On Wednesday, we went to Healey's Cyder Farm near Newquay. We took the tour which shows us around the brewery part and the museum which showed the history of making cider. The apples used to be put in a stone basin and a donkey would walk around, pulling a stone wheel to mash the apples. Some would spill out and the cider makers would just shovel it up and pput it back in. (Remember the donkey is walking around etc.) Nice. Apparentely the droppings made the cider brew quicker so they even went to the point of nailing pieces of meat around the area to acttract mice and rate etc. Lovely! However, in that time, the cider was still safer to drink than the water. Which is where the saying "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" comes from. Now why did no one tell me the apple was in the cider form? :-)
Some of the ciders are stored in old whiskey or rum barrels in the cellors to create the reserve ciders. They are brewed whiskey there a few years ago, the first time in 300 yrs that whiskey has been brewed in Cornwall. They auctions the bottles of. The first bottle sold for over £2000! The rest went for £150 a bottle.
We also got a tractor tour around the orchards. The orchards were lovely and the blue bells are out along the road. And they have my apples!
After that, we went back to the shop and got a free cyder tasting. We tried about 10 different ciders, from scrumpy and the normal oak barrel matured cider, to the Rattler cider (the latest production from Healey's and very nice), the the reserves which were amazing, especially the ones form the whiskey barrels. They also make some fruit wines which were nice but not the best wine I have tasted. I wanted to try the apple brandy but they were way too expensive. (Maybe next time.) We got some of the reserve ciders, some apple juice and some of the jams they also make there. I didn't take any photos as I was too busy sampling! :-)
On the site there were also some farm animals. Storm the horse is a shire horse and was born on a stormy morning. (His brother Sunny was born on, you guessed it, a sunny morning!) And Storm was definitely a male horse. The phrase "hung like a horse" took on a whole new meaning!!! :-) (Mom wouldn't let me take a photo.)
After the cider farm, we went into Truro and I had all my hair cut off! It wasn't the cider talking, just time. And it was annoying me. :-)
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| Their motto! |
We also got a tractor tour around the orchards. The orchards were lovely and the blue bells are out along the road. And they have my apples!
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| Ready for Katy apple cider |
On the site there were also some farm animals. Storm the horse is a shire horse and was born on a stormy morning. (His brother Sunny was born on, you guessed it, a sunny morning!) And Storm was definitely a male horse. The phrase "hung like a horse" took on a whole new meaning!!! :-) (Mom wouldn't let me take a photo.)
After the cider farm, we went into Truro and I had all my hair cut off! It wasn't the cider talking, just time. And it was annoying me. :-)
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