrived 45 minutes before opening time. What a quick change that was! We had such a busy day, I never washed properly till we closed.
8th August: Another project which has been underway for almost a year is conversion of one of our barns into self-catering holiday lets. Today we progressed a bit further. We got really filthy clearing ancient straw and hay and rotten flooring from upstairs in the barn until customers arrived 45 minutes before opening time. What a quick change that was! We had such a busy day, I never washed properly till we closed.
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
Verjuice and crime writing
We sold some more crab apple verjuice yesterday to someone who is a real enthusiast. She uses it for salad dressings, glazes and sauces. A restaurant in Bristol
The verjuice is used like lemon juice but it has only half the acidity, so it is not so harsh, and, of course, it has a delicious apple flavour. There are more details on our website. If anyone has discovered a good recipe using crab apple verjuice and is willing for us to include it on our website, please contact us.
June and July
Introduction
We started this blog at the beginning of August, but because we have had an eventful June and July we thought we would start by reviewing the previous two months.
Early June
We have been busy preparing for this year's art exhibition which is on the theme of the geology and scenery of High Cup Nick. High Cup Nick is a spectacular cut into the Pennines a short distance from the winery and attracts a lot of walkers throughout the year. It has inspired many artists over the years, including Turner. The art exhibition will run concurrently with a new geology display for which panels are being designed by Dr Elizabeth Pickett of the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnership. We have already seen the drafts of the geology panels and they are impressive. We are making the display tables and collating the rock and mineral samples. More than twenty artists have expressed interest and we are in danger of being overwhelmed with pictures; we hope that not every artist arrives with large format pictures.
15th June
Belinda Artinstoll from BBC Radio Cumbria came to record a feature. We wandered around the vineyard and winery discussing the problems of growing fruit and the techniques of making wine. The result will be a 10 minute slot to be broadcast on 26th June.
Spent the rest of the day organising the art - so much time is spent adjusting spacing and height of pictures. But it seems to have come together well and visitors will be able to see art using many different media.
17th June - 5.00 pm
The exhibitions were opened by local MP, Rory Stewart. There was a good turnout of people including many artists. After brief welcomes and introductions by myself and Chris Woodley-Stewart, Director of the North Pennines AONB Partnership, Rory opened the exhibitions with an impressive recitation of W.H.Auden's New Year Letter, which sent everyone, including us, to Google Auden!
W H Auden, a central figure of English poetry, wrote about Dufton, Dufton Pike, Dufton Fell, High Cup Nick and Cauldron Snout in his poems and letters. He referred to Dufton as ”......the loveliest village in allEngland New York Pennines , which highlights his fascination and obsession with the landscape around Dufton:
The Cumberland and Westmorland Herald published a good piece about the exhibitions and this has resulted in a lot of visitors today.
20th - 27th June
We finished laying the concrete floor to the wine store a week ago and so can now bottle the 2010 wines for storage there. We started on the rhubarb wine, which is urgently needed for the shop, and then followed with elderflower and apple, damson, elderberry, gooseberry and raspberry. We had to adjust the sugar content of the wines in order to reach a good balance and then spent a merry time tasting and checking the results. Only sales will show whether we have got it right.
27th June
Today we started the next batch of elderflower wine. Because of the very dry and warm spring the elderflowers are early this year so while we were bottling we sent our friends out to pick the flowers. They are now fermenting in one of the tanks (the flowers, not our friends!).
28th June
We took a trip to Arnside to re-supply Arnside House, on the promenade, with wine. On the way back we called in at Low Sizergh Barn to give the buyer a tasting. As a result she immediately ordered a case of each variety. We now have two outlets in South Cumbria. So - a successful day.
29th June
We dispatched two bottles of elderberry wine to a customer in London. She drinks elderberry wine for health reasons and she tells us that when she finished the first two bottles (from an earlier order) her cramps started to return! However, I don't think we can make this health-giving claim for the wine.
30th June
Stan Abbott and friends came to collect some wine we have made for some small producers of grapes from the Durham area. The wine started as a mix of white and red grapes and produced a light rosé wine. The group did a blind tasting with some French and South African rosé wines and it proved surprisingly difficult to tell which was the Northumbrian wine. Stan took a bottle into the studio at BBC Radio Newcastle where a wine expert actually thought quite highly of the wine!
