This cider was made in 2021 as part of the research carried out in writing 'A Vagrant's Pomona'. It is made entirely from fruit removed without the owner's permission and may or may not taste better for it.

Orchard 6
15-10-21 1045-1140 Light cloud following heavy rain
11°C
This is a nice little orchard of around an acre, planted
with Cornish heritage varieties about thirty years
ago. It’s operated as a show orchard to a certain
extent, although the fruit is used. That being said,
I’m somewhat late to the party here and much of
the harvest has already been removed. Despite this,
there are a number of trees yet to be picked, with a
few more having their fruit lying awaiting collection.
The varieties available today are Manaccan Primrose,
Tommy Knight, Dufflin, Cornish Gillyflower
(somewhat under ripe) and Pear Apple. Most of these
will work through the press ok, apart from Manaccan
Primrose, which tends to a slimy unmanageable
pomace reluctant to release its juice and badly behaved.
A shame as it has a great flavour and will constitute
about half of this blend. The Dufflin are bang on
though and although this is a weird little bittersharp,
it’s bursting with sugar this year where many varieties
are not. One of my favourite varieties. In any case,
given what’s on offer, the resultant cider is likely to be
pretty sharp on the tongue.
One of the trickier aspects of harvesting in this way
raises its head for the first time in the series here – guilt.
I know the people who own this orchard well, they have
put a reasonable amount of work my way and look after
me, so the unauthorised access of their land to remove
fruit gives me a significant twinge of conscience. It’s a
strange position to be in really. The owners still have a
position of considerable privilege and in holding land
privately, deny access to the rest of the population and
I’m operating under my standard rules of approach.
However, the fact that I know these people and in being
discovered, am therefore much more likely to invoke
feelings of anger and disappointment in them and
shame in myself, brings very much to the fore just how
ingrained is our respect of property title for those who
hold it, but more importantly, how a relatively minor
transgression in the removal of less than a tenner’s
worth of fruit would have the capacity to destroy trust
and break relationship. So in that sense, those things
make this one of the highest risk orchards in the series
given the value I place in an ongoing relationship with
these owners. However, as I do know these people well,
I know the comings and goings of the site relatively well
also. This means that the time I have chosen will almost
certainly guarantee I’ll evade detection which renders
the act worthwhile.
I have such faith in my knowledge of movements on site
that I feel comfortable to dispense with the usual slow
approach and am straight to it. I can see the gold and
yellow of the Dufflin, Manaccan Primrose and Pear
Apple in the grass beneath near bare trees and resolve
to grab those last. The Tommy Knight and Gillyflower
particularly are some way off full ripeness so grab a
bag of those first straight off the tree. There’s not much
Gillyflower in any case, so figure it won’t spoil the blend
too much and the Tommy Knight is probably only a
week or so off drop given the seed colour and response
to a quick shake, so they fill half the first bag. It’s been
hammering down nearly all morning, but the weather
broke about half an hour ago and although the ground
is sodden for collection of dropped fruit, the scent
coming off the grass and the Manaccan Primrose is
grand, the light is golden and makes the fruit all the
more glorious. The rough-sided warty Dufflin are next
and the Pear Apple last – not that there’s much of this,
most already removed, but those three make up the
remains of the first and all the second bagful.
It’s a relatively quick in and out and although I feel
slightly sheepish at having stolen here, the sunshine
is such a treat after the relentless rain and most of the
fruit is excellent, so the feeling passes and on the whole
a good outing. Would I feel ok to thieve here again?
Expect so.