Bushel + Peck cider and perry

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Bushel + Peck cider and perry

Bushel + Peck cider and perry is made in Gloucestershire, with unsprayed apples and pears from gardens and traditional orchards all around Gloucestershire.

Bushel+Peck cider and perry is made with unsprayed apples and pears gathered from gardens and orchards all over Gloucestershire

14/03/2026

What's the collective noun for worms? If there isn't one already, we propose a wiggle of worms ... and we found a wiggle of worms every time we dug into the soil in a BEAUTIFUL old orchard on the northern borders of Gloucestershire, so far north it'd be in Herefordshire if it was 50 yards further north, its location possibly revealed by the rich, red earth that is so characteristic of Hereford and its county.

We were there planting 10 young trees in this ancient space, to replace the trees that have fallen over the years - 6 were lost this past winter alone. The existing trees must be 60 to 70 years old, so unless new trees were planted the orchard would be on a downward spiral to extinction ... but that is no longer the case. And in the guise of a Trustee of the Gloucestershire Orchard Trust, we'll return in the summer, together with a tree surgeon, to prune some of the top-heavy veteran trees and remove some (but not all) of the mistletoe, attributes that are contributing to so many trees toppling over.

10/02/2026

Conducting a survey in an old orchard in Tirley, north Gloucestershire, almost in Worcestershire but not quite, we were struck by the sculptural qualities of some of the trees.

The first picture is the graft union of an old perry pear tree, where the grafted variety (on top) isn't quite as vigorous as the rootstock below. That's often the case, but the differences in rates of growth, fractions of a millimetre each year, only begin to show after many, many years - by which we mean 100+ years. It's a feature often found in.perry trees, precisely because they can live for so long, 300 years or more, whereas apple trees with a shorter lifespan - 100 years is truly ancient - often die before the difference becomes noticeable.

The second picture shows the hardy resilience of fruit trees, this one an ancient apple tree. The trunk is entirely hollow and yet the tree continues to grow and produce fruit - its xylem and phloem cells are intact, the former transporting water and minerals from roots to leaves, the latter distributing sugars and amino acids throughout the tree. Trees like these, alive but containing a lot of deadwood, are biodiversity gold and are a particular feature of fruit trees; they are early senescent, meaning they age quickly (like cider-makers) and produce wonderful habitat, the nooks and crannies of old wood, much more quickly than other deciduous trees, and all manner of birds and bugs are delighted to make them their home.

06/02/2026

We've been largely absent from this grid for a while (other than sharing pics of the football team we sponsor with pride) ... but we haven't been entirely idle. In fact, far from it: even though cider-making may have taken a back seat, we've been busy in orchards, either as a volunteer Trustee for the Gloucestershire Orchard Trust , or under our own steam.

In this former role, we led a pruning workshop in the Trust's orchards at Longney, in these pictures gesticulating wildly in our preferred orchard hat, offering guidance or instruction in formative pruning of younger trees, after which there's a brief demonstration, followed by encouragement for participants - of which there were c. 20 - to have a go themselves. We intend the sessions to be both informative and practical; there is an art to pruning fruit trees, but it's an art best learned by doing the job!

02/02/2026

First outing for the BUSHEL+PECK sponsored kit ...

where the aptly named Lazarus plays a key role for SHEAVYN F.C.; 0 - 3 down at half time, Sheavyn fought back to earn a 4 - 4 draw. Some questions, perhaps about the defence, but the attacking prowess and the spirit must be unquestioned.

20/11/2025

City or United?

In a wholly unexpected development, one of Manchester's football teams has invited us to be a shirt sponsor for their kit. We feel this must be in recognition of our solid environmental credentials and the excellence of our cider, rather than our size or scale ... as a business, we're small and getting smaller!!

No doubt this will be their sixth choice away strip for their 4th tier junior squad, so there's zero expectation of anyone famous every wearing it, or it appearing on national television, but we wish whoever does wear it the best of luck and encourage them to play by both the letter and the spirit of the game.

Cider is being despatched to Manchester for players to enjoy at half-time ... much better than a slice of orange, surely?

