Cowfold business offers cider swap

Trenchmore Farm, in Burnthouse Lane, is asking members of the public to bring clean, ripe, unsprayed, hand-picked apples to the farm between 10am and 12pm every Sunday morning in October.

The apples will be weighed, tipped and turned into cider ready to collect in the spring.

Oscar Knowles, who works at Trenchmore, explained: “For every four kilos of apples delivered to the press we’ll give you an IOU for a bottle to collect in the spring. And you’ll enjoy it all the more, knowing it contains some of your own juice.

“Our orchard is still quite young and we need more apples. We know that many people can’t get through all the crop from their garden but hate to see them go unused. This seemed like a good reason to harvest the trees and keep Silly Moo local.

“We’re also asking people to take a photo and tell us the variety of their tree so we can map it on our website.”

The farm has just released a new brand of cider called Silly Moo Cowfold Cider.

A small number of pubs across the district will be selling the company’s cider including The Crabtree in Lower Beeding, The Royal Oak in Henfield, The Fountain at Ashurst, The George and Dragon in Shipley, The White Horse in Maplehurst and The Rose and Crown in Cuckfield.

Oscar added: “Silly Moo is the result of the successful marriage of East and West Country cider styles - something unique in this neck of the woods.

“If you’re wondering how the name came about, you should see the beef cattle being Silly Moos: literally skipping to get at the pomace left over from pressing the apples.”