Now that the apple season has died down a wee bit, and I don’t have people coming up to me and asking me if I want their apples, and with Christmas rushing up fast I have had a bit of time to think of the future.
We only started selling the juice in May of this year, and already we are passed the 4000 bottle mark and still finding it fun(!) so what for next year?
Well, first off in January is a session with the accountant to assess where she tells us where we are…..and not us hoping we are where we think we are! Still with me?
Provided that is OK, then we will be introducing some new products to the shop and to our sales range. Obviously everything that we do has to have a connection to apples, and so what is obvious is that we make apple jellies. So far we have 3 on the agenda-Bramley (with a hint of cinnamon), Granny Smith (with hint of cinnamon) and Cox. The first two also are available with out any hint of anything!
Very recently, a colleague who makes a truly superb Ginger Bread, has suggested one with apples and so, I will give him some apples, let him loose in his kitchen and see what comes out. After all, apples and ginger do make a good combination. Watch this space to see what happens.
MORE INTERESTING SITE
I am also very well aware that this site is all about reading not many pictures to help alleviate my droning on. So in the New Year I’m going to take, and put on, more photos on the site.
CUDDYBRIDGE APPLE CLOTHING
You may have noticed that Home page has a wee line about Cuddybridge Apple Clothing. Well why not have a wee look. It is a web site that allows you to buy some clothes at a competitive price and at the sametime carry around the name of ‘Cuddybridge-an apple squashed in Scotland’.It’s all in very good taste!
ON-LINE SHOP
Hopefully I will have up and running a proper order form and pages from which you will be able to buy our products.
The present one has been altered so that ordering is easier,but it does not contain the full range.
We have 5 varieties of juice, 5 different apple jellies and Apple and cranberry relish. We also have a range of my daughter’s Herbal Teas and some very good Red Onion marmalade and a vinagrette to die for! The last two are made by Val Brunton who also owns The Sunflower Restaurant in Peebles and who has been a great source of encouragement to me during our formative months.
There will be many more items to add to the shopping list if they all work out OK, and the Environmental Health dept are happy with the results, so keep coming back to see what’s new.
OUR PRESS (Main Picture)
When I’ve been to Apple Days during the year, I’ve been asked about the press and where I got it from. The simple answer is, from my head in terms of design, and from Workington in terms of manufacture!
I now have a very good engineering company in Galashiels which is only 12 miles away not 120 miles as was the case with Workinton.
Anyway to cut a long story short, I am going to desig and make a new press but also I hope to make a smaller version of the hand press that I have at the moment-about 2/3rds smaller. I’ve had approx 11 requests for a smaller, much more manageable, press for people who have a number of apples trees in their garden and who hate to see good apples go to waste in the autumn.
Because it will be all stainless steel and therefor very easy to clean and no trouble with rust during the year, it will be ideal for a wide range of customers. Don’t know what the price will be, or when the first one be ready,the dark nights of the winter are a great breeding ground for ideas and for sourcing materials etc, already for the ideas to be built in the early spring.
When the great day dawns for the unveiling of the Mark 2 mini press I really will have some good photos taken and for them to appear first on this blog. If you are interested in a small domestic press, then let me have your details and I’ll let you know when we have the prototype and the cost. You can then see if the press would suit you.
As far as I’m aware there are not too many Scottish fruit presses being built in stainless steel, so you could be a ‘pressing pioneer’!
WHITMUIR ORGANIC FARM SHOP
Now I know that I run the risk of people suggesting that I’m publicising just one of our customers, but Whitmuir Organic Shop are customers of mine in two senses. They sell Cuddybridge Apple juice which is good for me ,but I take up to them all my pomace from the pressings and feed it to their pigs, so really we both win!
They have just opened a huge, new, organic farm shop and if you are in, or near, the area then I suggest that you stop and go into the place. It is superbly laid out, with room to shop without getting in other shoppers way. Their own organic meats are very tempting, and having tried some, I can vouch that they taste excellent. A large and well appointed coffee shop/restaurant has a menu that appealed to me and I’m not into organic food!
If you don’t want to eat, then spend time in the gallery- why are good things always just outside my price range!
Good luck to them, I really hope that the new shop does well-it’s the sort of place that the Borders need, in order to show off what’s on offer in the region.
Whitmuir,The Organic Place,Lamancha,West Linton, Eh46 7BB. Tel:01968 661908. www.whitmuirtheorganicplace.co.uk
The SPRING Offensive!
At long last we are coming out of winter, and the nights are getting shorter, the snowdrops are appearing and Orders are starting to come in with a vengeance! Whilst it was not too bad in the post Christmas period, I do get a little bored if there are no orders coming in. I begin to wonder if its something about the juice, or has someone else taken some of my accounts.
Not to fear, I’m now beginning to think that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
During the quiet time I’ve had a chance to really look at our pasteurisation issue. We had been almost sterilising our juice with too high a temp and for too long. We have brought it down after consulting a superb private laboratory that opened a couple or years ago in the next village of Walkerburn.
Its called Ashwoods, and the owner and brains behind the company is Denise Ashwood.
I spent a whole afternoon with her and two of her technicians, and what an afternoon I had! They were amazing with the depth and width of knowledge they had, and with the aid of computer and books had the whole thing sorted out. It’s also good to be able to ask all those stupid little questions that you want to know the answers to, but there was no one about to answer them!
It’s true-if you want to find the answers go and ask the professionals.
We are still chasing a number of large accounts and as soon as I know they are in the bag then you will the first to know!
We have also put in for a couple of industry awards. I think we are in with as good a chance as anyone, so again keep looking in around April, to see if we got anywhere.
