Bridport’s week long celebration of food kicked off on Sunday with a celebration of seafood at the Riverside Restaurant, West Bay, Open Farm Sunday at Washingpool Farm and “Words on a Plate” a food and writing workshop. For me though, a tutored honey and cider tasting at Twinways Orchard, Melplash, with Filberts of Dorset was the order of the day.
Melplash sits on a seam of soil ideal for apple growing and as such, is home to quite a cluster of cider orchards. At Twinways the trees number 1400, with 5 varieties – Daninett, Browns, Michelin, Chisel Jersey and Yarlington Mill. The Chisel Jerseys were in blossom when we visited. Twinways was planted in 1972-74 and has rarely been fertilised since, the trees therefore produce fewer apples resulting in a higher concentration of tannins. The resulting ciders are particularly dry. Two ciders are produced under the “Rogers’ Cyder” brand; the first “Hedgelayer”, 6% abv, is a very dry, tannic and full tasting cider, made with 100% cider apples fermented for 4 months; the second is a bottle conditioned French style cider, still fairly dry but lighter at 4.7% abv. The ciders are available at The Hive Beach Café, Burton Bradstock and at various festivals, including The Bridport Food Festival (Saturday 13th June) and Harbour Bites (West Bay, 18TH & 19TH July).
The orchard is home to a number of hives, which along with hives at Chilcombe and Mapperton produce the honey and beeswax for Rogers’ honey and Filberts range of beeswax products. The range of flavours produced by the varying locations and times of year at which the honey is harvested, is diverse. Each honey is identifiable by batch and hive, resulting in a continuously evolving range. The wax is used to produce lip balms, hand salves, beeswax candles and polishes which are available to buy online at www.filbertsofdorset.co.uk, as well as at local events.
We first tasted the “cappings honey”. I gathered that, in rough terms; when the bees have filled a frame of honey, they cap each honeycombe cell with wax to seal. The cappings honey is extracted from these caps. Unlike the purer honey within the cells, this honey also contains grains of pollen and propolis, a resinous substance, used by the bees to glue each frame together. The honey is coarsely filtered, resulting in a grainy honey, rich in flavour. This felt like a real connoisseur’s honey, something rather special.
The runny honey, from Morecroft, Melplash, was clearly identifiable as having been produced by hives within the orchard, with a strong apple blossom flavour; while a set honey from Twinways Spinny had a more neutral flavour and granular texture, owing to it having been harvested earlier in the year. Augusts’ harvest of honeys had more depth. The Mapperton Lane honey, from hives in the formal gardens at Mapperton House, had delicate floral qualities. The Chilcombe apiary has a complex habitat, with a rambling country garden, hedgerows and wildflower banks; the resulting honey had a complex flavour with buttery undertones and citrus notes. Though we are all encouraged to think about the origins of our food, rarely is the link between environment and product so clearly demonstrated on the palate. With these honeys you really can taste the journey of its conception. For me at least, to study a raw ingredient, right to its root, its’ very essence; is a fascinating and joyful experience.
Alison Smith @chefalismith
