Wholesome juice brings Christmas Cheer
- At December 06, 2017
- By Richard Bentley
- In Juice, Seasonal
0
Our Christmas gift packs of three x 750ml bottles of wholesome Bentleys juice are perfect for someone who enjoys delicious and healthy local produce. Choose between our apple juice with ginger (which is perfect with whiskey, heated up or as it is); pure apple juice with raspberry; the cold-pressed, orchard pear juice; our mixed or single variety apple juices; or our apple juice with beetroot for those who prefer something a little less sweet. All our juices are made from the orchard fruit that we grow at Castle Fruit Farm, and we have won awards for the flavour of our produce and our sustainable methods.
The hand-pressed juice is produced on the farm, and it doesn’t contain any additives apart from a very small amount of vitamin C to prevent the juice from discolouring once it is opened. Unopened, the pasteurised juice lasts for 18 months. Most importantly, we think that the flavour of the tree-ripened fruit from our Newent farm can’t be beaten.
Juice makes an excellent gift for people who can’t or prefer not to drink alcohol over the festive period; it is a great winter pick-me-up as and it can be enjoyed by all the family.
We can supply the three bottles of juice in an eye-catching festive presentation box (at £2.50 for each bottle of apple or pear juices, or £2.80 for the juice blends) or provide a mixed box of juices and produce. You’ll be giving something that can’t be bought in the supermarkets, and which supports conservation agriculture and biodiversity. Just give us a ring or stop by our farm shop and let us do the rest.
Harvest is starting at Castle Fruit Farm. The Team arrives !
- At July 15, 2017
- By info@Bentleys
- In All, Seasonal
- 0
Here we are at the Cotswold Life Food and Drinks Award evening, having won the Drinks category with our fabulous Pear juice. A Great night out for Michael and Chrissy , Claire and Richie , Clive and Angela
The year is flying by !
I am going to introduce you to our team. The weather, the pollinators, the condition of the trees are all important but above all it is our team that brings the orchards literally to fruition with great quality fruits which keeps us an economic thriving fruit farm. Small family farms like ours are under threat as the economies of scale favours much larger operations than Castle Fruit Farm but we hope that there will continue to be a place for orchards like ours in the rural economy.
Michael and Chrissy Bentley came to Castle Fruit farm in 2002 from an arable background. We were very ably supported by Clive Maile our Manager who has amassed a wealth of experience and knowledge over his 37 years on Castle Fruit Farm. We have now been joined by son Richie , together with wife Claire and sons Oskar and Rudi who bring a great new energy to the farm !
The rest of the team is Nick , Mechanic, John our longstanding semi retired tractor driver, Artur, our senior tractor driver, Konrad our Field Foreman, Radek, Slavi and Arek. They are all hardworking young men from Poland who have been with us for some years. They are adept at all sorts of practical work and are not daunted by long hours when needed or working outside in all weathers.
Field Foreman
.
Nick , Artur and Slavi together with Asen Maya and Ivan from our Summer family
Radek
Come harvest time we welcome our Summer family of workers from Chepelare in Bulgaria . Chepelare is a ski area and so in winter many of them are involved in the ski resort : ski instructors, guides, ski room managers . It suits them therefore to come over here for our seasonal harvest work in Summer. And we need them. As I explained in an earlier blog , harvest requires crucial timing and that may mean early start if the fruit is ready and the day hot as well as long hours to ensure our very precise daily orders are met. We would not find enough local people with transport who want the long hours of physical work outdoors just during the summer months. They work hard, are skilled at the different aspects of the work, earn well and go home in the early Autumn. Long may this continue as harvest seasonal workers are vital to our and many other agricultural businesses.
Mira, Krassi and Eva our experienced summer team for thinning and harvesting
It is the start of July and the cherries are coming in thick and fast and amazingly the first Herman plums were harvested on July 4th and we had the honour of delivering the first English plums to Waitrose this season . The Opal plums are ripening and though smaller than usual because of the drought ,their flavour is more intense and I have already eaten too many….
Next blog will be recipe ideas for plums….barbecued, dipped in chocolate..
The rest of the team arrive this weekend and then harvest is truly underway. Look out for English fruit and remember that buying local keeps small family farms, rural businesses and our wonderful diversity of landscapes.
