Picture yourself in cider apple orchard

Drinking in the sensory feast of Dorset Nectar

Cider’s orchards in full bloom this May, it is hard to imagine such a tranquil place is also the hub of a thriving family business. Back in 2006, when Oliver and Penny Strong were still in the business of making metal sculptures and topiary, they settled with their family on a wildly beautiful cider orchard near Waytown.

“We really didn’t want to work on an industrial estate,” Penny told The West Dorset Magazine, adding that she and her husband were more interested in finding ‘somewhere beautiful’ to sculpt metal, grow topiary shrubs and harvest cider apples.

At first the couple sold their roughly 150 tonnes of apples each year to a major cider manufacturer but, in 2008, they decided to have a go at producing their own brew.

“We had a bit of experience in homebrewing, but this has been a learning experience for us,” Penny explained. “The business has grown but we still consider ourselves a small artisan producer. We’re making proper craft cider, with no pesticides or chemicals, using whole crushed apples from 15 varieties including Yarlington Mill, Porter’s Perfection, Michelin and Dabinett.

“Our produce is certified organic, including our apple cider vinegar, and we sell to cafes, restaurants and festivals as far afield as Edinburgh, Yorkshire and London.

“Our daughters Amber and Kiah are partners in the business but are away at university. Our three boys – Ryan, Dante, and Christian – help with the day-to-day running and we couldn’t do it without them.”

With around 3,000 large, mature apple trees, the orchard is a beautiful place to be, especially this month as the blossom comes in. That’s why, in addition to producing cider, apple syrup, apple juice and apple cider vinegar, Dorset Nectar is inviting people to book a tour of the orchard and to camp on their land.

Penny said: “Since covid, the cider industry, indeed the whole hospitality industry, has changed. We were affected the same as everyone else, so we’ve diversified the business by offering orchard tours and camping on site, which is proving to be very popular.

“The orchard is a very tranquil and beautiful place to be, especially now when it is blossom. People come here for forest-bathing, where you just lay yourself down beneath a tree and look up and take it all in. There’s an old Japanese belief that it has a calming and restorative effect on people. And that certainly seems to be what our guests say.” n To buy any of Dorset Nectar’s 13 varieties of cider, its Truly Scrumptious apple syrup, juice, or cider vinegar – or to book a tour or a camping spot – visit dorsetnectar.co.uk, email dorsetnectar@live.co.uk or call 01308 488382.

Penny said the brewery’s next project will be a batch of pink elderflower cider using flowers grown by a friend in Bridport plus other products that will be revealed at a later date.

Dorset Nectar Cider has won several awards and is also experimenting with brewing craft ales under the name of Windward Brewery. Penny and Oliver also keep bees, pigs and chickens on their grounds, where there is also a cider drinking garden featuring the couple’s topiary and metal sculptures.

Vittles (food & drink)

By IAN BAIRD

It is mid-April and I am standing on a hillside near Cerne Abbas feeling like I have landed in a Thomas Hardy novel. I am with a group of willing pilgrims, following the amazing Eleanor Gallia, medical herbalist, shepherdess and bio-dynamic farmer, on a journey both through herbs and history on a hilltop that has evidence of human activity going back at least 5,000 years. Eleanor herself would eloquently step into the role of a Hardy heroine. The weather has been good to us and in the bright spring sunshine we are set to task, with Eleanor’s expert help, in identifying and gathering herbs to go into Cerne Abbas Brewery’s Beltaine Brew, a beer infused with native wild plants that have beneficial health properties.

Eleanor knows exactly where each plant is to be found and as we gather them under her guidance, she tells us of their many uses and benefits. We are harvesting nettles, dandelion root, cleavers, hawthorn buds, sorrel and elder buds, each of them available to pick on this West Dorset hillside with some patience and perseverance.

The utility of the herbs is extraordinary, each offering benefits both as medicine, food and often dye for textiles, all of which is explained by Eleanor whose depth of knowledge is clearly borne through love of her subject, the plants themselves and