The in-cider scoop on how to make scrumpy... courtesy of an 18th century priest

Saturday 07 October 2017

As islanders kick back with lashings of artisanal Jersey cider at this weekend’s Faîs’sie d’Cidre, some might wonder how exactly the golden beverage is made. The answer, it turns out, can be found in a 1800s guide with an unexpected author… published digitally for the first time this week.

The 200-year-old document, ‘A Treatise on the Cultivation of Apple Trees and the Preparation of Cider’, details everything you need to know about making the apple beverage from the optimum distance apart to plant apple trees and how to secure them against high winds to how to fix screws on a cider press.

It was penned by Reverend Francis Le Couteur, who was an esteemed Rector of Grouville and Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford University. Descended from an ancient and respected family, his family history was heavily steeped in academic achievement. A scholar of maths and philosophy, he later found himself on a religious path and returned to Jersey.

Pictured: Reverend Francis Le Couteur thought that his mission to help others master the art of the cider press would improve the island as a whole.

But upon settling, he found a new and rather surprising calling. Finding Jersey’s cider to be “generally of an inferior kind”, he decided to make it his mission to remedy the situation, believing it to be an “essential benefit to the island.”

“With this view, therefore, he de­voted the greatest part of his leisure from his professional avocations for his last thirty years, to this branch of rural eco­nomy. He not only succeeded with regard to his own cider, but he had also the satisfaction to see his instructions spread daily more and more among his countrymen, and their staple commodity increase in reputation,” a friend of his wrote.

He decided to document that expertise in a bid to help others on a cider-making mission in his not-so-catchily titled book.

Prepare for the @loveheritage Faîs'sie d'Cidre at Hamptonne next weekend by reading, newly digitised on our website; pic.twitter.com/YCv3A3yhAg

— Société Jersiaise (@Soc_Jersiaise) September 30, 2017

Now that special work has been digitised by the Société Jerriais for all to see over 200 years later – just in time for this weekend’s Heritage Cider Festival, which shows the spirit of his cider-making days is still very much alive on the island today.

Set against a backdrop and Jerriais, workshops and live music, the autumnal event promises a whole-hearted celebration of the best-loved apple beverage that would make Reverend Francis proud.

For those not so convinced by cider, there’ll be plenty of food on offer from local producers, including a Great Jersey Bake Off – or, rather, ‘La Grande Gâchinn’nie Jèrriaise (to use the correct term).

You can catch La Faîs’sie d’Cidre between 10:00 and 19:00 on Saturday and 10:00 until 17:00 on Saturday and Sunday at Hamptonne Country Life Museum. For more event information, click here.