Welcome To The Mahorall Farm Cider Blog

I have to say that 2013 has been a year to remember for all sorts of reasons. Looking back on the year it has been one huge roller coaster and I have loved every minute of it! This year has been very good for for all sorts of reasons and one is how generous mother nature can be with harvests. As Autumn approached we were blessed with a great crop of damsons on the farm which was a great relief. Had some lovely weather to pick them too and really enjoyed the experience. On one side of a particular hedgerow there is one of the best views on the farm overlooking into Herefordshire. With the fine weather, lovely extensive views, solitary bliss and eating fresh damsons like sweets! Fond memories indeed! The shows have been very good overall in 2013 and the great weather certainly helped. We really only attended the shows we knew should be pretty good and also due to the new addition to the family we wanted to see how the year would turn out. We have some new ones planned for 2014 thoug...

And what a summer we have had so far! After what seems like an eternity of cloud, the sun came out and has stayed out! I know the heat can be hard work but on the whole I am loving it. I have not even been burnt - yet.... Hay has been made on one field quite early this year. I felt I had to seize the opportunity with the glorious spell of good weather considering the nightmare the weather was last year. Despite all the vintage machinery that I use continually playing up during the whole process, I managed to make a very quick 280 bales all my own and get it in. And yes it was made super quick due to the extraordinary heat that lasted well into the evening.I am leaving our wildlife meadow for late cut of hay to allow nature such as butterflies and moths to enjoy it. I watched a lovely springwatch program the other night which highlighted the loss of meadows and how much diversity can be extinguished so quickly which can have a big knock on effect. Makes us proud that we have several...

Ok I am certainly guilty of not staying on top of this Blogging BUT my little life has been ram packed with stuff going on since January... I am now a new dad to a lovely little boy born in March! Urgent plans had to happen to make more space in the house which involved building some sort of outside office for me to function. It has taked for ever to build and went fiercely over budget but not only do I have a boy but I am a proud owner of an official man cave in the garden. Wow! - its great and so much space to at least feel prepared to get sorted and to plan for the next few months. So apologies to everyone but I am slowly getting back to normality again! So we have had one of the most awful start to the year with the weather.. but finally we are starting to see some sun again albeit sporadically and the cider drinking season is now well under way. We have only been to a couple of shows but we were very lucky with the weather and there were good turnouts for both shows. No real ...

Winter time posting  Sorry for the delay in posting but my last effort which I tried to do in December disappeared in front of my eyes in the process of posting! A little disappointing to say the least… Anyway we have got through the Christmas season as well as cidermaking and we are here plump in the middle of January. As I write there is snow blowing around outside. Cidermaking 2012 – Not the best season we have had in all honesty. Apple crop was a little slim on the ground and the apples were considerably smaller and contained less sugar. We had thought we had done a deal on 10 tons of apples from a local businessman who had some orchards and plenty of apples which we were quite excited about. Time went on and we repeatedly contacted him to see what was happening as it was unuasually quiet. Then we found out that he had not got around to telling his man in charge of the orchards and the apples had been since sold to someone else! Beggars belief and it will be the l...

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 ...