It all started, naturally enough, with a tea towel from Malta.
"The lemons out there were outstanding!" Gushed my mum. "We thought you could have a go!" She sniggered as I regarded the recipe emblazoned across it.
"Challenge accepted," I thought.
Too many lemons later I was the proud owner of a vat of lovely limoncello which I then distributed to my grateful family the following Christmas.
Never having been a fast learner, the following autumn I decided it would be a good idea to use the apples from the tree at the bottom of our garden to make apple pies, apple crumbles and many concoctions later I still had many bushels of apples left over.
My partner, Greg, decided it was his turn to harness out extraneous produce and proceeded to make cider. It was godawful and he was very disappointed that it didn't receive the same reception as my creations.
In an attempt to make it palatable he began researching ways he could improve it, which is when he came across Cyser.
"Eh?" said I "Yer what?"
"Cyser" says he, "It's an apple mead." I shrugged and left him to it, as any good partner would.
Suddenly, too many apples turned into not enough and he sent out a Facebook post on our village page asking for any unwanted apples. A plethora of responses saw us going out on a less than clement (pun intended) day to harvest said apples.
He has since found a passion for brewing and has decided to turn it into a side business. Story over, you might think but not quite.
"In order to turn cider into cyser, you need a large supply of local honey" he patiently explains to me. I raise a sceptical eyebrow until I realise what it is he's trying to explain to me ...
Greg and I have been together for 10 years. 10 years, 4 universities, 8 house moves and 4 kittens later and the day we moved to our 'forever home' was the day he decided to propose on the doorstep. He knows me. He knows that I've never been interested in gardening. That was always my brother Adam's forte (more on him later). That is until I was forced to live alone in a two-up, two-down for two years with no outdoor space whatsoever when my ultimate ambition was to be able to hang my washing outdoors and developed a (some would say) perverse yearning for a decent driveway...
Even since I moved from that cavern-like two-up, two-down I've relished my outdoor space and have striven to use it as environmentally friendly as possible, influenced by Adam, my 'head gardener'.
Adam, has always loved gardening since we were children. He'd spend hours with my mum while I never saw the point and when he left university he did an RHS course to become a qualified gardener.
He's encouraged me to use raised beds for growing my own veg (check) and to create my own produce (check) I now even make my own compost (check) and we gush over Monty Don's two beautiful fluffy retrievers (we all need something to strive for right?) I should say that right now I'm sat in my conservatory writing this with a glass of rose (it's a Friday) gazing out at my new 'work in progress garden' with two washing lines full of damp washing gently swaying in the late April evening sun. (I also have a decent driveway which at it's tightest fits five cars at a tight push!)
Adam has even educated me on the importance of bees in a garden. Beekeeping is something that he and my dad and now I have always wanted to have a go at.
"In order to turn cider into cyser, you need a large supply of local honey" he patiently explains to me. I raise a sceptical eyebrow until I realise what it is he's trying to explain to me ...
"Beekeeping! I exclaim.
For my 30th Birthday, Greg's 32nd and our 10 year anniversary we treated each other to a BBKA (British Bee Keeping Association) course on Beekeeping. This was initially meant to consist of 2 days, each of which would include half a day of theory and half a day of practical handling of the bees, however, right now we're in lockdown and so the practical handling of the bees has been postponed. That and our wedding ...
It's also the reason that I have enough time on my hands to set up this blog about the honey side of Greg's mead making business.
It's now a week since we successfully completed our beekeeping course (minus the practical aspect - watch this space) and we're as eager as you are to find out what happens next! Greg's chomping at the bit already to get our own bees but, ever the voice of reason, I continue to insist that we need to experience it before that takes place.
So there you have it; our story, right from the beeginning and hopefully not the end.
