“Comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love” – Solomon

It’s apple harvest season, and in this third instalment of our mini apple series we’re talking about what that really means here on the estate: lashings of apple juice. Sweet, tangy and uniquely comforting, apple juice is an ideal drink and ingredient at this time of year – and we’re pressing plenty of it (more on that later).

Swap out your usual morning OJ for chilled apple juice, to awaken in the dark with a healthy dose of antioxidants and plant compounds. Add a little juice to sweet recipes, try in savoury soups and sauces – it goes splendidly with chicken, pork or beetroot – or mull with cinnamon and spices.

We like our juice just as it is to enjoy the full flavours of the fruit. We’re usually serving a different variety, according to what has been pressed and is at its seasonal best. On the menu at the moment:

  • Egremont Russet – A classic English apple from the Victorian era, traditionally described as ‘nutty’ in flavour and delivering a rich, thick, very sweet juice.
  • Falstaff – a recently discovered apple, bred in Kent in the 1960s, it makes particularly good juice. Lively and sweet, with a pleasant sharpness.

Most excitingly, this week we’re pressing Red Love apples. These unique red-fleshed jewels, created in Switzerland, are pressed by our team into a candy pink juice. Used to make our Rosé Cyder, we’ll be turning them to juice for the first time – the only juice of its kind, in fact. Flamboyantly red, tasting of both strawberry and apple – it’s the perfect match. 

You’ll find the Cyder Press in juicing motion most weekends this season, with the team on hand to tell you more about what they’re getting up to.

Beetroot, Apple & Thyme Soup

“Just a lovely soup to wrap your hands around after a long autumnal walk” – Alan Stewart, Estate Head Chef

  • 4 x fresh beetroot
  • 1 x 750ml bottle The Newt apple juice
  • 500ml vegetable stock
  • Crème fraîche
  • 2 x onions
  • 5 x garlic cloves
  • 1 x apple
  • A handful of fresh thyme

First, peel and chop the beetroot (get this out the way as you’ll need to clean up afterwards!).

Peel and chop the onions and garlic, then sweat down in a pan using extra virgin rapeseed oil with a little sea salt.

Add the thyme leaves, stripped from the stalk, then the peeled and chopped beetroot. 

Add the apple juice and vegetable stock, simmer for 30 minutes.

Peel and chop the apple, add to the pan, and cook for about another 15 minutes, until the beetroot is fully cooked.

Blend smooth and serve warm, with a large spoonful of crème fraîche, freshly cracked black pepper and sea salt flakes.