TeePee Cider

Potassium (Potash) is the primary nutrient in wood ash. Potassium is vital for regulating the water balance in fruit trees, aiding sugar transport, and driving fruit production.

Ash contains high levels of calcium carbonate (the active ingredient in lime), which strengthens cell walls and prevents physiological disorders like bitter pit in apples, and promotes strong root and leaf development. There is also some extra calcium from bones of any sheep that have died during the year. We keep our Shropshire sheep for live, several have now reached old age at 13 years and have died. These are added to the bonfire. Ash also provides supplementary phosphorus for root growth, along with micronutrients like magnesium, zinc, iron, and boron.

This results soil Improvement from pH neutralisation. Ash is alkaline and acts as a natural alternative to lime. Our orchard soil is quite acidic as are a lot of soils in New Zealand; the ash helps raise and balance the pH. Pear trees grow best in soils with a pH of 6-7, and apple trees 5.8 to 7.

The ash helps enhance the soil structure as carbonates and oxides in ash help break up and aerate soils by encouraging worm populations.

A word of warning though, because ash is highly concentrated, applying it incorrectly can do more harm than good

Do not dump piles in one spot. Scatter it thinly roughly 70–100 grams per square metre at a time (about a handful) around the drip line of the trees. Winter is the best time to apply it which is when we have our burn, we have fire bans from late Spring. Rain safely to washes the salts into the root zone before the growing season starts Snd finally only use ash from untreated wood. Never burn plastics, painted wood, or rot treated timber, as these introduce heavy metals and toxins directly into your orchard's food supply! Take them to the town landfill.

Burning the prunings is also Caron neaural. Only carbon fixed from the atmosphere whilst the tree is growing is released back. #fire #orchard #ash

full juice

wild fermented

single batch

barrel aged

harvest driven

and “not from concentrate”

And you can add to that “single varietal” and even “single tree”.

The latter especially as a perry. An old perry pear tree over 100 years of age can produce over 1 ton of fruit each harvest! And perry pear trees can continue to produce for several hundred years. Here in New Zealand we have very few introduced trees that age but I do know one one perry pear tree near Christchurch over 150 years old from which I have grafted scion wood to our orchard. This photo is an old eating pear tree in Carterton Wairarapa that must be as nealy old.

#cider #pear #apple #perry #tree

Producers utilise both cultivated apple varieties and wild local fruits, berries, and honey, resulting in unique beverages like mead-cider fusions (sizers) and fruit co-ferments.

Ukrainian craft cider makers are building an international reputation for natural, barrel-fermented dry ciders, earning medals at competitions. Cideries have shown tremendous perseverance. For example, Berryland Cidery an award-winning craft producer in the Kyiv region-was destroyed during the 2022 Russian invasion, but the community of cider makers across Ukraine rebuilt it. Ukraine has a reputation in the global craft community for its exceptional perries. As we know perry is incredibly difficult to make well, but Ukrainian producers have excelled by utilizing a unique blend of orchard and wild forest pears - Pyrus pyraster foraged from the forests. These wild pears contribute the tannins and acidity missing from standard eating pears. The resulting pery is delicate, unfiltered, champagne-like, and floral, with a soft tannins. I must go there when the war is over. #ukraine #perry #cider

They were originally brought over to help control insect pests and remind settlers of home. large flocks can be a bit of a menace in orchards with fruit damage but I have not seen large flocks here in Wairarapa. #chaffinch #birds #NewZealand #orchards

#perry #Sylva #pomona #book

#pear #perry #bud #dormancy #winter

Another myth looking back through the mists of time to the dawn of the World to a day when immortals were feasting on May Hill. One brought a pear which he described as the elixir of life, providing a nectar fit only for gods. He handed it to the chief, who took a large bite. That pear was so dry and astringent as to be virtually inedible, this discovered, spitting the pear all around the hill. And out into the countryside. His companions explained that the pear must be crushed and the juice turned into perry, but the damage had been done, those pips took root and flourished – the perry pear had entered the mortal World.

You can choose either myth but it is believed that this was the birth of perry s and those trees will only prosper in sight of May Hill. #pears #perry #MayHill

Pears contain thick, lignified plant cells commonly called stone cells technically sclereids which give the fruit its "gritty" texture. While they provide structural support, they make milling unpredictable, resulting in a thick, "porridgy" mash. 

Pear juices are lower in soluble pectin than apples, but the remaining pomace is notorious for making pressing cloths slippery and prone to clogging. I check the fruit for ripeness daily approaching harvest and collect in the pears of each variety depending on their ripeness to overcome this.

Perry pears benefit from an extended maceration process. I leave the crushed pulp or pomace from the scratter to sit for 12 to 24 hours. This allows controlled oxidation to soften any aggressive, astringent tannins and prevents the tannins from precipitating later. #perry #pears #pomace #scratting

So I went to look, and because diabetic control has moved on now to ( affordable) continous glucose monitoring with an easily applied sensor and phone app, urine test strips are really hard to find in New Zealand and I suspect elsewhere. So I investigated one technology back. That is a small gadget that digitally measures blood glucose from a finger pin . These are very cheap now that technology has moved on to the continous monitoring. The devices come with the warning “only for blood not urine” and hint at there may be inaccuracies from the different opacities and contents of the two liquids but I have tried comparisons at different glucose levels with urine dipsticks and it’s accurate enough for our use. The minimum reading of this common one from i-SENS Inc. for glucose is 1.1mmol/L (equal to 0.180 grams per litre (g/L)) ie fully fermented and comes up as “Lo” on the screen below that. You can then calculate how much sorbitol is present. In the case of a fully fermented perry with a SG of 1.008 due to sorbitol there is near 1.5mg/L of sorbitol. #perry #sorbitol #science #measuring

It's from an accumulation of sorbitol inside and between the cells, sorbitol is the sugar alcohol that makes pears taste sweet, (and perry from pears too, as it’s not metabolised by yeasts). Watercore seems to be yet another trait that has been sacrificed at the altar of Western tastes. However other cultures favour these differences and celebrate them. Watercore is sought after in Japan due to the sweetness it brings.

Normally, a tree transports sorbitol from the leaves to the apple, in which the fruit cells then convert it into fructose. With watercore, sorbitol is translocated to the fruit faster than it can be processed. Because the cells cannot absorb the excess sorbitol, it leaks into the intracellular spaces by the osmotic pressure gradient across the cell wall. This fluid-filled space reduces light scattering, making the flesh look glassy, translucent, or water-soaked.

Environmental factors like high daytime sun/heat combined with low nighttime temperatures, as well as over-maturity and calcium deficiency, accelerate sorbitol production. Sorbitol is the primary product of photosynthesis in apples and makes up the vast majority (about 60–80%) of the carbohydrates exported from the leaves to the fruit. #apples #watercore #sorbitol

Meanwhile most are self-sterile, limiting the chances of pollination but favouring survival but the mixing of genes. They biologically require cross-pollination from specific compatible pear varieties to set fruit, relying heavily on wind and insect vectors to transfer pollen to the blossom's stigma. And the two varieties, the pollen producer the recipient must bloom at the same time so bees and other pollinators can transfer pollen between them. Each anther releases its pollen only for a day. Variety is the spice of life for wild pears unlike the grafted cloned ones we orchardists want. #pollen #pears #fertilisation