Blackberry fruit.
Massive blackberry bush.
Unwanted introduced plants in NZ an our orchard - wild blackberry a widespread, highly invasive plant found across NZ especially roadsides & forest margins A fast growing prickly, perennial shrub that bears fruit in early autumn. They are a significant ecological threat, requiring ongoing control
Perry pear called βAlexβ.
The perry pears are coming along nicely. Harvest soon. This is one I call Alex after scion wood the late Alex Peckham gave me several years ago. I hope to make a Single varietal perry perry from it this year as a good crop. Good tannins and forms the backbone of our Home Block perry #perry #Aotearoa
At TeePee Cidery we decide to establish bumblebees at Beau Vita orchard in 2020 as they are the heavy lifters in the bee world for apples and pears. We imported them from Hawkes Bay. They are still here, many generations on,I was pleased to see they now have a nest under a shed. #bumblebee #orchard
Snow on the Tararua ranges yesterday ranges.
Itβs cold at the cidery! A polar vortex has spun cold and wild weather over NZ. Snow on the Tararua ranges yesterday well that was a surprise. This morning clear skies but fog and sunny only 5Β°C! A high is settling over NZ for the next few days. Unusual for the end of summer. #wairarapa #weather
Yellow admiral butterfly.
Yellow admiral butterfly.
Butterflies of Beau Vista orchard the yellow admiral Vanessa itea is native to Australia & NZ/Aotearoa The MΔori name is kahukΕwhai - yellow cloak It is thought the New Zealand ones were carried here on the wind from Australia It is a strong flier and long lived up to several months. #butterfly
Painting of apple harvesting.
Close up of pointillism.
Camille Pissarroβs painting βApple Harvest at Eragnyβ, housed in the Dallas Museum of Art, is a pointillism masterpiece. The painting uses small dots of red, green, and yellow Painted in 1888, this work dates to a period when Pissarro was experimenting with the techniques of Georges Seurat. #apples
At Beau Vista orchard we strive for a traditional way to manage the ecology Grazing sheep balances pests and nutrients through ecological relationships rather than external inputs such as fertiliser & pesticides to control pests that get out of control with intensive farming. #farming #orchard
Illustration of man grafting.
Winslow Homer began his career working as a commercial illustrator. Born in 1836 he became prominent American oil painter. Winslow Homer captured the practical side of orchard life in this wood engraving "Spring Farm Work-Grafting" published in Harper's Weekly, Apr 30 1870. #apple #grafting #art
Yesterday I made a longer article that does not fit easily on social media, but itβs an interesting insight on marketing of iconic brands and worth a read especially if you donβt know this manβs name. Below is the link to it on our website. #cider #champagne #vodka #marketing
Sadly the cider world has just lost a major figure. Ted Brunning a writer on drinks wrote this major book on cider history in 2012. He lived in Cambridge. Sadly I never got to meet him but we corresponded frequently. π’ #cider
Road closed barrier.
On the way to the cidery! This is not good for business π€ͺ. However itβs just Carterton District Council being cautious about flooding. First time I have seen the barriers being used and ironically no flooding (just) this time. #cider #flooding #barrier #roadclosed
Roto-jolly in use.
Post riddling.
Another batch of the new 375 cL βchampagneβ bottles of cider being riddled and disgorged. #rotojolly #cider #methodtraditional #riddling #disgorging
Flooding close to the current site of TeePee Cidery 1920.
Flooding close to TeePee Cidery 2018.
Living on the Taratahi alluvial plain in Wairarapa flooding is frequent The bush has been cut down and the swamps cleared but heavy rain in the Tararua hills overwhelms drainage given the flatness of the land. Flood protection covers the towns but not us on the rural land. Photos from 1920 and 2018
Twilight over the nature reserve.
Twilight in Wairarapa. Pink glow to the clouds as another day slips by over the nature reserve near Beau Vista orchard. The colours deepen. The ever changing appearance of the pond through the seasons is delightful. Now early autumn. #Wairarapa #Twilight
Carterton sign in a field at sunset.
Carterton. Our local rural town in Wairarapa. Population 6000. It was founded in 1857 and originally known as Three Mile Bush. It was later renamed Carterton after Charles Rooking Carter who was a pioneer here and politician in Wellington . #Wairarapa #Carterton #Taratahi
Old stumper to remove tree stumps.
