Apples a bit 'smaller than normal' due to warm summer conditions, says Herefordshire cider maker
It's as Westons is currently in its harvesting season, where it usually gets around 30-40,000 tonnes of apples in each time
A Herefordshire cider-making business has said this summer's conditions has led to some apples being slightly smaller than usual but was also a real boost for trade.
The prolonged dry and warm weather throughout the middle part of the year saw drought status declared for the West Midlands at the end of July, something which it is still in.
Westons, which was founded back in 1880 by Henry Weston and is based in the village of Much Marcle, is currently in its harvesting season where it expects to get around 30-40,000 tonnes of apples that are all sourced from within a 50-mile of its mill.
Head of productions Giles Goodwin has been doing the role for 18 years, he said they're bringing in about 600 tonne of the fruit a day at the moment and they've seen the summer weather have a little impact.
"I think it's fair to say due to the fairly dry, hot summer, the apples are smaller than they would normally be," he said.
"They’re probably similar to last year because we experienced similar conditions but sugar content is very high so that's a bonus.
"In terms of the overall volume and weight, we are comparable to last year, but I think some growers will probably be seeing around about 10% less than last year."
The owner of a pumpkin patch in Herefordshire who has just opened up ahead of Halloween has also said some varieties of their pumpkins are also smaller due to the weather.
Mr Goodwin said they've managed to keep on top of all of their apple trees in their orchards through a 'wet system' it has installed, but it would be a worry if these warm conditions continued in future summers.
"For us at Westons it's more of a longer-term concern," he said.
"Certainly if we got another hot, dry spell next summer, the trees tend to get stressed and then you see the impact the following year.
"Here though we ferment all of our cider during the pressing season as juice and we then mature that for a minimum of six months which then will stay in the tanks then until January next year.
"So in terms of stock wise, we're fine, because we've got that great juice model that we can hold 35 million litres of base cider at any one time."
On some of the positives the summer weather brought, he added: "June and July were fantastic, they were record-breaking months from both a sales and a production point of view."