APPLE grower Lucian Leonard Floyer would be justifiably proud of how his family have revived his dream of an orchard in the heart of Northamptonshire.
It is decades since Lucian first grew apple trees at Floyers Fruit Farm at Flore, but the produce is still wining plaudits. The latest was seeing its Triple F apple juice named Artisan Local Drink of the Year in the Carlsberg UK Northamptonshire Food and Drink Awards in November.
It was in 2011 that Lucian’s grandchildren had the opportunity to revive his dream. Lucian, born in 1885, supplied several Northampton suppliers with apples and pears from his orchard in Flore until his death in 1960.
The orchard was then sold for building development to meet death duties, but the grandchildren planted the new orchard on a piece of land already owned by the family.
Alex Floyer said: “It was an opportunity to recreate the past. We planted 240 apple trees in total. There were 12 varieties of dessert apple and three culinary varieties some ‘old’ and some ‘English’ but most were ones that had been growing in the original orchard in the 19th and 20th centuries.”
The orchard eventually produced enough fruit to make apple juice and in 2016 the team created a blend of different apples and a juice from Newton Wonder, a culinary apple.
Alex said: “This turned out to be a favourite and in 2017 we produced two blends and two singles, Newton Wonder and Jester. Our trees are not sprayed with any pesticides or chemicals. The fruit is hand picked when ripe and taken just two miles for pressing. It is then pasteurised, bottled and labelled.”
The farm sets high standards including no additives being added so it is guaranteed 100 per cent juice and a bee-keeper keeps hives in the orchard to encourage pollination. The trees are pruned to keep them to a manageable size.
“We take a lot of care to produce the very best juice we can, and it was a real honour to have our work recognised at the Northamptonshire Food and Drinks Awards,” said Alex.
The juice is available in local shops, farm shops and butchers. A list of stockists can be found on the farm’s Facebook page or for more information email