Government grants to cider-apple growers safeguard future of old-fashioned orchards

Old-fashioned orchards, one of the English countryside's most appealing features, will be given an unprecedented boost today when the Government announces new funds for the production of organic cider.

Growers in Herefordshire, the top cider county, are being awarded grants to convert traditional cider apple orchards, the ones we know and love with their widely-spaced gnarled old trees, to organic production – which means their future will be safeguarded.

Traditional orchards have now been largely replaced by densely-packed, low-growing "bush" orchards in fields which are intensively cultivated and mechanically harvested, helping neither the landscape nor wildlife.

But now 21 Herefordshire cider-apple growers have been awarded government grants to make their orchards fully organic over the next five years, and Bulmer's, Britain's leading cider maker, has promised to pay them a premium price for their fruit on long-term contracts.

The news comes as growers are embarking upon what is expected to be the biggest British cider apple harvest, with nearly 100,000 tonnes of fruit expected to be brought in over the next few weeks.

Behind the move is the desire of Bulmer's, which has spent much effort over the last decade rebranding cider as the drink of the young and the trendy rather than of the slow-witted and the straw-chewing, to expand into the organic market in a big way. The 21 growers are all current suppliers to the firm of conventional cider apples and they have been accepted into the organic farming conversion scheme run by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs(Defra).

The farmers will receive payments averaging £5,000 each over the next five years to help them convert their orchards, which mainly involves phasing out artificial fertilisers and synthetic pesticides, and the 30-year supply contracts Bulmer's is offering them means their commercial future is guaranteed and the trees will be maintained and properly cared for.

Some of the traditional orchards, which cannot compete economically with bush orchards, are falling into disuse and face being grubbed out. Herefordshire is thought to have about 1,000 acres remaining, and about half is thought to be covered by the new organic agreements.

The old orchards are much richer in plant, insect and bird life, and add greatly to the look of the countryside, especially in spring when the trees are ablaze with apple blossom near the old farm buildings.

The Countryside minister, Elliot Morley, who will announce the grants today, said: "The larger standard cider apple trees give the Herefordshire landscape its character, as well as providing cover and grazing for livestock. The conversion to organic will help secure the viability of these orchards and assist in boosting the rural economy of the area."

It will probably be three years before the farmers receive their organic certification from the Soil Association, the organic farming certifying body.

John Powell, who farms at Yark Hill near Hereford, has an 18-acre cider orchard and is one of the growers converting to organic production. "I've never been keen on chemical sprays and I manage the orchard on organic principles, like many of the farmers round here," said Mr Powell, 64. "So it seems logical to get registered with the Soil Association."

Drink of choice since the Bronze Age

Cider, the fermented juice of apples, probably goes back at least as far as the Bronze Age and is thought to have been introduced into Britain by the Celts.

The apples used to make it are not familiar eating apples such as Granny Smiths and Golden Delicious but special varieties which tend to be much more astringent and bitter to the palate and thus unsuitable for both eating and cooking.

There are about 350 varieties of the modern cider apple. With colourful names such Brown Snout, Slack-My-Girdle, Tremletts Bitter, Michelin, Foxwhelp and Chisel Jersey, they tend to be high in tannin to give cider the slightly bitter edge to its taste.

They need plenty of rainfall to grow well.

The record downpours of last winter and spring mean that the previous record British cider apple harvest of 84,000 tons is certain to be beaten this autumn, with an estimated 100,000 tons of fruit expected to be taken to the cider mills.