Wildling

Wildling Cider Year 1 started back in 2014, with an advert in the window of a shop in Newton Abbott asking about apples and finished a couple of weeks ago when I dropped the last of the cider off at the Bree Louise pub in Euston. It's been astonishingly unprofitable but great fun. The insurance alone ate through well over half my earnings and that's before tax, but it was thoroughly rewarding to have discovered that someone had bought the first pint between me dropping the cider off and quickly parking the car up. I never met them. I did meet the second guy and I got a photo, I think he thought I was a bit odd. I bought the third pint myself and learnt a valuable lesson in pricing,  here are a few of the other things I've learnt: Getting your level 2 in food safety is ridiculously, scarily, worryingly easy Bucket presses are very very inefficient as is a hand-turned scratter, I was very thankful for the kit that I rented from Orchard Link There is something lovely ab

I've been making cider for a few years now using apples donated by farmers down in Devon. It's amazing how many apples just end up rotting into the ground as people don't have the time to pick them up. I've learnt loads and created enough to keep me and my friends in booze. But my dream has always been to create something I can sell, so this year I'm going for it. Unfortunately it's not as simple as taking a barrel and standing on a street corner.  I've spent the last few months jumping my way through all the various government-devised hoops to enable me to simply go and ask someone if they'll buy it off me. This is very limited edition, it'll be a fair few years before I'm doing anything to scare Mr Magners or even cover my costs but everyone has to start somewhere. I'll put more down over the next few weeks about what's involved and ultimately, come April, if I can convince anyone to buy it.  But right now, on the 4th of Ja