'I visited the beautiful 20-acre orchard with a cafe, cider making and wood-fired pizza'

Dunham Apple Barn are set to launch the new Blossom Walks and Cider Tasting event, at their orchard near Altrincham

A short drive from Manchester on the outskirts of Altrincham you'll find row after row of apple trees. Over the next few weeks, many of these trees will begin to flower, with a huge canopy of blossom taking over the 20-acre orchard.

This tranquil spot is part of The Boundary Farm site in the historic village of Dunham. It's here that visitors will find Greater Manchester's only cider press and can drink the fruits of the farmers' labours within the surroundings of an idyllic orchard.

The Dunham Apple Barn is the heart of the farm’s operation and is where apple pressing takes place. From orchard to bottle in less than 24 hours for their apple juices - and a little bit longer for the ciders - it's become a cherished destination for visitors, and is only a few minutes off of the M56.

Part of the wider Dunham Massey estate, the land is owned by the National Trust but, since the 1930s, has been looked after by the Hewitt family as tenant farmers.

The cider and apple juice production, as well as the shop, tearoom area and wider site is looked after by husband-and-wife Chris and Alison Hewitt alongside a small but dedicated team who help run the shop, serve food and drink, and more recently help host events within the orchard and cider press.

Over the next few weeks, Dunham Apples are hosting a spring event called Blossom Walks and Cider Tasting, which pretty much says what it does on the tin.

But to give it more context, we headed down for a preview of the seasonal programme to learn more about the team behind it, the history of the farm and how the Hewitt clan run such a slick operation.

This weekend, they're hosting the first in the series, giving visitors a guided walk through a tour of the 20-acre orchard during the blossom season, before a behind-the-scenes tasting session, featuring four handcrafted Dunham Ciders paired with freshly baked garlic bread from the wood-fired oven in the covered barn area.

The following week, on Saturday, 26 April, they're also hosting a special hog roast edition - combining the tasting experience with a hearty feast.

It's not the only event that they're known for, though. While they had to cancel their popular pumpkin patch event altogether last year, as the crop was poor due to bad weather, they turned it into an autumn apple picking experience, inviting families to come and help with harvesting and juicing the fruit.

Visitors could head into the orchard to pick their own apples, before heading to the pressing and tasting session to sample the fresh juice from the ones they had picked.

The pumpkin character hunt was also replaced with an apple character hunt, with a wagon train offering rides around the orchard.

Now, they're turning their attention to spring and summer - and it all starts over in the orchard.

"During the 1960s to the 1980s we were supplying vegetables for supermarkets and then we came away from that and were on a stewardship scheme for a bit so were paid by Europe not to produce," Chris told the Manchester Evening News during a walk around the orchard.

"When that finished we started planting some of the smaller fields that we have with apple trees. We started with a three quarter-acre piece and then the one that we're in now is three acres.

"After that, we added one around the corner and then we put in a seven-acre plot. Before you know it, there's 30 acres and 75 different varieties of apples.

"We produce about 12,500 litres of cider a year and about 20,000 litres of apple juice, and most of it is sold from here. We now put the cider into kegs and we've opened up the market, and can now sell it further afield.

"People can come here, see where the product is grown, where it's pressed and where it's bottled, and then you can actually buy something and drink it in the orchard, so that's nice to have a full circle moment.

"What's nice is that you can look at the Katy tree and the apples, and then go to the shop and buy the Katy apple juice.

"We have a large mix of dessert fruit, which is what Katy is, and the Braeburn, and then some pears as well, and then it moves onto a cider variety on the next row of trees called Harry Masters.

"They all blossom at different times, but we're looking at three to four weeks of blossom covering the orchard.

"Everything is hand-planted, hand-pruned and picked so we start harvesting in late August with Katy and we go through to mid-November with a cider variety, and then a short breaking and it's into pruning, which we then finish at the end of March, then it's blossom walks, and finally in bottling and kegging.

"But all the apple juice is pressed and bottled within 24 hours of coming off the trees - it's that quick. All we add is a preservative and pasteurise it, and it has a two-year shelf life. There's no water, no artificial sweeteners."

Over the road at the barn, guests can then move onto cider or apple tasting - inside within the covered shed where production takes place, or grab a bench amongst the apple trees in the orchard.

They can also visit the shop, which the family set up during the pandemic, and pick up a freshly brewed coffee, tea, a signature cider and apple juice, as well as a variety of homemade cakes and wood-fired pizza.

"We put the pizza oven in a couple of years ago now and it's a nice addition. It's something a little more hearty and we run that all year round," Chris says.

"We wanted something simple, and while there's pubs in the village with big menus, but for us, it's pizza, apple juice, cider, and some teas and coffees - it's just simple, we don't overcomplicate it here."

In the shed, a small bar serves up a number of drinks on tap including a mixture of the farm's own ciders, as well as other brands. There's their own brilliantly named Dizzy Disco, which can also be purchased in the shop too, alongside apple juice and Perry.

Wood-fired pizzas served from noon include classics such as Margarita and Pepperoni, alongside Nduja with Hot Honey, Spanish and Goats Cheese & Onion, ranging in price from £11-13. Garlic bread with big hunks of garlic is available from £9, while the extra toppings are 50p a pop, and they can also prepare a gluten-free base.

In the shop, which is a converted farm building, apple juice is priced from around £2 a bottle, while ciders range in price from £5 up to around £13 for Little Red Devil, an award-winning Champagne method limited-edition Rose Cider of 3.5% ABV.

The Blossom Walks & Cider Tasting events take place over the next couple of weekends. More information can be found here.

Dunham Press Cider, Sawpit Street, Dunham Massey, Altrincham WA14 5SJ