VENTONS DEVON CYDER

Mark and Sharon Venton moved to their smallholding in Clyst St Lawrence, East Devon in 2006 and upon clearing the overgrown grounds, uncovered two old apple orchards. Rather than waste the apples, they borrowed a hand-turned crusher and small basket style press to make small batches of Cyder in an old stable... Although complete novices, they were inspired by the results and in the thrird year Mark found some Victorian press ironwork on a reclamation site, bought a freshly felled oak tree and built a large Oak twin screw press with the green oak, which could hold over 1 tonne of crushed apples per pressing or per 'cheese' as it is called in the trade. Using the traditional Devon method of pressing crushed apples between layers of straw and fermenting the juice in oak barrels with wild yeasts, they filled several barrels and went on to win the 2009 and 2010 Devon County Show first prize for Dry Farmhouse Cyder at the first and second times of entering the competition. It got people..

Primary location: Cullompton United Kingdom