Pollination and the weather so far this season 2017
- At May 27, 2017
- By info@Bentleys
- In All, News, On the Farm, Seasonal
- 0
Bentleys Castle Fruit Farm Orchard Bee at work
The magic of pollination has happened and we have a myriad of insects to thank and above all think about. Pollination is the transfer of pollen from the male anthers to the female stigma which is essential to kick start cell division and set the fruit. Poor pollination leads to poor fruit set and yield and misshaped fruits, neither good news!
There are many insects that pollinate and to encourage large populations we need to provide sources of pollen and nectar right through from March until September. We must also provide habitat for all these pollinators nesting places and winter hideaways. All our non tree acres must be managed for these very important workers and here on Castle Fruit farm we are increasingly working to provide for them . We leave hedgerow margins, we don’t prune hedges every year, we are planting wild flower banks and keep as much brush, bramble thickets, dead trees and vegetation as possible . We mow every alternate alleyway to let flowers set seed and provide habitat. This is all a far cry from previous practice when farmers were urged to be tidy and cut and trim and spray everything in sight.What ignorance and with what sad results. I was talking recently with a bee keeper and he was very clear there is overall much less forage for today’s bees. This is something we can all do something about : plant flowers, shrubs , trees wherever we can and be untidy where possible.
We have been working with Sam Ardin who is doing research into pollinators here at Castle Fruit Farm. She is comparing our pollinator populations with other farms and we are pleased to know we lead the field in numbers and varieties of pollinators. We have active populations of very effective pollinators such as leafcutter bees
(left), some of the larger mining bees, 
left is the tawny mining bee, which was very active and some of the most effective hoverfly pollinators (two images below):
She was clear from her data that these contribute greatly to pollination in our orchards.We look forward to hearing more about these workers needs as we are keen to improve their habitat in any ways we can.
If you would like more information on Pollinators and other environmental issues a great website is :
http://www.cfeonline.org.uk/home/
In conclusion we are pleased we have had a good pollination and we have not suffered greatly from frosts. We are fortunate to have sloping land and the frost largely flows away. Rain and warmth have come and we are set for a slightly early season but then all these things can change overnight…
Who will Harvest our 2017 Crops
- At March 14, 2017
- By info@Bentleys
- In All, News, On the Farm, Seasonal
- 0
Who is going to harvest our fruit this year ?
Apple-picking by Pat Strauss
Buds are breaking on the Valor plum trees and hurrah,the blackthorn is in full blossom so the pollinators can get to work. These are our free workers so we try to make sure pollen is available early on by planting goat willow and keeping some of the hedges uncut for their early blossom. More on the importance of biodiversity later as what is more pressing is organising our harvest workers. Like all farmers we rely on seasonal labour to harvest our crops. In our case this means a group of Bulgarians who come every year for 3-5 months. Who works here has recently become a topic of heated discussion as Brexit and immigration hit the headlines. There are those who oppose this “immigration” and those who believe we should employ our local unemployed. The situation is not so simple and these are some of the issues as I see them.
Read More»Unpaid workers!
- At April 22, 2016
- By info@Bentleys
- In All, On the Farm, Seasonal
- 0
What a pleasure to see the bees at work. They are a treasured resource and as you know all farmers are doing their best to protect them by removing from use neonicotinoids from our spray repertoire. We always joke bees are our unpaid workers as they industriously work their way through the orchards. There are lots of different bee species and to our delight , Sam, who is carrying out some research into pollinators has identified a huge number of species in our orchards. Today is cool so most of the bees stay at home but the mason bee is very diligent and works all weathers . We import mason bees for the early pollination period.
Research with the University of Bristol
- At May 14, 2015
- By info@Bentleys
- In News, Seasonal
- 0
The apple and plum blossom have been spectacular this last month. We are involved with the University of Bristol who are researching wildlife and modern orcharding . A great link up for us who gave us the intereseting feedback that we had 10 different types of hover fly in our Jazz and Gala orchards ! These unpaid workers are crucial for the harvest so we are very glad to know they are out there.
Down on the Farm…
- At March 23, 2015
- By info@Bentleys
- In All, On the Farm, Seasonal
- 0
The Valor plums as always are the first into blossom. They should be in full bloom by the end of the weekend. Pruning of plums should best be done when the sap is rising to avoid disease and so today, March 22, we have started pruning.