Stan has set up a website for this wine, which incidentally is not for sale. See more at www.northumbrianwine.com
Later in the day David Murray visited the winery. He has included the visit in his blog Around England.
3rd July - Sunday
A very hot day. We were very busy for the first two hours - then no-one after 1.00 pm. Seems that everyone was watching the Wimbledon final!
12th July
We collected our new fridge magnets from the Fusion Café at Brougham Hall. They were made by a friend of the proprietors, Ann and Ian. If you don't know this café you should make a visit as we think Ann and Ian produce the best coffee and scones in the area. We always feel sad when we have finished eating and it is time to move on. Anyway, the fridge magnets look good - perhaps we should organise a fridge magnet trail around the Eden Valley.
17th July
We are now picking raspberries every three days. We have to do this or else the blackbirds will do the work for us! We have already picked 45 kg (almost a 100 lbs, for the metrically challenged). We are also continuing to harvest rhubarb which has recovered in the recent rain.
21st July
Gamblesby W.I. came for an evening talk and tasting. This is one of several groups who have visited over the last two months. A lively group with lots of questions.
25th July
The hot weather has prompted residents and visitors to Dufton to walk to the winery and sit outside drinking bottles of our wine and then walking or staggering back.
31st July
During the first six weeks there has been a lot of interest in the geology exhibition and we have had to re-stock with AONB leaflets which visitors are very eager to take. The art exhibition has also been well received and we have sold a substantial amount of the work.
In the fermentation room we now have batches of rhubarb, gooseberry, raspberry and elderflower wines fermenting. It is a challenge organising the operations so that there are always some empty tanks available for the bottling and filtering stages as we still have several batches of the previous year's wines to bottle.
We started this blog at the beginning of August, but because we have had an eventful June and July we thought we would start by reviewing the previous two months.
Early June
We have been busy preparing for this year's art exhibition which is on the theme of the geology and scenery of High Cup Nick. High Cup Nick is a spectacular cut into the Pennines a short distance from the winery and attracts a lot of walkers throughout the year. It has inspired many artists over the years, including Turner. The art exhibition will run concurrently with a new geology display for which panels are being designed by Dr Elizabeth Pickett of the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnership. We have already seen the drafts of the geology panels and they are impressive. We are making the display tables and collating the rock and mineral samples. More than twenty artists have expressed interest and we are in danger of being overwhelmed with pictures; we hope that not every artist arrives with large format pictures.
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| High Cup Nick |
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| View from the Nick towards the west |
Belinda Artinstoll from BBC Radio Cumbria came to record a feature. We wandered around the vineyard and winery discussing the problems of growing fruit and the techniques of making wine. The result will be a 10 minute slot to be broadcast on 26th June.
Spent the rest of the day organising the art - so much time is spent adjusting spacing and height of pictures. But it seems to have come together well and visitors will be able to see art using many different media.
17th June - 5.00 pm
The exhibitions were opened by local MP, Rory Stewart. There was a good turnout of people including many artists. After brief welcomes and introductions by myself and Chris Woodley-Stewart, Director of the North Pennines AONB Partnership, Rory opened the exhibitions with an impressive recitation of W.H.Auden's New Year Letter, which sent everyone, including us, to Google Auden!
W H Auden, a central figure of English poetry, wrote about Dufton, Dufton Pike, Dufton Fell, High Cup Nick and Cauldron Snout in his poems and letters. He referred to Dufton as ”......the loveliest village in all
Whenever I begin to think...
