The product
Dry or sweet, all our apple juice has that deliciously distinctive taste of freshly pressed fruit.
Our juice remains cloudy because of the apple varieties we use and the fact we don’t add pectinase or bentonite. We believe natural is always best!
Although our eating fruit is only available seasonally, our apple juice is sold in our farm shop all year round.
The process
There are around 14 hectares of fruit orchards on the Waitrose & Partners farm, where our apples grow. Our fruit is handpicked by our fruit farm manager, Colin, and his talented team of seasonal staff.
Our sweet apple juice contains purely dessert apples, while our cloudy juice is crafted from a mix of dessert and Bramley, giving it a sharper flavour.
The entire process of pressing, filtering, pasteurising and bottling can be completed in just one day. We press around 25 tonnes of apples each year, producing approximately 20,000 bottles of juice. Each of our 750ml bottles contains about 12 apples.
The team
The fruit farm is managed by our Partner Colin: an experienced fruit grower who’s worked on the estate for over 25 years.
We’re also lucky to have the help of Partners from elsewhere on the farm, and across the rest of the Partnership during our busiest times.
Ethics & sustainability
As with all our farming practices, we adopt maintenance methods that work in harmony with nature and allow us to produce a sustainable, seasonal fruit crop.
We let the ground-level area in our orchards naturalise, allowing beneficial pollinators and natural pest predators to live and work with us. This keeps our soil healthy and our fruit tasty. Don’t fear, though – we monitor the onset of any potential pests using pheromone traps and target with treatment if needed.
Our orchards are flanked by rows of trees and hedges, which protect the fruit from blustery conditions while providing a habitat for local wildlife.
Plus, not wanting to waste any fruit, all our apple juice is made from apples that didn’t meet the cosmetic standards for eating and sold in recyclable glass bottles.
