Brass ensemble

I think we can safely say our blog is eclectic. Most recently we’ve written about the crime of peat-based compost and earlier musings have taken in chaos theory, Fry’s Chocolate Cream, chill units and vernalisation and the thorny issue of apostrophes. We’ve covered maps and county boundaries, discussed whether cider-making is craft (yes) or art (no) and written some meaningless nonsense about fictional people who may have shared their names with apple varieties (it amused us, at any rate). We’ve posted quite a bit about apples and traditional orchards, have touched on a couple of aspects of cider-making and praised Laurie Lee’s prose. We’ve said very little about our own cider.

So, given that today is World Cider Day, we’re devoting a whole blog to our own cider. About the only sensible career advice we received at school was to blow one’s own trumpet because no one else will blow it for you. So, here’s the Bushel+Peck brass band, not just the trumpets but also French horns, trombones (both tenor and bass), a couple of euphoniums and a tuba as well. We would have included a suzzaphone, had we heard of it. There’s no place for a saxaphone - although made of brass and wonderful in every respect, it’s a woodwind instrument, as the sound is produced from an oscillating reed, not lips vibrating on a brass cup.

Bushel+Peck. Handcrafted in Gloucestershire. Real cider, made simply, aiming to reflect the qualities of the fruit from which it is made. Our cider and perry is made only with unsprayed fruit gathered from gardens and traditional orchards in Gloucestershire (plus one orchard just over the border in Wiltshire and one in Herefordshire), to make cider with care and consideration for the environment, in a sustainable way and to minimise food miles. But rather than blow our own trumpet, French horn, trombone, euphonium or tuba we’ll contradict that earlier advice from school and let a few others do it for us.

Of course, taste and design is all a matter of opinion and others will have different views, but these are the sort of comments that suggest we’re doing the right things and help make it all worthwhile;

“excellent branding and delicious cider; cider perfection; a gem of a perry; lovely; delicious and brilliant. ”

Thank you to everyone who has tried our ciders and perry, and thank you even more to those who have shared kind words about them. And if you’ve yet to try Bushel+Peck, there’s a 20% Happy World Cider Day discount in our online shop … use the code CIDERDAY at the checkout (… which also applies to those who have already tried it) … and use the code FREE50 for FREE DELIVERY within the UK for all orders over £50.

And thanks also to The Cider Box, Bristol, for arranging a walk-on part with Postman Pat and his black and white cat, which also put a spring in our step. Oh, and no one was paid during the making of this commercial.