An English area comes to mind
I see the nature of my kind
As a locality I love
Those limestone moors that stretch from Brough
To Hexham and the Roman Wall
This is the symbol of us all
There where theEden
Its sandstone valley, is my view
Of green and civil life that dwells
Below a cliff of savage fells
From which original address
Man faulted into consciousness
Along the line of lapse the fire
Of life's impersonal desire
Burst through his sedentary rock
And, as at Dufton and at Knock
Thrust up between his mind and heart
Enormous cones of myth and art
Always my boy of wish returns
To those peat-stained deserted burns
That feed the Wear andTyne and Tees
And, turning states to strata see
How basalt long oppressed broke out
In wild revolt at Cauldron Snout
I see the nature of my kind
As a locality I love
Those limestone moors that stretch from Brough
To Hexham and the Roman Wall
This is the symbol of us all
There where the
Its sandstone valley, is my view
Of green and civil life that dwells
Below a cliff of savage fells
From which original address
Man faulted into consciousness
Along the line of lapse the fire
Of life's impersonal desire
Burst through his sedentary rock
And, as at Dufton and at Knock
Thrust up between his mind and heart
Enormous cones of myth and art
Always my boy of wish returns
To those peat-stained deserted burns
That feed the Wear and
How basalt long oppressed broke out
In wild revolt at Cauldron Snout
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| Rory reciting Auden |
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| A good turnout for the preview evening |
18th June - Saturday
The Cumberland and Westmorland Herald published a good piece about the exhibitions and this has resulted in a lot of visitors today.
20th - 27th June
We finished laying the concrete floor to the wine store a week ago and so can now bottle the 2010 wines for storage there. We started on the rhubarb wine, which is urgently needed for the shop, and then followed with elderflower and apple, damson, elderberry, gooseberry and raspberry. We had to adjust the sugar content of the wines in order to reach a good balance and then spent a merry time tasting and checking the results. Only sales will show whether we have got it right.
27th June
Today we started the next batch of elderflower wine. Because of the very dry and warm spring the elderflowers are early this year so while we were bottling we sent our friends out to pick the flowers. They are now fermenting in one of the tanks (the flowers, not our friends!).
28th June
We took a trip to Arnside to re-supply Arnside House, on the promenade, with wine. On the way back we called in at Low Sizergh Barn to give the buyer a tasting. As a result she immediately ordered a case of each variety. We now have two outlets in South Cumbria. So - a successful day.
29th June
We dispatched two bottles of elderberry wine to a customer in London. She drinks elderberry wine for health reasons and she tells us that when she finished the first two bottles (from an earlier order) her cramps started to return! However, I don't think we can make this health-giving claim for the wine.
30th June
Stan Abbott and friends came to collect some wine we have made for some small producers of grapes from the Durham area. The wine started as a mix of white and red grapes and produced a light rosé wine. The group did a blind tasting with some French and South African rosé wines and it proved surprisingly difficult to tell which was the Northumbrian wine. Stan took a bottle into the studio at BBC Radio Newcastle where a wine expert actually thought quite highly of the wine!
Later in the day David Murray visited the winery. He has included the visit in his blog Around England.
3rd July - Sunday
A very hot day. We were very busy for the first two hours - then no-one after 1.00 pm. Seems that everyone was watching the Wimbledon final!
12th July
We collected our new fridge magnets from the Fusion Café at Brougham Hall. They were made by a friend of the proprietors, Ann and Ian. If you don't know this café you should make a visit as we think Ann and Ian produce the best coffee and scones in the area. We always feel sad when we have finished eating and it is time to move on. Anyway, the fridge magnets look good - perhaps we should organise a fridge magnet trail around the Eden Valley.
17th July
We are now picking raspberries every three days. We have to do this or else the blackbirds will do the work for us! We have already picked 45 kg (almost a 100 lbs, for the metrically challenged). We are also continuing to harvest rhubarb which has recovered in the recent rain.
21st July
Gamblesby W.I. came for an evening talk and tasting. This is one of several groups who have visited over the last two months. A lively group with lots of questions.
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| A ladies group visiting during the exhibitions |
The hot weather has prompted residents and visitors to Dufton to walk to the winery and sit outside drinking bottles of our wine and then walking or staggering back.
31st July
During the first six weeks there has been a lot of interest in the geology exhibition and we have had to re-stock with AONB leaflets which visitors are very eager to take. The art exhibition has also been well received and we have sold a substantial amount of the work.
 |
| View of geology display and part of the art exhibition |
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| View of art exhibition in the other part of the tasting area |
In the fermentation room we now have batches of rhubarb, gooseberry, raspberry and elderflower wines fermenting. It is a challenge organising the operations so that there are always some empty tanks available for the bottling and filtering stages as we still have several batches of the previous year's wines to bottle.
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