Orchards are havens of biodiversity, home to literally hundreds of species of fauna, flora and funga and in a world where loss of biodiversity is as serious an issue as climate change, traditional orchards take on a significance at odds with their recent decline. Of this once familiar feature of Gloucestershire’s rural landscape, a huge proportion - about 70% - of traditional orchards have disappeared from the county since their zenith in the the 1950s and 1960s, a result of changes in agriculture, urban expansion, as well as the way supermarkets buy fruit … but also in the way cider is made in this country; by far the largest user of apples in the nation, the methods and practises of large cider-makers have a real impact on the relevance, or otherwise, of all orchards, including traditional orchards.

Defined as “a collection of five or more fruit (or nut) trees, planted on vigorous rootstocks at low density within permanent pasture and managed in a low intensity way”, traditional orchards are far more than collections of fruit trees. They are a mosaic of habitats; mosses and lichen thrive on ageing bark, hollow trunks of ancient trees and the nooks and crannies of fast-maturing wood provide invaluable and increasingly rare shelter for birds, bats and all manner of invertebrates. The surrounding wildflower pastures offer sustenance for bees and other pollinators. Scrub, log-piles, fallen trees, the surrounding hedges and the occasional pond provide yet more habitat for myriad creatures that call orchards their home. All told, traditional orchards are one of the most biodiverse habitats in the country, a fact of increasing importance in a country often cited as being one of the most nature depleted nations on Earth.

By making cider and juice from fruit gathered from these orchards, we help sustain them. Although small in scale, the simple fact of our existence, our interest in orchards and the unsprayed fruit that comes from them, allied to the resulting purchase of a few tonnes of fruit each year, does make a difference, a reminder to land-owners that their old orchards can still be relevant, are still useful, do still have some financial value, along with their landscape and cultural importance, as well as, of course, their value to wildlife.

And, as though to repay the favour, these old orchards sustain our interest in cider-making. They are home to rare and unusual varieties of fruit, fruit that reflects the land in which it is grown, the soil and the underlying rock, the shape and slope of the ground, the wind and the weather, also that reflects the place and the people who first discovered these varieties or first raised them, sometimes by accident, but also by way of deliberate effort and experiment. Dymock Red, Cambridge Quoining, Ballast Apple, Ashmead’s Kernel, may not be of any interest to large commercial cider-makers in search of consistency, less complex products and fatter, more expansive bottom-lines, but to us they of of inestimable value, offering difference and rarity and a glimpse into the rich tradition of fruit-growing, not only in Gloucestershire but in surrounding counties as well.

Though the process of harvesting fruit by hand may be slow, laborious and back-breaking, these old orchards are, by and large, beautiful and tranquil places in which to pass the time; productivity may be low, but contentment is high. Whether you think our ciders are good, bad or indifferent, our ciders are a reflection of these ancient orchards and the fruit that comes from them, a product of the geography and geology of Gloucestershire. We hope you enjoy them and think all that slow, laborious, back-breaking work is worthwhile,