STAFF at Sheppy’s Cider at Three Bridges, Bradford-on-Tone, are busy reaping the fruits of their labours as the apple harvest comes in.

They have been collecting fruit from the farm’s 90 acres of orchards on tractor-mounted machinery since mid-September and hope to complete the harvest by the end of November.

Louisa Sheppy, from the family business, said: “It has been a bumper crop this year and early at every stage, because of the dry winter – the pressing process is about extracting every last drop of juice from the apples.”

The farm is pressing more than 2,000 tonnes of fruit this year, grown in its own orchards, at select local orchards – like one in Milverton – supplemented by fruit from Herefordshire.

For the full story see this week’s Wellington Weekly News.