Published in Ferment magazine, 30 December 2019
I visited fine cider makers Susanna and James Forbes, who run Little Pomona cidery, to see how the harvest was going in their orchard.
After a long run of dull grey days, the autumn sun has returned to Herefordshire. In response, the countryside has put on its Sunday best and once-distant slopes, shorn of their mist, seem close at hand.
Susanna and James showed me how they take care at every step to maintain the highest quality in their fruit, and the juice that comes from it. This matters because they don’t add anything else.
“It’s the only ingredient that we have, so they’re pretty vital to the whole process,” says James. “We need to ensure a number of things. A, that we’re picking from good orchards. B, that we’re picking fruit that’s in great condition, and that we’re pressing it when it’s ripe. And if we do that, we stand a really good chance of making something that tastes good at the end of the process. If we don’t do that, then we’ll never make anything taste great.”