UP to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, before weekly units of alcohol came into common parlance, cider was the most common meal-time drink, particularly on farms.
Press houses with granite apple crushes and cider presses were as common a feature on farmsteads as ovens to bake bread, and agricultural workers were always paid in cash and cider.
The production of cider flourished from the mid-17th century, when the agricultural industry in Britain went into decline and cider became an alternative source of income.
Orchards were planted and cider became the national drink, with the upper classes drinking vintage brews, leaving farmhouse brews for the lower orders.
Jerseymen, exhibiting an early entrepreneurial zeal and eagerness to innovate, saw the potential and increased local production to start an export trade.
Jersey farmers’ enthusiasm for cider making had to be curtailed by the States in 1673 to ensure that there was sufficient land to grow other crops, as the Island was no longer self-sufficient in grain and was failing to pay its agricultural revenues to the Crown.
The Richmond map of Jersey of 1795 shows more than just the Island’s geographical features – the detail of farms and farmland is as much a social and economic record of the period.
It shows that 16 per cent of the land mass was taken up by orchards, mostly for apples, with fewer in the western parishes than in the east, as illustrated by just 4.5 per cent of St Ouen being planted with orchards compared to 36 per cent in St Saviour.
Once the harvest had been gathered and food stored for the leaner winter months, Islanders would take advantage of the quieter pace of country life and concentrate on making their staple drink and the Island’s then biggest export – cider.
Today, with the constant health warnings about observing recommended weekly alcohol limits and the dangers of binge drinking, one can only wonder how Islanders, including children, survived by consuming cider day after day.
Alcoholic drinks were seen as a safe alternative to drinking water, which could be contaminated, and beer and cider were highly regarded for their health-giving qualities.
And after a long day’s hard manual labour before the mechanisation of agriculture, a flagon or two of cider with a hearty home-made meal using fresh produce would have gone down rather well and been conducive for a good night’s sleep.
But all good things come to an end. In the early 1850s, cider exports averaged 150,000 gallons, though this was only one-tenth of production as the rest was drunk locally. A decade later, as drinking habits changed in the UK, exports had dropped to 35,000 gallons a year, and to just 3,000 by 1875.
As one market declined, however, another took over.
Orchards were pulled up to plant Jersey Royals and exports of the potato rose from 4,000 tons in 1866 to 28,000 tons by 1875.
Cider making continued, but only for home consumption, and as the number of farms declined, so did this once vital custom, along with the making of black butter – Le Niere Buerre.
This local delicacy is made from cider apples and the cider itself, which are boiled over a fire for many hours and constantly stirred, for up to two days, to reduce the liquid by half, and adding sugar, lemon, liquorice and spices.
La séthée d’nièr beurre (the black butter evening) was one of the biggest social events of the year in the country parishes, with traditional singing, dancing, storytelling and chatting going on into the early hours.
It was also a time for match-making, when youngsters began relationships that lead to marriages between farming families.
Today the two great traditions are kept alive for the public to enjoy by Jersey Heritage’s Faîs’sie d’Cidre – being held this weekend at Hamptonne Country Life Museum in St Lawrence, and the National Trust for Jersey, who for three days from next Thursday will be making black butter at The Elms in St Mary.
Black butter is also due to be made this weekend at Les Prés Manor in Grouville and over the coming weeks by other Island institutions and organisations.
It is available all year round, made in the Island and exported overseas by La Mare Wine Estate.
The Seigneur of Samarès, Vincent Obbard, is a passionate advocate of the apple, in particular the Jersey cider varieties that are enjoying a revival thanks to a fellow aficionados and the commercial producers who have led the cider-making revival, La Mare Wine Estate and La Robeline Cider.
Not only has he planted hundreds of traditional Jersey cider apple trees around the manor gardens and grounds, but he also sells young trees and takes classes on apple pruning and orchard management.
He even bakes apples pies. Mr Obbard’s passion for preserving the Island’s cider-making heritage was fired partly by guilt.
‘We had wonderful apple orchards and more than 100 different varieties at the manor, but nobody looked after them and they fell into neglect, so my mother had them pulled out,’ he explained.
‘I used to make illegal ginger beer when I was at school, so I assumed I could make a progression from that.
‘But cider making is a bit of a scientific subject and I was not very successful. It tasted awful – more like vinegar!’
Fortunately, for the Jersey cider revival, Mr Obbard gave up making cider and concentrated on planting trees.
An advert in a French property magazine in 2004, offering cider-making courses in Normandy, caught Richard Matlock’s eye.
As he liked cider, he thought he’d give it a try – and the rest, as they say, is history.
A year later, with a tried and tested century-old press from Normandy installed in the barn of his home in St Ouen, La Robeline Cider Company was born.
Mr Matlock, his wife Sarah, and close friend Lawrence Carter of St Lawrence, also embarked on planting more than two dozen apple orchards around the Island to ensure a ready supply of fruit.
This year’s apple harvest is looking very good for cider making, as trees are laden with the fruit, but as Mrs Matlock says, making cider is a fickle affair and it will be next spring before they know if 2015 is going to be a vintage year.
It takes about 20 apples to make one bottle of cider, and they made 4,500 last year.
It is a complicated process, monitoring the juice over four to five months to make sure that it develops into the slightly sparkling Normandy-style ‘cidre bouché’, as La Robeline cider is made from nothing but apples.
Mrs Matlock says that for them, making cider is far more important than just producing a good drink, as they are also reviving an old Island tradition.
‘The main thing we are passionate about is that we are making artisan cider using all fresh ingredients.
‘When we do events such as Faîs’sie d’Cidre, it is amazing how many people reminisce about their childhood and how their father or uncle would make cider to drink and to give to the farmworkers,’ she said.
The UK has the highest per capita consumption – as well as the largest cider-producing companies – in the world.
Jersey heritage apple varieties, developed by local apple producers over the centuries, include: Nier Binet, Des Douoches Danmes, Du Gros France, Des Belles Ril’yes, Du Côtard, du Têtard and Du Gros Rom’this (Romeril).
There are three Jersey cider apple orchards in the Island, planted by the Jersey Cider Orchard Trust to preserve this important part of the Island’s rural heritage, at The Elms in St Mary (the HQ of the National Trust for Jersey), at Hamptonne Country Museum in St Lawrence and in Rue du Mont Pellier in Trinity. The trust also provides advice to Islanders who want to conserve the heritage varieties as part of the 21st century revival of commercial cider production in Jersey.
The tradition of black butter making also exists farther afield. It was taken to America by the early settlers who renamed it apple Butter.
In a letter to sister, Cassandra, written in 1808, Jane Austin described an evening party at her brother’s house in Southampton, where she was living at the time, saying how much she had enjoyed eating black butter.
