Cider producers say increasingly hot summers are shrinking harvests and making apple crops harder to predict, as many brace themselves for the worst year on record.
Growers described they have been taking to their orchards unprecedently early over the last few years, as apples are dropping weeks before they are expected to be ready.
The time to pick apples depends very much on their variety, but many are typically ready by October, in line with peak harvest season.
Paul Harrison, producer of Temple Cider, near Beaminster, described as a result of the hot summer and drought, they have reaped smaller quantities of apples, that are falling nearly a month earlier than anticipated.
“Everything we do is handpicked and pressed in small batches, he said, “this summer the early apples are coming earlier than usual. About two to three weeks earlier.
“Last year was early and this year was earlier again.”
As well as making smaller fruit, the apples that do make it to pressing contain higher sugar levels, leading to a stronger cider, which for some suppliers is of no use as pubs will not sell it.
The hot weather has also affected pears that they grow for perry, which are ready and dropping a month earlier as well.
This summer was provisionally the hottest the UK has ever experienced, according to the Met Office, which was not only sweltering but long lasting, with six heatwaves from May to August.
Throughout the summer, some apple growers across the UK resulted in smearing produce with clay, to act as a type of sun protection, to prevent them from boiling from the inside out.
As an independent, smaller business, Paul said they were lucky to be able to adapt their practices and use any of the 35 varieties of apples that thrived over others when needed, but initially, they did have their worries.
He said that larger companies are not always quite so lucky, and in the past, some had reached out to see if they would sell any of their harvest.
Paul said: “I have been told stories of orchards that should be yielding 50 tonnes of apples and have got half of that.”
Not only are harsh summers a threat for cider makers, but milder winters also mean that some flowers cannot bud in the spring which will stunt fruition later in the year, particularly for the Dabinett variety.
“Most apples need a certain number of chilled hours in the winter, below 5 or 6 degrees. They will be adversely affected by milder winters,” Paul said.
Dorset was officially declared in drought this summer in what was described as an ‘exceptionally serious situation’ following the driest July on record since they began in 1836.
Paul, who was out picking apples while taking to the News, said will be collecting the last apples towards the last week of October.
He runs Temple Cider alongside his partner Jo Taylor. The couple moved to the farm in 2014 and incorporated cider making into their business. Paul was previously an electrical engineer and is originally from Derbyshire.
All the apples used are picked by hand and the business has won a number of impressive awards, including a gold medal from the International Cider Challenge last year.
“This is my favourite time, spending time in the orchard picking up apples. I look forward to it every year. Everybody thinks I am crazy, picking everything up by hand. We are not working on an industrial scale. It’s a life crawling around on your hands and knees,” Paul said.
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