After the dense bush of the Wairarapa around Carterton of tΕtara, rimu, rΔtΔ and mataΔ« were cut down and logged from around the 1870s the land was turned in pastoral ( beef and sheep) and dairy farms. The large stumps needed to be cleared. This stumper was one way used. #history #farming #aotearoa
Old photo of apple collecting in a Herefordshire orchard.
βClimactericβ Descriptive term for fruits that continue to ripen after being harvested, caused by a sharp increase in respiration and ethylene production during ripening such as apples Hence the best apples for cider making are those that fall from the tree, then collected and processed later #cider
Dalefield Road in 1989. All the bush cleared.
Teepee Cider is on Dalefield Road However the road was not always called that Originally it was Arnoldβs Line After clearing SH2 through the dense Wairarapa bush surveyors would set straight lines off it and often name them after local land holders In this case John Arnold. It was renamed in 1980.
Civil defence warning.
Power outages today.
Teepee Cider backyard.
Local stream in flood. Yesterday afternoon it was hardly a trickle.
We got a civil defence emergency text last night. And it was spot on. A wild night with wind and rain. Beau Vista orchard fared well considering. Power stayed on. And we (just) avoided flooding. We fared better than most in the region. #nature #storm #wairarapa
Disused Dalefield Dairy factory.
Dalefield Wairarapa. Now just a disused dairy factory, a rural school, community hall built 1898, several farms and of course the home of TeePee Cider. Originally a logging town, followed by early agricultural expansion, & renowned for its dairy factory which began exporting cheese in 1887. #dairy
Rain map of area.
Thunderstorms came though yesterday. Itβs hot and humid and was threatening rain. Then Carterton was in the bullseye of an intense storm coming v in from the NW. Prudently we cut the orchard grass for the last time before the harvest. Finished half an hour before the rain. #orchard #rain #apples
Twilight view over the Wairarapa plain looking east from Teepee Cidery.
Twilight last night at the cidery. Nearing the end of a weekβs run of good weather. Thunderstorms and cold forecast later today. Luckily we are doing inside jobs for a bit. #apples #cider #cidery #Wairarapa #NZCider
Heavy laden cider apple tree.
The cider apple trees are becoming heavy laden with fruit This cooler wetter summer weather has been good for fruit development but now we need more sunshine to up the sugar content and flavour aroma development over the next month or so Some auto-thinning has been going on #apples #cider #Wairarapa
Following on from yesterdayβs post the bardβs drunken escapade slept off under a crab apple tree, he seems to have a poor attitude to apples. His most famous apple quote is "There's small choice in rotten apples" from The Taming of the Shrew Act 1, Scene 1, meaning all options are equally poor.
Shakespeareβs crab apple tree.
The Falcon inn Bidford upon Avon.
OS map.
Shakespeare once slept drunk under a crab apple tree after drinking at the Falcon Inn at Bidford upon Avon On waking Will uttered this epigram of local villages
βPiping Pebworth, Dancing Marston,
Haunted Hillboro, Hungry Grafton,
Dodging Exhall, Papist Wixford,
Beggarly Broom and Drunken Bidfordβ
Chemical diagram of Phloretin.
Craft cider contains antioxidant polyphenols These fight free radicals & reduce disease But are they absorbed into the body?
Scientists led by Serena Marks at the Uni of Glasgow have shown this with phloretin-2'-O-glucoside in plasma ileal fluid & urine and showing uptake and excretion. #chemistry
First year growth.
Second year flower spike.
Plants of Beau Vista orchard. The Common Mullein or Verbascum thapsus is a naturalised biennial plant in New Zealand from Europe commonly found on roadsides and disturbed ground. Recognized by its soft, felt-like, silver-grey rosettes and tall, yellow-flowered spike in its 2nd year. #Botany #weeds
New wooden base plate for Roto-Jolly.
Teepee cider is introducing a new range of method cider. In 375 ml βhalfβ bottles that are more popular in restaurants. This requires some re-tooling such as a new base plate for the Roto-Jolly. #methodtraditional #cider #bottles
