heritage, future

Somerset farmer William Thatcher made the rst ever Thatchers cider at Myrtle Farm in 1904. Today, the farm continues to honour traditional varieties, as well as leading the way in cider innovation with its extensive variety trials.

From humble beginnings to iconic brand

As was the tradition in the early 1900s, Myrtle Farm – a mixed enterprise at the time – grew cider apple trees and pressed the fruit to make cider for its farm workers. William Thatcher soon became known for making the best cider around, and began selling it in the local villages. The tradition continued through the generations to current cider-maker Martin Thatcher – William’s great grandson. The fth generation is also now working for the business, which has its roots rmly in the Mendip Hills area of north Somerset.

Having been a mixed enterprise until 20 years ago, the farm now grows apples solely for cider production, with more than 500 varieties planted.

They focus on a core range of 26 for commercial cider making, ranging from varieties with high tannin content, for ciders that require a complex depth to the avour – such as Thatchers Vintage – to low tannin eating and juicing varieties for the increasingly popular lighter style ciders – such as Thatchers Katy.

Farm manager Chris – who grew up on a farm and previously worked at Frontier and Heineken –is particularly partial to Thatchers Rascal, crafted from bittersweet apples, but added: “My fridge is full of Thatchers Gold – you can’t beat it for a wellbalanced cider which just hits the spot. Equally, if I’m driving, a bottle of Zero – our alcohol-free cider – is just as good.”

As an homage to its early beginnings, the farm also has an exhibition orchard of 458 rare and heritage apple varieties curated by third-generation cider maker John Thatcher. Many of the varieties came from the National Fruit and Cider Institute at Long Ashton when it closed. “We believe this to be the largest collection of apples for cider in the country and is an incredibly important living library,” Chris commented.

As well as honouring the traditional, they are currently trialling 100 varieties, exploring the cider apples of the future to keep up with consumer tastes.

Like many farms, it has also diversi ed its cider business, o ering farm tours and running the popular Railway Inn which includes a restaurant and bar selling an array of ciders. The pub is located along a walking/cycle path close to the farm, The Strawberry Line. The farm also works closely with local schools and colleges to teach students about the life cycle of apple trees.

A year on the farm

With cider apples being a lower value crop compared to dessert apples, input and establishment costs must be lower too. But being a juice producer, the farm doesn’t have the same concerns about size, colour, shape and storage which keeps some costs down, including labour due to the mechanisation. Nevertheless, quality of juice is the prime focus, and they are not immune to the price increases being felt across the farming sector, said Chris.

Having fewer concerns about super cial damage to the fruit also means the farm’s primary tasks throughout the year di er slightly from those growing eating apples. Trees are dormant from December to March and blossom time occurs in April/May depending on the variety –traditional cider varieties are later than others.

“Our trees are grown on semi-vigorous rootstocks such as MM106, MM111 and M116; after a few years they should be self-supporting,” Chris explained. “Harvest is a mechanised process which involves letting some apples fall naturally, shaking the remainder o trees and collecting the apples from the oor before being transported in bulk to the mill where they are pressed.

“All our apples are pressed at Myrtle Farm, and our ciders made right here. All our packaging is also carried out here – canning, bottling and kegging. In that way, we are able to ensure quality every step of the way.

“It’s important for us to press the apples immediately after harvest (within 24 hours) so that we have the freshest avours in our juice. In order for us to make cider all year round, we store the juice in temperature-controlled vats so that it is always in optimum condition.”

He added: “The orchard year starts in winter when we prune/shape the trees – we keep our trees in what we call hedgerow style, so that we harvest maximum sunlight. Each year we plant new trees across our Somerset orchards, and the spring is spent ensuring the trees are in top condition.”

Harvesting at the optimal ripeness is particularly important for cider making: “This is usually when all the starch within the apples has been converted into sugars. For early varieties this window is very short, only a few days, so we need a quick and e cient harvesting process.” This begins at the end of August with varieties such as Katy and Grenadier, and ends with Dabinett and Vilberie towards the end of November. “It’s important for us to have a range of apple varieties that crop throughout the harvest period.”

