A cider producing business in Herefordshire has said that it is supporting local farmers with more income streams, following its success stepping up its production.
Paul Stephens, who owns Newton Court in Herefordshire, has said that he managed to diversify his cider-making business by refurbishing its on-farm shop and creating a state of the art visitor centre and café.
Through the success of the transformations, he says he is offering local farmers further income streams, with the addition of new production facilities, the farm now purchases up to 180 tonnes of cider fruit per year from surrounding farms.
This benefits 15 local farming businesses by offering them a valuable outlet for their apples and, for some, this has created new revenue opportunities.
“We’ve been able to increase our production to meet the demands of the sales from our new café and visitor centre, and this growth allows us to buy more apples from local farmers,” said Mr Stephens.
Mr Stephens says they have been making cider of the farm for 24 years. Originally the business sold around 7000 litres per year, but now they produce a whopping 100,000 litres, with customers over the UK and overseas.
He adds that they’ve also recently had the opportunity to restore forgotten orchards to their former glory, by taking on a local orchard of Major apples, a rare variety.
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“The orchard was in serious disrepair and hadn’t been used for a number of years. We took it on, pruned the trees, tidied it up and now we get a good harvest from it to go into our cider.
“I’m passionate about farming apples and think that traditional farming methods like this need to be preserved. By restoring this orchard, I feel we are keeping a part of our farming history alive,” he said.
“Hereford has a strong history of growing quality cider fruit as our soil and topography are perfectly suited to growing top fruit. We’re lucky to have access to a diverse selection of varieties, which gives our cider an edge, and it’s important to me that we can keep this going.”
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