The Gardener's Orchard

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The Gardener's Orchard

Traditional farmhouse cider, homemade fudge and cider cake in West Dorset. Special requests are most welcome for occasions such as weddings & birthdays.

The Gardener's Orchard is a local business producing delicious crumbly fudge, traditional farmhouse cider & cider cake in West Dorset. Find our products at country fairs, events and a growing number of shops in the Beaminster, Bridport & Crewkerne area. For more information and to order online, visit our website:
www.thegardenersorchard.co.uk

If you are running an event and interested in a fudge, cider and/or cider cake stall, please get in touch by message or email.

22/02/2025

It's pruning time! We have been giving our Somerset Redstreaks a good tidy up, pruning out any disease, allowing lots of light into the middles and hoping to encourage the trees to produce as many apples as possible. Its hard work, but a lovely way to spend weekends 🍎🍏🌞

21/12/2024

It's been a very festive fudge week this week, with orders going out to and Mosterton Village stores. Our fudge makes a great stocking or hamper filler, for a sweet treat or a last minute gift 😍

Merry Christmas to all from us in the orchard! And here's to a happy new year!!
🌲🧑‍🎄❄️🍏🍎

19/11/2024

Only a few more days to get tickets for Mapperton Christmas Market! Always a great way to ease into the festive season. We will be there with fudge, cake, cider and apple juice, perfect for Christmas presents! 🍎🍰🍺

5 more days!!! And remember, our Christmas Market is all under enclosed and warm marquees! 🎄✨ Join Us at Mapperton Estate's Christmas Market! 🎁🌟

Get ready for another festive extravaganza at Mapperton Estate in West Dorset! 🏰✨ We've curated a magical Christmas Market with 100 stalls featuring locally sourced gifts, live bands to set the mood, and even a visit from Father Christmas! 🎅🎶

📅 Date: 23rd & 24th November
🎟️ Tickets: £5 (Under 12's FREE)

Experience the warmth of the season with:
🎁 Unique gifts from local artisans
🍷 Sip on mulled wine as you shop
🥧 Indulge in delicious mince pies
🎶 Groove to live bands spreading holiday cheer
🎅 Meet and greet with Father Christmas
☕ Enjoy the finest coffee to keep you fuelled

Come one, come all to celebrate the spirit of Christmas in the stunning surroundings of Mapperton Estate! 🎄✨ Grab your tickets now (which includes a visit to our awards winning gardens!) at www.Mapperton.com and tag a friend who needs some festive fun! 🎟️👫 🌟

Tickets here: https://mapperton.com/product/mapperton-christmas-market-23rd-24th-november-2024/

24/09/2024

It was a big weekend for Gardeners Orchard this weekend as we installed our new compost loo! A true team effort, with lots of help from brilliant friends and neighbours. Made just down the road and customised for us, it even has a nest box in the corner for our ever growing robin population 😀 we love it!

12/09/2024

Insta vs reality: when flying practise begins while you're balanced on a mower trying to photograph swallow fledglings!

Our swallows have overachieved this year and have had a second brood of chicks. These fluffy little chaps fledged yesterday but are still spending some time snuggled up together in the rafters of the stables.

Always a bit of a worry when they fledge this late as they only have a few short weeks to strengthen their flight muscles before they head off to Africa for the winter. Still, flying practise has got off to a great start, and both parents are still around to provide lots of food!

Good luck guys! 🍎🐥🐦🍏

07/09/2024

Now the weather is turning here in Dorset, rainy afternoons are filled with hot drinks and warm cidery apple cake. 🎂

Our apple cake is made using a Dorset recipe and our own cider and when possible, our own apples from the orchard. Our cider apples are no good for baking, but we have a couple of trees that are eating and cooking varieties. Now is the time to collect these apples in and store them, so we can use them for cakes for the rest of the year. 🍎🍏

31/08/2024

Apples are ripening fast! We grow 8 traditional Dorset/Somerset varieties of cider apple in the orchard, and esch one behaves a little differently. Our ever reliable Tremletts Bitters (pic 1) are drooping with rapidly ripening red apples. By contrast our Brown's Apples (pic 2) have very few this year, as its an off year for them. As a biennial variety, Brown's apples produce a big crop one year, and then almost none the next. We have got quite used to this, it's a quirk that adds to the charm of working out the mix of varieties to use in each barrel each year. 🍏🍎💚

28/08/2024

Apples are ripening, cider making season is coming! We are busy mowing under the apple trees to make apple picking easier. Apples are starting to drop, which means we will be apple picking in a few weeks time!!

💚🍎🍏

22/08/2024

*Traditional cider making days*

Come and join us for a day of cider making this October!

