The legacy of bears and monks
Henry Hobhouse
A SOMERSET POMONA: THE CIDER APPLES OF SOMERSET by Liz Copas The Dovecote Press:19.95, pp. 80, ISBN 1874336873 Apples probably originated, together with pears and damsons, apricots and, perhaps, peaches, in great fruit forests in Central Asia. This was in an era of pre-history, and long before any settled farming in the region. A few primeval patches of this unique forest still exist, occupied by bears, as well as by other animals. It was bears who moved apples to Europe and to North America, to the latter via the land bridge that predated the Bering Straits. Bears, who favour sweet fruit, selected apples for juice and sugar content, a form of natural selection not stressed by Charles Darwin. Ultimately, some apple varieties were carried to Western Europe while others were established in colonies in suitable conditions in North America. The only true British natives, crab-apples, were not spread by bears and are notably sour.
Despite romantic yearnings for a rosy Celtic apple past, replete with wassails and the rest, it was almost certainly monks in abbeys like Glastonbury (and not King Arthur) who rationalised apple-growing and developed selection, grafting and budding and good practice in field and ciderhouse. By 1800, most Somerset farms probably had an orchard and made some sort of cider, while workers were paid part of their wages in drink, The Truck Act of 1887 notionally made payment in kind illegal, but until world war two, some Somerset farmworkers were still partly rewarded with home-made cider (and sometimes cheese), especially those casually employed in the harvest, which then involved much heavy manual work unknown today.
Few farms today make cider, which is now largely mass-produced; even fewer farmers compensate workers with a liquid lunch, while bush apple trees have been, since 1970, far commoner than arc traditional Standards under which farm animals used to thrive. Standard trees are notionally favoured for 'wildlife', but in most bush orchards frogs, toads, shrews and fieldmice live in happy profusion. This proves, once again, that man-made rural environments of the right sort are worth more than aspirational ideals promoted by (usually) urban Greens.
Good cider, like good wine, depends on a benign balance between acidity, fruitiness and sugar in selected varieties, on soil and sub-soil under the plants, and on the season, but above all on good husbandry in the field and in the making of the drink. The author, a practical field expert as well as a
dedicated botanist, tells the story (and history) as well as identifying and illustrating more than 80 varieties of Somerset cider apples. There are evocative names: Fair Maid of Taunton, Slack-ma-Girdle, Wearand-Tear and Yeovil Sour.
There is one fair complaint. The publishers, presumably to widen its appeal, have produced this book in coffee-table format, but as a paperback. As it is only 40 leaves thick, this makes for a floppy publication, difficult to read without a table or a bookrest. Could a later edition be offered with a hard cover?
This physical criticism apart, here is a lovely primer about apples and about cider and about Somerset, then and now. It is a distinguished Christmas present, even for those who prefer looking at pictures rather than making the effort involved in reading.
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