8/28 -- Apple Orchard on the Drive to Dublin

We set out later today because Dublin is not that far away and the plan was to have lunch at an apple farm. The farm was originally started in the 1600s with a land grant from the British crown, with the caveat that they had to grow apples. Armies needed safe beverage sources since the water during travels and war could not be trusted, and that meant that wine and hard cider were critical. Because neither apples nor grapes had as much sugar as they do today, they were both much lower in alcohol than today and would stand up to travel better than casks of water.

The second house, continously used since it was built
around 1760.

The farm changed hands a couple times, and was last bought by Phillip's great grandfather. Phillip's son did not want to work on the farm and became an electrical engineer, but changed his mind and is now working with his father, first tending to and improving the machinery and now learning about raising apples.

Phillip with rows of trees behind him.

Some of the other varieties they grow.

Their primary fruit is an ancient, low sugar apple, Bromley, that makes Granny Smith seem sweet. They also raise several other varieties. Although they sold whole apples in the past, there was not enough of a market for them and now most of their harvest becomes apple juice or cider. They define cider as a product with alcohol and juice as non-alcohol.

Sampling the Bromley. Elizabeth seems okay with it, but
I doubt that Michael will take a second bite.

Cider is basically apple wine, and the production process is quite similar.They press a large percentage of the different apples together, and a subset independently by variety to enable them to adjust the final product to add sugar or tartness, whatever is needed. They also make varieties that are infused with fruit or honey, for example. We had a chance to sample several of the ciders and a few of the juices. My favorite juice was enhanced with rhubarb.

The pressing machine. Apples are washed in the bin on the
bottom right and lifted up the tube to be shredded with the
round grater on top of the middle silver box, and then
pressed and the liquid ejected into a container like the one
below. The solids are kept and used as feed and fertilizer.

Danny explains it all. He had quite the sense of humor.

The only part of the bottling machine that I could get a good
photo of. The left apparatus fills the bottles and the right
one caps them.

This is an enormous (and still cold) refrigerator primarily
used for storing apples before pressing.

Lunch was fabulous, served with cider, and ending with apple pie to die for.

These are walls from the original 1600s home.

Lunch was served on a table made of two thick planks of
Irish redwood.

While we were dining, Phillip,s daughter, Kelly, came in with
her two small daughters. One starts school very soon and
he says she will love it. This one starts pre-school the same
day and will not like it.

This is also a big deal horse breeding operation with 70 horses currently in residence. Phillip's wife, Helen, not only oversees the cider blending, she is also an avid horsewoman and focuses on Irish horses and Connemara Ponies (who are up to 14.2 hands tall, bigger than what I think of as ponies). At one time, they had nineteen active studs and were the biggest breeder in Northern Ireland. After lunch, we got to see one of their retired studs, a Connemara Pony who is 22 years old. As you can see below, he looks like a slightly short horse, not a pony. He was born a buckskin, matured into a dark brown, and now is grey. 

 

Back on the bus, we finished the drive to Dublin and took a bus tour around the main part of the city before heading to our hotel for our last two days in Ireland.