Subject: Cider Digest #1455, 19 July 2008 Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:40:24 -0600 (MDT) From: cider-request@talisman.com Cider Digest #1455 19 July 2008 Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor Contents: Do we need our own magazine? (Alan Yelvington) Rotting Pears and Stinking Bishop (Andrew Lea) Re: Cider operations in Pennsylvania (Dick Dunn) Send ONLY articles for the digest to cider@talisman.com. Use cider-request@talisman.com for subscribe/unsubscribe/admin requests. When subscribing, please include your name and a good address in the message body unless you're sure your mailer generates them. Archives of the Digest are available at www.talisman.com/cider ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Do we need our own magazine? From: Alan Yelvington Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2008 09:11:02 -0400 Long ago and far away I dappled in alternative energy systems for fun and profit. AE for home systems was rare and the realm of hippies and geeks, and then came Home Power magazine. This was a grassroots magazine that came out once a month on newsprint and can claim credit for the boom in the home power revolution. www.homepower.com So, do we have our own rag? I've spent an incredible amount of time surfing for articles, supplies, and advice. A periodical for the cider/perry crowd may be just the thing a lot of us are interested in. I retire from the military next year and hope to have my own cider orchard up in Pennsylvania. I have experience in publishing from some time in industry, and I'm wondering how the folks on the forum feel about having a magazine (complete with advertising) to speak to the cause of cider and perry? I'm thinking that the first few issues would have to be free and simply posted as PDF on a website. Once there was adequate demand, a hardcopy distribution could take root and bear fruit. (I couldn't resist) Comments? Al Yelvington ------------------------------ Subject: Rotting Pears and Stinking Bishop From: Andrew Lea Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:16:20 +0100 Here's a couple of interesting links recently appeared: 1. An article for nerdy people on why pears rot faster than apples has just been posted at Seems it's all to do with gas exchange. The full scientific paper on which it's based (not to mention the videos) can be downloaded as an open access PDF from and links thereat. 2. Charles Martell, the Gloucestershire (UK) Apple and Pear Guru, not to mention originator of the Stinking Bishop Cheese, has created a 'book' on Native Apples of Gloucestershire. It's a Word Document and a 10MB download to be found at The reason it's so big is it contains a lot of very useful images of the apples described. Not all the apples are for cider, of course, but very many are! Andrew Lea - -- Wittenham Hill Cider Page http://www.cider.org.uk ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Cider operations in Pennsylvania From: Dick Dunn Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:36:04 -0600 Alan Yelvington wrote: > I will be starting my second (third?) life in NW Pennsylvania next year > after 30 years bopping round in the Coast Guard. [going for cider production] Welcome to the growing, graying crowd! ... > I want to ferment on site and distribute regionally. > > The surveyor is due this week, the COOP is waiting for soil samples, and > the tractor is ready to break ground. I plan to plant this fall as a > basic orchard, but want to get the paperwork started so I'm legal in two > years. While it's good to get started on the paperwork (you don't want to be picking apples with one hand while filling out forms with the other!), keep in mind that you're going to have annual fees as soon as you're licensed, in addition to the up-front fees. May we ask about the larger picture--that is, beyond the paperwork and permitting? Two years is awfully ambitious for production starting from an unplanted plot! Realize that the character of fruit will change (generally for the better) as trees mature. Do you have a good idea of what varieties will do well in your particular area? I'm thinking terroir/micro-climate considerations. Have you tried making cider from local fruit? I'm not trying to be a wet blanket, just that it took me quite a few years to find out which varieties actually work for us, here. Sometimes a particular variety grows and flourishes but the fruit isn't all that interesting. Other times the variety produces great fruit but the trees are too challenged (by winter cold, excess summer heat, whatever) to do well. One more thought for up-front work, which applies to doing anything major and new in a rural area: Try to get your neighbors acquainted with what you plan. It's likely you'll have supporters, and a few objectors, right from the start. But folks who might be ambivalent can be brought 'round to your side much more readily if you talk to them ahead of time than if the first they hear of your plans is a notice for a formal hearing. - -- Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA ------------------------------ End of Cider Digest #1455 *************************