Petrified pumpkins, spooky silhouettes and cupcakes covered in ghostly monsters are the order of the day when it comes to the sacred celebration that is Halloween. This year, we’re centring our All Hallows' Eve celebrations around the seasonal delight, the monstrous and macabre named Malus domestica, or more commonly known as the apple. 

This gave us the chance to visit a region blessed with apple orchards, Herefordshire, to haunt and horrify (only joking) to meet one family of apple growers making cider and apple juice, the Lynch-Blosse-Halls at Townsend Farm. With it being Halloween, and being surrounded by apples, the scene was set for several rounds of competitive apple bobbing. 

A True Celebration of the Apple 

Townsend Farm is a small family farm near Ledbury, Herefordshire, predominately with apple orchards. Their mission is to produce apple juice and cider that really showcases each season. It’s all about showcasing how they manage their orchards for the past 12 months, and with the varying weather conditions, how that all comes through in a glass. It’s about single variety, always. So, year-on-year, their customers can see the changes. 

Bobbing for Apples in Le Chameau  

“We love Halloween here at Townsend Farm, and ever since the children were small, we have always loved to set up a game of apple bobbing! Most years we will have a little gathering with family and friends, which gives all the children involved a mega apple dunking competition. Halloween is always ended with fireworks and sprinklers!” Says Jamie, father of the family and apple dynasty.

The family are long-standing wearers of Le Chameau. Mum Jess says, “We love Le Chameau for their superior quality and craftsmanship, especially when living and working outside in the countryside. They are amazing to wear on the farm, in the orchards, to the shops, to town and also dressed up in the field watching the local hunt.” 

A Year of the Apple 

We asked the family why Herefordshire is so special when it comes to growing apples. “Herefordshire has a long history of commercial apple and cider production,” says Jess. “Sat next to the Black Mountains of Wales, the landscape has a unique microclimate. Combined with the fact that much of the county is rooted on Old Red Sandstone, which gives a distinctive red soil and is great for growing apple trees.”  
“Every bottle of apple juice and cider is a celebration of the full year,” Jamie adds. “Working with apple orchards celebrates each season. 

Come winter, the trees are dormant, so we prune. You need a well-balanced tree. Not too overcrowed and with enough space for air to blow through the trees, allowing more light in the later seasons. Spring then comes in and lifts all the winter blues. From bud burst to blossom, it is a welcome sight to celebrate signs of apples growing. Praying we get no late frosts; it’s onto summer when we start seeing tiny apples growing. Then, when autumn arrives, it’s time to pick. All of our eating apples are handpicked as delicately as possible. 

These we pick day one, press day two and bottle day three, to give each bottle of apple juice a true taste of that apple. Cider apples we mechanically shake the tress and then scoop all fallen apples up into the harvester. For our cider, we press each variety singularly and ferment with wild yeasts, maturing them over the next 12-24 months, blended and bottled.” 

Happenings on the Farm: Harvest and Halloween  

When it comes to autumn at Townsend Farm, besides the children getting excited for Halloween, it’s all hands-on deck as autumn means harvest. Jamie leads a team of pickers to hand pick the apples for the juice and eating apples. “It’s so busy here at this time of year, making sure there are apple bins in the right places in the orchards, bringing the bins back in from the orchards, and at the same time, making sure there is a team mechanically harvesting the cider fruit. There is also a third team pressing the apples for juice and cider, as well as pasteurising and filling bottles of juice in the season. So, it’s all going on right now!”  

The family’s choice of Le Chameau include Vierzonord, Giverny and our range of children’s boots. 

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