April, 1999

For centuries, the 25-square-mile island of Jersey was renowned for its apple cider. No less important was its historical function as a ciderist's link between France and England. Both are now things of the past. No wonder our Apple and Cider Buff Tour, conducted by Dr. Robert Norton in 1994, bypassed the cider-barren Jersey just a few miles off the route from the living cider orchards of Normandy to those of Devon and Somerset.

Jersey and three smaller Channel Islands are French by heritage, but English by political affiliation. They are self-administered and independent of the British Parliament. Their head of state is a "duke," currently Queen Elizabeth II. Over the last 700 or so years, the common language, originally a Norman French, developed into Jerriais, a dialect, now widely replaced by English. Most of the cider documentation is in literary French or in Jerriais.

Up to the middle of the 15th Century, the common drink of the Channel Islands had been "mead," i.e., fermented honeywater, and "depense" or "piquette," beverages made by allowing squashed wild apples, pears, grapes and other fruit to ferment in water. Eventually, noblemen and traders from Normandy, barely twenty miles away, introduced cider proper and also the cider apples the Normans had adopted some 300 years earlier from southwestern France.

These were heritage cultivars from Mediterranean countries, selected for their high sugar content and seedling uniformity. They came with the technology of mills and presses the ancients had devised first for olive oil and wine, much later modified for "cicera," the Roman cider.

Following its introduction, cider developed into an important common beverage and export commodity. Production boomed after King Charles II ruled that Jersey cider would be exempt from excise, and simultaneously outlawed any cider imported from Normandy. Soon, orchards replaced grain fields at an alarming rate. Finally, a 1673 law stopped the planting of cider apples, except as replacement. About one-fourth of Jersey's arable land was in cider orchards, most of the remainder in pasture for the Jersey breed of dairy cattle, the other leading product. The 1805 export records list 434 head of cattle and 3227 barrels (240 liters each) of cider.

After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 which, in France, revoked any official protection of non-Catholics, many Jersey Huguenots moved to more tolerant England. They took along their cider know-how and cultivars. A Clement Chevallier resettled in East Anglia in 1727 and grafted ten acres of seedlings. The cultivar "J'valyi" (Chevallierj is probably named after this Huguenot family, prominent in Jersey since the 13th century.

Arthur Young, a leading agriculturist of the time, described a cider press built by Huguenots from Jersey. Out of a ton of apple pulp, it squeezed an average of 150 gallons of cider. "The power of the pressure by a lever and screw is such that the mark (pomace) of the apples will burn immediately on being taken from the press."

The Rev. Father Francois Le Couteur, Rector of the Parish of Grouville, first named the esteemed cider cultivars of his time. His book, Apercu Sur La Culture Des Pommiers Et Manipulation Du Cidre... (Jersey, 1801), was dedicated "for the use of the inhabitants of the island of Jersey." He listed the following:

1. Ameret-aux-Gentilshommes 2. Frequin (Frenchen or Frai Chien) 3. Gros-Amer

4. Lamine 5. Noir-Tout 6. Pain-Sauce 7. Red Streak* 8. Rogneux 9. Romeril*

(*Usually propagated from cuttings.)

During the Napoleonic Wars, cider export had become such a growth business that quality often suffered from unscrupulous practices. In 1806, the Jersey government instructed its twelve police chiefs to make sure that no unhealthy or substandard cider was dispensed or shipped abroad. Dubious lots were dumped, especially when they were found to contain lead because "usage of this metal to end up in cider and other spirits is criminal," a government proclamation declared.

In 1856, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Lower Seine Department in France, a region of Normandy, became concerned about the poor-quality cider produced there, and sent a delegation to Jersey to study cider production. They reported that never anywhere in Normandy had they drunk cider so clean and delicious as made by Monsieur Moise Gibaut of the St. Lawrence Parish in Jersey. His "secret," as the Commission discovered, was not only these four high-class varieties (1. L'Aumone 2. Petit Jean 3. Rouge Ameret 4. Tete-de-Chat), but also "the best managed orchards and the heaviest crops."

Not to be outdone, the Royal Agriculture Society in England offered a prize for an essay on Jersey agriculture. The jury singled out this passage as important: "Jersey especially has its more classified order of trees (compared to England) for combining their varieties of flavor, to the effect of producing cider of superior quality." The cultivars recommended in 1858 were the above four, adding:

1. Carre 2. Frai Chien (Frequin) 3. Limon 4. Noir Binet 5. Pepin Jacob 6. Romeril

The essay continues: "Many shiploads of apples are annually exported to Devonshire, for the purposes of being mixed with the fruit grown there, in order to impart to the Devonshire cider, the finer character of the Jersey fruit". This need to "improve" should not be surprising. John Scott, owner of the Merriott Nurseries, thus describes the English cider practice in 1868: "Most makers ...throw all the different sorts indiscriminately in one heap to mellow, consequently many of the fruit are rotten before other kinds begin to mature. Such a careless mode of procedure can only be rewarded by a very inferior article."