09/09/2025

Generally, we love our apple suppliers, all the people who have surplus apples in their gardens and orchards, who supply us with their fruit ... and given that we don't own any orchards, we are rather dependent on them. In return for their fruit our suppliers get free juice or cider.

The vast majority of fruit we get is top notch, ripe, excellent quality, always UNSPRAYED and uncontaminated from chemicals, a quick rinse and off to the mill ... it takes us about a minute to wash and mill a crate of these apples, a little less if the apples are small, a little longer with larger sized apples.

Occasionally, we do come across a bag of fruit where it seems folk have trouble making a distinction between apple and leaf, which is a bit of a nuisance as it adds time to the whole process. For clarity, we're after the fruit, not the leaves and twigs. And it's a pain ... takes about 2 to 4 minutes to sift through and remove the leaves from a crate of apples so inflicted.

Rarer still, from time to time, we appear to be regarded as a rotten apple disposal service. Again, for clarity, we are makers of cider and apple juice, not a waste disposal service. Depending on how bad the fruit is, we may dispose of the whole lot - no free juice or cider for the donor - or we take 5+ minutes to sort out the ripe from the rotten, get messy and fed up, begin to think there are many, many better ways to spend out time!

30/07/2025

THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by to say hello at the launch of on the weather deck of SS Great Britain last Friday ... you all helped to kick off a HUGE celebration of cider - proper cider, made with real apples, grown in the vicinity of where the cider is made - in the city of BRISTOL, the city that has now been proclaimed as the CIDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD. Yes!

26/07/2025

Bristol ... its status as Cider Capital of the World was declared at the Bristol Old Vic this evening, where discerning revellers could enjoy any number of fine, craft ciders, including our Brown Snout single variety cider ... and can do so for the next week (whilst stocks last).

25/07/2025

There's a buzz in the air ... Cider City is almost upon us, 10 days to celebrate real cider and the resurrection of Bristol as Cider Capital of the World

Bristol Old Vic

22/07/2025

Be there!

BIG NEWS 📣 After months of curation we’re proud to announce the Cider Experience Bar brought to you by 🥳🥳

From July 26th to August 3rd expect 30 ciders from more than 20 producers, plus fine cider tasting flights, cider liqueur ice cream, and more…

We’ll be celebrating ALL DAY on Saturday 26th with DJs, live music, and a special announcement from High Sheriff — declaring Bristol the Cider Capital of the World. Make sure you’re there to toast our new status at 8pm!

Full details on the cider menu and music lineup coming later this week…

21/07/2025

We've made a small batch of perry with pears gathered from the perry orchard at Brockworth, owned by the Gloucestershire Orchard Trust

After many years of complete neglect, the team at the Trust (which includes us) has started to maintain the orchards, thereby allowing a harvest (of sorts) to be gathered - just 100 kgs or so, but enough to make 65 litres and it was the first harvest from the or hard for many, many years. We hope to collect more fruit from there this autumn

The perry itself is light and delicate, with no great tannic oomph ... the bulk of the pears were Suffolk Thorn, some Autumn Bergamot, plus a few Butt.

The perry is available in our online shop. Rather annoyingly, when proof reading the label we failed to notice a spelling mistake in the word "surprising". Given that we're sticklers for getting apostrophes - and grammar more generally- correct, it means that whilst we're pleased to have contributed to the restoration of an old perry orchard, we're embarrassed at our silly error.

I'm looking forward to enjoying the first taste of the Henley Bank traditional orchard, managed by The Perry is made by .peck.cider and what a wonderful way to celebrate Cider and Perry Month! .cider.perry

19/07/2025

At long last ... the return of Fourfer, our Tremlett's Bitter single variety cider. Available nowhere other than our online shop.

Like the best of several things - humour and novels, for example - it's dark, bitter and just a bit challenging, full of flavour and a lingering tannic astringency that lets you know you're drinking a proper, grown-up, West Country cider.

Address

Northleach
GL543JL

Telephone

07710 777661

Website

http://www.bushelpeck.co.uk/

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