Welcome To The Mahorall Farm Cider Blog

Well here is another posting to anyone who is vaguely interested...! This whole year has been hard work to say the least mainly due to the weather and plans not going as well as I would have hoped. There have certainly been upsides but it has been a bit of a slog on the whole.. We have however been pleased with the shows on the whole and we still have a few left to do on the run up to Christmas. One plus point is that the whole range of ciders have done remarkably well indeed and we have found it tricky to keep up. We are still unable to offer the whole range of ciders both through our retail outlets or online which is disappointing but it is a lot of work just keeping up with the demand from the shows particularly and the farm shop. We also have the situation that certain ingredients are finite as in the elderflower and also our damson crop has utterly failed this autumn.  Hay making has been hard work too trying to find a slot of decent weather. I planned to make 4 fields to...

Yes I am aware that it has been some time since I have posted.. to be honest I was very close to abandoning my little Blog for several reasons however if anyone is interested I have had a change of heart for the meantime.... This years spring and early summer has of course been quite hard work due to the weather. The farm has experienced falling water, moving water and standing water like never before... Luckily only a small amount of damage has happened as a result. I feel for the people who have really suffered. The farm track was ripped apart down to the foundations and we had several barns that flooded albeit only a small amount. I have never known the water table be so high. Below is a photo of the farm trail boardwalk which usually only has a trickle of water going underneath it. The plus side is that we have been very lucky with the shows due to a break in the weather. Ellesmere and Oswestry were a great success! We also went to an event at Battlefield farm shop at Shrewsbur...

I love this time of year! Not only is the countryside waking up with spring but we have summer to look forward to as well. Heck - lots of things going on and only some I can talk about freely !! The toilets have had the electricity supply uprated so there is now hot water for the sinks in both of them and also there is a shower too! I still have to do the tray and also the walls of the shower but that can come later. I have been spending a great deal of time in the barn and I am very pleased with the progress. It was however unfortunate that during the spell of the lovely weather we had, I was painting the inside of the beams right up in the top of the shed which was really hot, and the fumes from the paint did not help either. I have spent quite a bit of time installing a false wall at the back of the new 'Wagon Bar' which adjoins the main barn. With the addition of over 30 Wheel Back chairs from ebay it is taking shape and as time goes on it will get better and better. I am ...

2012... Not a great start to 2012. I was hoping for a gentle cushioned entry to the new year with the essence of a bit of relaxing and clearing of ones head. I had great Christmas time and also a fun new years eve around at some friends house. A couple of weeks into January and it all seemed to implode slightly. The van required a lot of work to get through the MOT which was an unfortunate surprise. It seems to have suddenly gone downhill. So the hunt is on for another van. This was a shame as we were wanting to have a whole load of bottling done and deliveries etc. The discovery's head gasket blew at the same time and I also had to wade through my accounts to submit my tax return for the end of January. I never find January an easy month as the days are of course quite short and the countryside while sometimes it can look great in the winter is usually quite drab and dirty. It should be a time for us to regroup and do lots of planning. We have started to book a few shows for the f...