In 1903, William B. Allwood, Assistant USDA Director, published A Study Of Cider Making In France, Germany and England: He comments on the large group of English cultivars prefixed with "Norman" or "Jersey." His top ten cider cultivars were:

1. Blenheim Orange (!) 2. Broadleaf Norman 3. Butleigh #14 4. Cherry Norman

5. Chisel Jersey 6. Foxwhelp 7. Kingston Black 8. New Cadbury 9. Red Jersey

10. White Jersey

Jersey exported an average of 150,000 gallons of cider a year up toward the end of the last century. Under Queen Victoria, then "Duke" of Jersey, Anglicization progressed relentlessly. When British Breweries brought in low-priced beers, more and more cider producers switched to early potatoes as a second, and eventually, major crop. As export commodities, cider and cider vinegar faded away during World War I.

Cider production became a home industry of little importance outside Jersey. Yet it was alive enough to compete for the custom of local patrons. In the early years of this century, Maitre Jean Dorey of the Le Douet Farm, was the acknowledged King of Cider. In 1912, he produced 1,100 barrels of ca. 240 liters each. Some was exported, but on many farms, cider was drunk with every meal. A contemporary survey lists sixty-six apple cultivars, mostly used for cider but also imported culinary ones such as Blenheim (England), Alexander (Russia), Mere de Menage (France) and Bismark (Australia).

Between the Wars, cidermaking declined into a hobby while trees and interest lasted. Traditional cider cultivars, among them several red-fleshed or veined ones such as Strawberry Norman, Pommes de Vin and Red Foxwhelp could no longer be found. After World War II, concern about the loss of heritage cultivars came to a head with the great storm of October, 1987, which wreaked havoc among the old trees. The Historical Society and the National Trust of Jersey began tracking down and identifying remaining trees all over the Island, not always successfully. A museum orchard was planted on land allocated by the Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry on the Howard Davis Farm using MM111 for understock. There are 136 trees as multiples of twenty identified and eight unidentified cider cultivars:

1. Belles Filles 2. Caplyi 3. Cotard 4. Douces Dames 5. Early Tetard 6. Early Rouoget

7. Gras Binet 8. Gris Caplyi 9. Gros France 10. Gros Pigeonnet 11. Gros Romeril

12. Late Rouoget 13. Museau d'Boeuf 14. Musea d'Brebie 15: Nier Binet

16. Petit France 17. Petit Pigeonnet 18. Petit Romeril 19. Tetard 20. Vert Caplyi

Twelve of these were later incorporated into the demonstration orchard of the Hamptonne County Life Museum, a diversified working farm. There, in the Syvret Barn of 1830, cider is made every October with equipment that delights antique-loving visitors.

Another lot of old cultivars grown in Jersey is carried by the Station Cidricole at Sees in Normandy in its large collection. Among them are:

1. Frequin Rouge 2. Binet Rouge 3. Blanc Fieillu (= Blanc Sur)

4. J'valyi (Chevallier jaune) 5. Doux Eveque 6. Petit Jean (Petit Jaune)

According to Ray R. Williams, grandmaster of current British cider science, some of the highest-rated cider cultivars currently grown in England are clearly associated with Jersey*:

1. Brown Snout 2. Bulmer's Norman 3. *Chisel Jersey

4. *Dabinett (Chisel Jersey Seedling) 5. *Harry Master's Jersey

6. Kingston Black 7. Michelin 8. Nehou 9. *Reine des Hatives

10. Somerset Red Streak 11. *Stembridge Jersey

12. Taylor's 13. Tremlett's Bitter 14. Vilberie 15. *White Jersey

Le Cidre by "Elie"

Le Cidre est bouan, empl'ye to canne!

J'aime en aver a touos mes r'pas;

Si j n'en ai Pon, de vrai, j'enhanne,

D'ite breuvage, I' n'y'en a pas;

Qu'i gardent lus biethe en Allemagne,

Et lus wiskey, les Irlandais,

Je laisse es Angliais lus champagne,

Le Cidre est pour le vier Jerriais.

(My translation: The cider is good, empty your jug! I love some with all my meals; When I haven't any, I get really worried, There is nothing like this drink; Let them keep their beer in Germany, and their whiskey, the Irish; I leave to the English their champagne, It's Cider for the true Jerseyman.)

APPLES FOR THE 16th CENTURY:

"This cider is almost transparent, sweet and sharp and so spicy

that it tastes like a concoction of sugar and cinnamon."

Julien Le Paulmier, 1588