Property Round Up By Helen Fisher

New to you in Twenty Two! By Helen Fisher

BRIDPORT £680,000 YEOVIL £998,000

A stylish Grade II listed 4 bedroom townhouse with many period features inc: high ceilings and sash windows with original shutters. Family kitchen with Aga. A well established south-west facing courtyard garden plus dedicated off-street parking for two cars. Set within a no-through road in the centre of town.

Symonds and Sampson Tel: 01308 422092

An impressive 8 bedroom family home with wonderful views across 20 miles of unspoilt countryside. Beautifully presented throughout with reclaimed French oak flooring, open fireplace and French doors onto a terrace. Electric entrance gates, private gardens, paddock summerhouse and numerous outbuildings/annex. Garage and ample parking. All set in 1 acre.

Knight Frank Tel: 01935 810064

COLYFORD £625,000

A bright and contemporary detached family home built in the 1970s with 4 bedrooms/3 bathrooms. Beautifully presented with spacious open-plan living areas with French doors onto the south-facing, landscaped garden. Master bedroom with balcony overlooking the garden and views beyond. Ample parking plus double garage.

Gordon and Rumsby Tel: 01297 553768

LYME REGIS £1,200,000

An individual detached house, set in an elevated position with stunning sea views. Built in 2002 with 6 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. Set over 3 floors with well appointed and presented rooms throughout. Beautiful landscaped gardens with summer house and private terrace with coastal views. Double garage and ample parking.

Stags Tel: 01308 428000 UPLODERS £545,000

A Purbeck stone village house set on a private corner plot with far-reached countryside views. With 3 bedrooms, built in the 1970s and beautifully presented & updated. Southwest facing established gardens with small trees and raised terrace. Ample parking and double garage. Benefitting from a no-forward chain.

Kennedys Tel: 01308 427329

BRIDPORT £820,000

A substantial, detached 4 bedroom chalet-bungalow with sea and coastline views. With ground floor Canadian oak flooring, Aga and wood-burning stove. French doors onto patio area with pergola. Established and well stocked south-facing gardens with fruit trees inc: apple, pear and plum. Detached garage/garden store with light and power plus greenhouse and wooden store.

Kennedys Tel: 01308 427329

Talking Food and Drink in The Fox at Corscombe

MARK Hix is known for his careful sourcing of responsibly produced food and drink and the subsequent relationships he builds with suppliers. So, this winter he is welcoming guest producers to host a series of very special dinners at The Fox Inn, giving Fox guests an opportunity to meet the producers and learn about how their food and drink is made.

The series kicked off with a pre-Christmas Cheese and Wine supper which saw Rob Corbett of Castlewood Vineyards and Trish Maunder of Somerset Membrillo host an evening with Mark, giving the low down on everything you could wish to know about growing vines and producing still and sparkling wines in the Devonshire countryside.

Mark says ‘Our menus change every day based on the local produce that has been brought into us, or new producers I have found in the area—whether that’s homegrown fruit and vegetables, mushrooms from our local forager or pigs that have been reared especially for us. Our series of events is a great opportunity for the producer to tell their story and introduce their delicious food and drink to our guests first-hand.

In the new year, Mark and the Fox team will welcome Jason Barber, who cofounded Black Cow Vodka with his business partner Paul Archard, making the smoothest vodka in the world purely from milk. Guests will hear the story of how Black Cow Vodka came about before tasting Black Cow vodka cocktails alongside a special menu created by Mark, which will, of course, include the Black Cow Cheddar.

There is a Charcuterie and Beer event on February 2nd at 7pm when David & Karen Richards of Capreolus chat with Dan Fitzpatrick from Gilt & Flint

Tickets for these events are priced at £85 and include the four course menu with paired drinks. Tickets can be bought online at thefoxinncorscombe.co.uk/ news-events. The Fox is at Pound Hill, Corscombe, Dorset DT2 0NS. For more information visit thefoxinncorscombe.co.uk.

DNA techniques used to find apple varieties

WITH the largest and most diverse collection of apples used in cider making under its care, Somerset cider maker Thatchers has been partnering with the University of Bristol

Prof Keith Edwards and Chris Muntz-Torres in a ground-breaking project that is using DNA fingerprinting techniques to identify apple tree varieties.

With many old and heritage varieties of apple trees beginning to disappear, the project is using genotyping—a process that compares DNA to find the differences in genetic make-up—to identify different varieties of cider apples.

Led by Professor Keith Edwards from the School of Biological Sciences and post-graduate student Alex Graham, scientists from the university visited Thatchers’ Exhibition Orchard to gather leaf samples for genotyping and thus identification. The biggest collection of apples for cider making in the country, Thatchers’ Exhibition Orchard contains hundreds of different varieties of apple tree, many of which were saved from the Long Ashton Research Station in Bristol when cider research stopped in 1985. The researchers have also been out to other Thatchers’ orchards to gather samples, helping them create the largest database of apple tree fingerprints in the world, with over 2,500 genotypes present.

Chris Muntz-Torres, Thatchers Farm Manager has been involved in the project since its inception. ‘This is such a fantastic piece of research which will help us understand even more about the trees in our orchards. As with any research, you’re not always sure what’s going to be found. Although we think we know about the trees in our Exhibition Orchard with detailed plans we’ve compiled over the years as new trees have been planted, you never know, the research may identify a variety that’s been lost and now rediscovered. That would be such an exciting find!

‘By using the DNA technique to tell us more about the pedigree of each variety in our Exhibition orchard, we hope to be able to start creating new varieties of apple for cider making with the characteristics that we love as cider makers.’

Professor Edwards says, ‘By taking a leaf and fingerprinting it, we are in effect creating a barcode for that tree. And from that we are able to produce a reliable process for easy identification in the future.’