YORKSHIRE WOLDS APPLE JUICE CO.
Jane & Jon Birch - Image credit Rachel Rimell
We love our Yorkshire Stories feature and finding out more about local Yorkshire producers. One such couple are Jane & Jon Birch of Yorkshire Wolds Apple Juice Co. Despite living just a few miles from here our paths don’t tend to cross too often! So, it was the ideal time to meet up and find out more about them and their Story.
It’s a simple Story - reminding us very much of our start up and diversification over 15 years ago. The business was originally the brainchild of Ray Kirby. As he drove around the Yorkshire Wolds, Ray came up with a simple yet brilliant idea. He noticed how many windfall apples there were in people’s gardens so decided to knock on their doors and ask if he could use their surplus apples to make juice. In 2008 Yorkshire Wolds was born. After much trial and error, Ray made a decision to move to sourcing the apples from the more reliable cropping orchards in Kent and perfected the blend that was to going to become what is now the original “cloudy apple” juice and winning their first Great Taste Award.
Unfortunately, Ray fell ill and passed away leaving the business in need of a new owner. His good friend John Brooks partnered up with Joe Cole and their respective wives Fiona and Alison and took over the business in 2013. The business continued to win awards for the quality of the juice, and in 2015, the business moved to purpose built premises at Joe’s family farm at Welham Wold, near Malton.
After 5 years at the helm, family and work commitments led to a decision by the partners that they would look for a buyer for the business. With Jon having worked with Joe for a few years at pressing time and knowing about some of the aspects of the business, he was asked if he and Jane would like to take over as the owners of the business, and in the Autumn of 2018 Jane and Jon were fully on board and the Yorkshire Wolds Apple Juice Co. as we now know it was born!
Time to dig a little further into their small business journey, and for Jane & Jon this has certainly been an interesting one, with many a challenge along the way. Neither Jon or Jane had any career background of owning a business or working in the food and drink production sector, with Jane’s background in teaching and Jon, an outdoor instructor. The early days were spent getting to grips with how the business would run, and the second year saw them finish their annual production of juice, and then they watched the world close when Covid arrived – the one challenge no-one could have planned for.
With 95% of their business being supported by hospitality trade, it was time for Jane & Jon to get their thinking caps on and they embarked on raising the profile of the business across Yorkshire with the people who had enjoyed their juice in restaurants, cafes and holiday homes, including the famous Betty’s café tea rooms, and had no idea of Yorkshire Wolds Apple Juice Co. and the makers behind the amazing produce. Orders started to roll in and very quickly they adapted to build a website and offer an online shop.
It was at this time that they took a tricky decision to expand the range of juices and offer them to the retail market. To do so they contacted Yorkshire farmers and growers to see what surplus fruit was available and made full use of the fruits offered. This decision paid off and they continue to offer us new flavours, with three limited editions being launched as we speak! It has also meant that the awareness of their brand has been raised, and their reputation growing to firmly plant themselves in the Yorkshire food and drink community.
The rewards of working alongside the food and drink community have been many, and they have enjoyed collaborating with Masons of Yorkshire Gin and Sloemotion for cocktail creation. Further afield, Andy Clarke, a food, wine and drinks expert who appears on Alan Titchmarsh’s show ‘Love Your Weekend’ has used their juice on the programme too. Jane & Jon were thrilled to be finalists in several awards, including Deliciouslyorkshire, Yorkshire Post Rural Awards and REYTA remarkable local producer, and winners of the Garbutt + Elliot Quench Awards, oh and not to mention four of the coveted Great Taste Awards!
Over the last couple of years, they have focussed on the pressing service that their business offers, coming around in full circle from those early days with Ray at the helm. Their private pressing service continues to grow, with bumper crops last year. With so many apple varieties (over 2,500 in the UK alone!), they both love seeing so many different apples coming from orchards and hearing why their growers love them. From Cox’s Orange Pippin (regarded as THE classic and quintessentially English apple) to Braeburn, which is the first modern apple variety grown in large scale production, but with flavour based on the older classic varieties.
Yorkshire Wolds Apple Juice Range - Image credit Anoif Photography
We loved Jane’s story about the most famous and very English cooking apple which has been grown for over 200 years – the Bramley. The original tree is still alive in the same garden in Nottinghhamshire where it was planted as a pip by a young girl, Mary Ann Brailsford, 200 years before. It takes its name from a subsequent owner of the house, a Mr Bramley who allowed a local nurseryman to propagate it in the 1850s on condition that it was given his name! Jane’s particular favourite is Discovery, an early season apple with a slightly pink flesh and a light appley flavour, which when pressed on its own produces a delicious juice with a pale pink tinge. Jon loves Russets, a late season apple with a rich nutty flavour.
A growing proportion of the apples they use are picked by themselves from local orchards and gardens that they are invited to or given by those who don’t like to see food going to waste. This year’s production has seen three juices - Yorkshire Blend, Bramley and Sweet Apple - being made entirely from apples grown and picked by them in Yorkshire. They also forage and pick their own elderflowers, damsons and blackberries, with their rhubarb, strawberries and raspberries being bought from Yorkshire farmers and growers. The apples and pears bought from the growers in Kent are also ones deemed too ‘wonky’ to sell in shops.
The closer to home they can source ingredients the better for the planet, and locally grown and picked fruit taste so much better. Add in supporting of the local Yorkshire and British economy and creating business relationships with fabulous Yorkshire and British growers, who work to some of the highest farming standards in the world is such a positive.
It's that local foraging that brings ideas for new flavours as they take their inspiration from the British seasons and what they see growing in their allotment (and their neighbours too!), and love the classic ‘English’ flavours, including Jane’s particular favourite, raspberry juice. With Yorkshire providing such a diverse landscape and people across the county giving it such a varied larder, they feel so fortunate to have access to different areas – Wolds, Dales, Moors and the Coast that are fabulous for growing different crops and rearing different animals, as well as being stunningly beautiful. All providing so much inspiration for the diverse range of food and drink producers, whom Jane & Jon are finding such a welcoming and collaborative community.
This led to talk about their food and drink hero, and it was a Yorkshire lad who made the top spot. Tommy Banks (and this team), and in the main because of the connection and celebration of the food and drink they prepare – having grown and foraged for it, and the creative ways they use those ingredients and their ingenious preserving methods.
However, if Jane & Jon did have to live anywhere and based on culinary offerings it may or may not be Yorkshire. Jon would choose Italy because of his love of the Mediterranean food, but for Jane it would the coast, it’s that fresh seafood that appeals. But it is Yorkshire that provides the signature Yorkshire dish for Jane – Yorkshire Pudding! I wonder if Tommy Banks would agree!
After hearing about this passionate Yorkshire producer’s story, we could see so many similarities in our Stories. Both small businesses working collaboratively, taking the finest of ingredients and cold pressing and bottling award winning products, whilst both growing and moving forward to expand our offerings and building a more sustainable future. Long may our Stories continue to be told. Let’s raise a glass to us – apple juice anyone!
APPLE & RHUBARB CRUMBLE CAKE
As part of our Yorkshire Stories series, we've created three brand new recipes, the first an Apple & Rhubarb Crumble Cake! Made with Yorkshire Wolds Apple & Rhubarb Juice and our own cold pressed Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil! Find this tasty recipe here.