Sweet Cider, Refreshing Lives

Locally produced cider is back in fashion and its not only because of local farmers and rural agents but also enterprising cider companies borne out of backyards and the love for the sweet stuff. A glassful of cider, 'scrumpy and western' music marking the onset of cold winter and children moving around marks the morning of the people living on the countryside of the border between Dorset and Devon, UK.

The pressing of the apples begins and everyone gathers around a huge trailer full of apples. Men and women pass buckets of the fruit between the trailer and machine that turns it into pulp and the excited children carry it to the press to extract the clear and sweet juice from it.

This resurgence of homemade cider production has cropped up all over the country and this has risen the South-west Cider Association's membership from 40-68 small scale cider producers in the past 5 years. This has not only benefited farmers and retired landlords but also many young professionals who have come up with a cider press in their back gardens.

 It is not only a way of appeasing the appetite of the people but also a means of living a more natural lifestyle benefiting environment and self, preserving something of the past amid an increasingly modernized today. Besides UK had become used to oranges from California, asparagus from Peru, etc and now is tasting the flavor grown of its own land.