KNOWBURY WI report of February meeting.

This months speaker was Peter King-Turner, who has lived on Mahorall Farm since 1969. In those days he was a dairy farmer but in 1995 he decided enough was enough and sold his herd. After a period of what he called grieving for his cows he became one of the first farmers to "diversify". He was inspired by a fellow local farmer, Ivan Horton, who had made excellent home made cider as a sideline for years and in 1999 he set up Mahorall Farm Cider along with his son Chris.

Peter gave an amusing insight into the origins of cider making. He went on to explain how they produce their cider now with cider apples sourced from local orchards which are fermented by natural wild yeast, with no additives only constant monitoring and a lot of love. Today they welcome visitors onto Shropshire's only cider farm, they have a small farm shop, a party barn and free tasting of a large range of ciders including flavoured. They also have a mulled cider which is made with a secret recipe known only to Peter's wife.

Peter did his presentation, which was most enjoyable, as he makes his cider, completely naturally, with no fancy screens or computer images but just with a well used flip chart, a few samples and his personality.

During the WI business, president Carol Hardy, updated members with feedback from the annual dinner, details of the proposed bursary craft day on February 27, and members were asked to come up with ideas for a further craft day in the autumn.They were also asked to think about which local charity they wanted to support with this years produce stall in March.

Wendy Elliot elected to attend the Shropshire WI annual meeting in April as delegate but, as yet there were no takers to go to Brighton for the AGM.

The evening ended with the usual excellent supper and social time.