The farm works with local beekeepers who keep hives in the orchards all year round, but they don’t just encourage honeybees. “Solitary bees and bumblebees play their part too – so we have an active management system for the orchard margins and hedgerows, and plant wild ower plots where we can, to encourage wild populations of solitary bees,” he said.

Sustainability is integral

Being a family company and growing apples and producing ciders in a sustainable way, is integral to the farm. Whether that be reducing plastic packaging (an area they are continually researching and innovating), or installing solar panels to contribute to their use of renewables and energy creation across their cider making.

“We work hard to constantly reduce our use of water, to reduce our carbon, and our waste throughout our cider making process,” Chris commented. “And we’re doing all of this from the ground up. We’re not investing in o set schemes or anything like that – we want our progress to be meaningful, genuine, and in itself, sustainable.

“As a cider maker with hundreds of acres of orchard, planting trees is second nature to us. As a family, Thatchers has been planting trees for generations. The resulting biodiversity within our orchards is amazing, and this is something that bene ts not just our apples, but our local community too.”

There are 3,000 solar panels at Myrtle Farm which they anticipate will provide a total

Farm manager: Chris Muntz-Torres

Location: Sandford, north Somerset

Total farm size: 200ha

Varieties grown: Over 500 in total, including variety trials. Traditional cider varieties are grown, such as Dabinett, Somerset Redstreak and Tremlett’s Bitter; modern varieties such as Three Counties, Gilly, Hastings, and Prince William; and eating varieties such as Katy, Red Windsor, Jonagold and Falsta , which are used to make lighter ciders

Soil type: Predominantly sandy-silt loam

Thatchers has 100 varieties in tree trials, including Cider Lady’s Finger apples

Bloody Turk apples – part of Thatchers’ extensive tree trials

Apples are pressed immediately after harvest

CO2 saving of 301 tonnes a year, and an annual generation of 1,064Mwh of electric, contributing to the green energy that is produced and used across the farm all year round. A biomass boiler also uses wood chippings from the orchard, and apple waste left over from the cider making process goes for anaerobic digestion, though some is saved for cattle feed.

Around 18 months ago, they also acquired a nearby 50-acre block of land which is the subject of a regenerative project. Having been arable land for at least 50 years, soil testing con rmed that the organic matter levels had fallen to the minimum; so a soil regeneration project is underway before any apple trees are planted. It will be in herbal ley with grazing sheep for 3–4 years.

As the saying goes, “a farmer is only as good as their soil” so the farm carries out soil testing across the farm every two years and takes an in-depth scienti c view of getting the chemistry right in the soil – whether that’s trying to balance out nutrients that are too high, causing locking up, or looking at organic matter levels.

A mechanised process

With cider apple harvesting being a mechanised process and the farm team keeping busy all year round, the farm has only seven permanent orchard sta and no need for seasonal pickers – a fact which surprises many people, Chris said. Within the Thatchers business as a whole, however, there are around 250 sta , and the farm will take on two apprentices this year as part of the Thatchers’ Early Careers Programme.

Much of the machinery the farm has, for example its harvesting equipment, is bespoke to the cider apple industry and comprises brands such as SFM, Bavenhills and Tuthill. “We typically have larger tractors than traditional fruit farms as our trees are planted on wider rows; this means they can be utilised for other jobs such as hauling apples into the mill from the orchards. When purchasing equipment, we are constantly looking to improve e ciency, such as reducing passes, fuel economy, reliability. There is also an emphasis on driver comfort.”

There remains a “hangover” from the shortages of machinery and parts triggered during the pandemic. The farm managed to buy an apple harvester just in time, but it now keeps more parts in stock as availability and lead times continue to pose some problems.

Encouraging bene cials

Another bene t of being juice producers is that many of the super cial pests other growers would be concerned about are not a problem for Myrtle Farm. Instead, they focus on those that harm yields and tree health, including apple blossom weevil, rosy apple aphid, apple saw y, woolly aphid and mites – speci cally spider mites.

On the disease side, being in the west of