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Cider Digest #1985
Subject: Cider Digest #1985, 9 September 2015
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1985 9 September 2015
Cider and Perry Discussion Forum
Contents:
Orcharding and hedge rows (SMB WEBER)
a "new" good book, Apples to Cider (Dick Dunn)
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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
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Subject: Orcharding and hedge rows
From: SMB WEBER <weberscrossing9@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2015 10:32:35 -0400
Has anyone reading this used (traditional or other) hedge rows in their
orchards? I believe Hawthorns have traditionally been used, often, for
them, but I've also heard that Hawthorns can be disease vectors for apple
trees, so just wonder how it might work.
I believe in Normandy or Brittany, anyway, the hedges are on top of
significant embankments so that roads between them look up to them
considerably. (Have only seen films of them, not the real thing.)
Thanks.
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Subject: a "new" good book, Apples to Cider
From: Dick Dunn <rcd@talisman.com>
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 2015 23:28:53 -0600
You really want this book. You probably need it too; you just don't know
that yet.
Apples to Cider
How to make cider at home
by April White with Stephen Wood of Farnum Hill Ciders
This is a great book, one that should be on every serious cider maker's
shelf. It's been held back by publication/distribution. Seek it out.
More on the difficulties below, but for now just go out and find it!
This is a book about getting people started in cidermaking, in all the
various aspects. But it is *not* a general, neutral book: It has a
specific focus where it keeps coming back to Poverty Lane Orchards and
Farnum Hill Ciders as examplars. This is not parochial in any way; rather
it's using one exceptional cidermaker to make many points clear. If you're
unaware of Farnum Hill: They were one of the first serious commercial
cidermakers post-Prohibition in the US.
There's a lot of "Here's what we do, and here's why we do it." Read and
learn.
The presentations with sidebars are well structured. You see the main
text; you go off to the side and come back, satisfied. The ideas are sound
and the guidance for a new cidermaker is good.
The balance of topics is spot on. If you're only into cider-making from
some point going forward (for example, from when you get juice), you can
come in at that point and it makes sense. But you still have the
background, for example for what you want for juice.
The chapter on tasting was rather overwhelming at first. I taste a fair
bit of cider off and on, but I've not encountered describing so many
different flavor notes in a cider. It's an exhortation to practice more,
of course, but it also tries to teach how to taste with a group in a way
that helps people build on one another's strengths. (That's one of the
things I enjoy about competition judging alongside other judges with good
palates--we find complementary strengths and weaknesses so that the total
judging panel is much greater than the sum of its parts.)
And thankfully, the tasting chapter ends on a note about setting aside
all of the notes and analysis when it's time to sip and enjoy the cider,
allowing it instead to lubricate conversations about more generally
interesting topics.
It's hard to say a lot more, because so much of the text echoes and
reinforces what I've learned over so many years. I want to repeat, "Just
go buy it and read it; THEN you'll know why."
I have two small technical concerns. First is the seeming idea to leave a
fermenter uncovered until it starts fermenting. Perhaps I misunderstand,
but if not I can't see how that's going to do anything but harm. Second
is the idea of carrying on the cryo-concentration for ice cider in carboys.
I would never risk serious-freezing in glass. And since I've made one (just
one, mind you!) ice cider, I would never think to risk all that work on the
possibility of shattering a glass container. But those are just points to
consider.
There are two real drawbacks to this book, which hamper it yet certainly
don't damn it. The first is that the publisher has done less-than-nothing to
promote it. Come on, how could it take six months to find the book even if
you're in-the-know? So, apparently, those of us seriously into the cider
world are expected to do the publisher's job! Well, OK, I'll do my part...
not for the ****fool publisher, but for April White (and Steve Wood and for
Nicole Leibon as well), and for this great book, because people need to
know about what they do, and how much it matters for cider in the US.
The second drawback is the criminally incompetent typography of the book.
It's bad throughout, but the first page of each chapter--where you should
be drawn into the new topic--is set in a face so light that it should be
banned under the ADA. Few people over the age of 40 can even read it
without optical help. No excuse; it's just wrong. If you're of a Kindle
persuasion, there is a Kindle version of the book set in a very readable
set of type faces.
I do hope April White can take this book forward into a second edition,
with a publisher who cares about its great merits and potential enough to
promote it, and a design team which includes a typographer who knows that
text is meant to be read.
- --
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
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End of Cider Digest #1985
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