The Cider Orchard Year

Watching the changes in the orchard thoughout year is a wonderful trip as the seasons come and go. Where does it start? With the dormant bare trees? The blossom in Spring? The fruitlets forming. The harvest of the apples. And then the cycle continues again. A circle without end.

Or perhaps the processing of the apples and the fermenting of the juice into cider?  However the long slow maturation of the methode albion cider, on its lees is over several yearly cycles.

The wheel of time turns and the orchard matures. New trees are grafted some trees die out or have to be cut down.

The life in the orchard is rich with bird life and of course the sheep contently grazing. 

10th Jan 2001

Slap ma Girdle scion wood 

16th October 2001

Grafted cider tree in newly planted orchard

7th November 2001

Rainbow over Beau Vista orchard

25th July 2004

Cold start to the day. Snow on the Tararua ranges over the Wairarapa plains

21st  May 2005 

Pressing the first Harvest 

22nd October 2005 

Removing old trees from the paddock for extending the orchard

23rd October 2005 

Honey bee hives for pollination. 

21st October 2011

Early photo of Beau Vista  orchard. From Dalefield Road 

13th September 2012

Cleft grafting perry scion wood.  

1st Oct 2012

A Winter's day

15th March 2013 

2013 was a dry summer 

8th Sept 2013

The Shropshire sheep arrive

28th October 2013 

The Taipaitangata stream (and the 7 springs creek to the side) that brings down silt from the Tararua ranges and floods the orchard periodically.

Amazingly this can dry up in late summer . 

1st December 2013

Kingston Black apples

27th February 2014

The local Taipaitangata street flooding the orchard. 

17th March 2014

Bringing in the apples

21st April 2014

Wildlife is important at the orchard which is organic. This Kotare ( NZ Kingfisher) stayed with us after the storm. 

9th April 2014

Early bottle design

10th April 2014

Cider fermenting. In barrel cooling and temperature probe

11th April 2014

Crab apples to attract the bees as they flower earlier than the cider trees

18th April 2014

Sheep on high ground during flooding! 

20th April 2014

The debris that the flood brings down to the Dalefield Road culvert over the Taipaitangata stream 

4th October 2014 

Apple blossom 

14th December 2014

Newly planted hedge for flood and wind barrier 

11th January 2015 

The Roto-Jolly gets its first use. 

15th January 2015

The lees are all settled into the bottle neck 

3rd October 2022

Pear blossom

6th December 2022

Beech hedge enclosure to the apple orchard

7th July 2023

Cold in the orchard in winter

30th August 2023

Perry pear blossom 

20th September 2023

Sampling cider apples at Perry's cider orchard with Liz Copas and James Crowden

27th October 2023

Cider apple blossom 

28th October 2023

Apple blossom 

4th November 2023

Shropshire sheep grazing on the spring grass

5th November 2023 

Home from the NZ Cider Festival in Hastings with Gold and other awards

10th November 2023 

Moody spring weather 

14th November 2023 

Riddling 2020 perry after 2years secondary fermentation 

18th November 2023

Buttercups in the orchard swath

7th January 2024

measuring inbottle pressure during secondary fermentation

2nd March 2024

Perry pears. The harvest begins

6th March 2024

Sunset over the Tararua ranges behing TeePee Cider 

Kingston Black apples ready to harvest 

The new enlarged apple processing area operational this season

First wash of apples

First cull of rots on apple ladder

Second wash and cull of rots 

Pomace from the scratter

9th March 2024

Building the cheese of pomace

8th March 2024

The long apple picking ladder

Bringing the apples out of the orchard into the cider shed

15th March 2024

Storm brewing over the orchard

19th March 2024. A mix of Ellis Bitter and Michilin in the first wash 

A mix of Ellis Bitter and Michelin in the first wash