Our crisp, dry farmhouse cider has taken some years to perfect, and the fun has been in the making process, so we decided to share it with others!

As part of a small group, you will take part in collecting and washing the apples, loading them on to the elevator for pulping, and filling the cloths of the traditional French press to build the ‘cheese’. Finally, we will crank down the press, watch the juice flow, and pump it into our oak barrels where it will then turn into cider!

A delicious homemade lunch will be provided, and everyone will take a tour of the orchard, learning about our trees and their management, before taking home some of last year's cider to finish off the day.

To find out more and book your spot, visit www.thegardenersorchard.co.uk, or search cider at Craft Courses

See you in the orchard! 🍎

Photos from MMS Photography

19/08/2024

Orchards are wonderful places for wildlife 😊

Mistle thrush chicks in an apple tree nest 🐣
A huge geotrupidae dung beetle - our chief engineers 🪲
Spider webs on dewy mornings 🕸
Not really wildlife... but Indi is our chief of fertiliser 🐎
Roe deer love the long grass we leave between the trees after a hay cut 🦌
Freshly fledged swallows 🐦
A hover fly admiring some cider - part of the pollinator team 🐝

17/08/2024

It's a big fudge delivery week for us this week! Summer holidays are in full swing, it's our busiest time for fudge sales 🍬

Find our traditional crumbly fudge at Felicity's Farm Shop , Dorset Nectar Cider , The Vending Shed , Parrett Brand, North Perrott Fruit Farm, Tytherleigh Farm Shop, The Wagon House, Mosterton stores and Kingston Maurward shop 😄

06/08/2024

Now the hay is made and stored in the barn for winter, we start to think about cider making in the autumn. Inspiration is best found while enjoying last year's cider. Crisp, dry farmhouse cider, smelling of apples and sunshine, is what we enjoy on a summers evening in the orchard 🍎

29/07/2024

Gardeners Orchard fudge is made using a recipe handed down from a previous generation. With a traditional crumbly texture, it melts in the mouth. We make four flavours:

⭐️ Traditional vanilla - conjures up childhood memories of fudge at the beach on summer holidays
⭐️ Salted vanilla - for those who like to mix salty and sweet
⭐️ Raspberry - because fruit in fudge is one of your 5-a-day, right? 😅
⭐️ Chocolate - for all chocoholics, old and young!

Our fudge can be found at many local shops, including in North Perrott, Mosterton village shop, at Morecombelake, Dorset Nectar near Salwayash, in Axminster, and Kingston Maurward shop near Dorchester 😊

20/07/2024

We are now on Instragram as well as Facebook! Follow us there for more news about the orchard, fudge, cake, and cider 😄

Address

Opening Hours

Monday

08:00 - 18:00

Website

http://www.thegardenersorchard.co.uk/

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Videos

Is there any more satisfying noise?! Cider bubbling happily away in the barrels. As fermentation progresses, gas is released. When this stops, we know it's time to rack off the barrel, and we are one step closer to taste testing 😋 🍎🍏 #gardenersorchard #traditionalorchard #cider #westdorset #dorset

Happy apple day! 🍎 We had a lovely weekend making cider with friends, is there a better way to spend a weekend?! Each barrel had a different mix of apple varieties from the orchard, we can't wait to see how the cider tastes next spring when it finishes fermenting. For now, it's more apple crumble and storing cooking apples for apple cakes throughout the winter 🍰 Hooray for apples, where would we be without them?! 🍎🍏 #westdorset #gardenersorchard #dorset #traditionalcidermaking #traditionalorchard

October is somehow here and this is what we have been up to for the last couple of weeks! It's still relatively early in the season, some of our trees have dropped their apples, others need a helping hand to make sure we have enough for cider making this weekend. #shakeit #shakethatappletree #shakeitoff #gardenersorchard #traditionalorchard #westdorset #cider

Come and make traditional cider with us, followed by home-made lunch and some cider to take home! We still have a few places left on October 12th and 19th, visit the link in our bio to book! We can also take group bookings! Have a team of 6-8 people who want to get outside and learn something new? Get in touch and we can put something together for you. Our crisp, dry farmhouse cider has taken some years to perfect, and the fun has been in the making process, so we decided to share it with others! As part of a small group, you will take part in collecting and washing the apples, loading them on to the elevator for pulping, and filling the cloths of the traditional French press to build the ‘cheese’. Finally, we will crank down the press, watch the juice flow, and pump it into our oak barrels where it will then turn into cider! A delicious homemade lunch will be provided, and everyone will take home some of last year's cider to finish off the day. See you in the orchard! 🍎 #gardenersorchard #westdorset #cidermaking #traditionalcidermaking