An Autumnal Day At Killerton Apple and Cider Festival

I spent a lovely day mooching around the Killerton Estate at the weekend. They had a cider and apple festival on that was celebrating all things appley. Steve tried Killertons own cider and an apple ale. Alex had apple strudel and I had parsnip and apple soup. We all tried freshly pressed apple juice from their orchards too.. We really did try and embrace all apple based products.

We spent a little bit of time wondering around the orchards where they had a little stage for bands, a few stalls selling pottery and woodwork plus some food and drink stalls. They even had an apple press where you could take a bag of your own apples and they would press it into juice for you to take home! There were lots of children’s activities on. As a family with young children you could have spent hours watching the kids play.

After spending time in the orchard we moved on to the farmers market. I met the lovely Louise from Louise’s Larder who I had spent time emailing over the past week with regards to an event I have planned for later on in the year. It was lovely putting a face to a name. She was selling her wonderful jams with the biggest scones I have ever seen at the market. If only I hadn’t had a late breakfast otherwise one of those scones would have ended up in my tummy!

We moved on to Killerton house and gardens next. The house was beautiful inside. It was set up just how the Acland family would have had it when living there. They had all of the fires roaring too which gave it a wonderful warm glow. I just love a real fire. A lady was playing the piano in the music room that you could hear throughout the house. Steve and I both said that we were born in the wrong era!

After wondering through the house we moved on to the gorgeous gardens. Even though autumn is in full swing there were a few flowering plants clinging on to the summer. Some of the trees were playing the flowers at their own game with the colours they were displaying.

We went from the gardens down to the main apple press where they make the Killerton cider. It was quite interesting seeing all of the apples being shredded and pressed and the crushed down under a huge mangle type device.

We spent a good few hours at Killerton taking everything in and I think it was good value for money. We paid £4.00 each (apart from Alex as she is a national trust member). That gave us entry for the day into the cider and apple festival, the house and gardens and the Budkake post office which is another national trust property in between the main house and the cider press. It is set up how it would have been in the 1950’s. The lady in there was very informative. I quite enjoyed this little detour.

It was a really lovely day out and I am glad I went to see where my apples for my Autumnal Apples post came from!

 

Leave a Reply