Cider making in SE1

Oh, and I meant to say that another thing that would be good if cider-people could think about in advance of Monday would be are there any weekends when we absolutely can't do the pressing?

I imagine that there'll be an earliest possible date (I'm estimating mid-Oct, but this is a wild guess), which will be when the apples are ready, and that we'll want to do it a little after that (to let them soften a bit), but not too long after that (i.e. before they start to go rotten, given that they're probably not going to be stored all non-touching and that we should therefore not expect them to keep foreverr), and that we'll also be trading off against the weather getting worse the nearer we get to Christmas, and the natural desire to get cracking ASAP.

It may work out that we get very little leeway in when we make it, but if there are any absolutely verboten weekends, then Monday's the time to put in your claim.

definately, positively, can't do August 7th weekend, or the two weekends after that - though having looked at the calendar to make sure have realised that these are two months before October anyway, and so once again I've posted a completely useless post....

never mind eh!

I saw that course before Ivanhoe, I thought it a bit pricey, although it's in a fabulous spot. I've got myself invited to a pressing in the Forest later this year, we'll be using a stone cider mill (presumably powered by a horse) which should be very interesting.

Yes. It is a bit pricey, and we don't exactly need x litres of apple juice given that we're going to have umpteen gallons of our own.

I do intend to go down to Cheam though, as the bloke there said that if he gets a few days notice, he'll copy the course notes for me. There might be something useful in there.

This all sounds really great. We seem to be getting our act together at last. I will speak to Emma about dates too.

Do you make cider from dates? funny, I thought it was made from apples - but then I'm rather naive.

The apples tell us when we do our cider, we're going to have to have a bit of flexibility here. Don't book anything until we know what the crop's like. We're obviously looking at a weekend during October/November, but we'll not know for sure which weekend until nearer the time. If we go for the Gloucestershire apples, I shall be keeping a close eye on things and give regular reports on their condition.

Fat load of use I'd be as a farmer... here am I hurrying you all on thinking apples get ripe in August or September or something. Now we're getting it together I'm impatient and dont want to wait till October/November. Perhaps we should try pressing those dates. Or do a trip to the west country, which I would like to be properly introduced to.

I don't think you get dates in Somerset

I think you have to read London South Central Magazine to find out where to get dates.