Gregg Wallace visits the biggest cider factory in the world, which produces more than 350 million litres each year. The scale of production blows his mind as at each turn he’s confronted with huge machinery and incredible processes. He visits Birchley Farm in Herefordshire, at the heart of cider country, before heading to the mill at Ledbury to help sort the apples Meanwhile, Cherry Healey explores how the factory is creating new orchards of a sweet apple variety called Scrumptious through the ancient technique of grafting, Historian Ruth Goodman traces a Victorian apple-breeding boom with Dr Annie Gray, recreating one of Queen Victoria’s favourite baked apple desserts. And she learns how it was British scientists and cider makers – not French champagne makers – who were the first to put fizz in a bottle. [Read more…]