Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2007 | Page 99

FOOD & DRINK

life

whole fruit and I turn some
varieties into chutneys.

Mark: This must be your
busiest time of year?
Joe: Yes it is certainly the
start of our busy time. This
year’s crop began especially
early; we started to pick our
discovery variety in August.
It was the earliest pressing
since we began in 1995.
Sharon: On pressing the
discovery apples the juice
came out pink. Although this
has happened before, the
colour normally fades, but this
year it has stayed, resulting in a
beautiful pale pink apple juice.
We have put it into clear bottles
instead of our usual green to
show off the fantastic colour.

Mark: How long does
picking go on for?
Joe: We pick from late August
right through to early December,
the suntan variety being the
last apple we harvest.
Sharon: We have been known
to pick suntan even after all the
leaves have fallen off the trees.

Mark: Once picked,
what next?
Joe: The apples are collected
and then we process. First
they are put into the machine
that pulps them, this pulp is
then fed into the mechanical
press. The juice is extracted
leaving a cake that is used
to fertilise the land, although
anyone with pigs is welcome
to take the apple cake away.
Sharon: The juice is collected
and pumped in a 1000 litre tank.
At this point, most producers
leave the juice to settle and
clear but we filter and put it into
the pasteuriser immediately
giving us out distinctive cloudy
apple juice. From there it is
bottled in 250cl, 750cl bottles
and 3,5 and 20-litre bag in box.

Mark: So how much
apple juice does you
produce every year?
Joe: Bottled juice production

alone is over 25,000 litres,
with cider running at about
2500 litres. With bag in
box production we are
probably at about 32,000
litres a year in total.
Sharon: We still have to
screw all the lids on by hand
but recent acquisition of
new machinery has eased
the strain of production. A
DEFRA grant helped us to
upgrade the equipment which
has speeded up production
allowing me more time to make
mustards and chutneys.

amazing as they do this with
very little outside assistance.
They manage the orchard,
pick all the apples, process,
bottle, label and sell the
finished products with minimal
help and mostly by hand.
In conclusion, to answer my

original question of how many
apples can one person deal
with, in the case of Sharon and
Joe it is over 4000 trees worth.

Mark: What drives you
to keeping up this
demanding schedule?
Joe: I love going to markets
and shows, meeting people
and talking to them about
what we do, getting feedback
from happy customers
is the best reward any
producer of food can get.
Sharon: It is the same for me.
The satisfaction of planting
a tree, nurturing it until able
to harvest and then taking
the fruit to the end user is a
great way to make a living.

Joe and Sharon are another fine
example of dedicated people
producing great food on the
Island. Their feat is all the more

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