Insider knowledge

Christmas preparations mean a trip to London to fetch the Old Man. The rain was constant both ways but our homeward journey involved a welcome detour from the motorway into the Berkshire countryside, following instructions from elder son to collect (and pay cash for!) 10 litres each of hand-made cider and perry, direct from the producer - cheaper that way.

Back in my childhood the area between Reading and Newbury was a magnet for my family in late summer and autumn since its old woodlands and sandy commons provided the ideal conditions for the fungi we compulsively foraged. Each year my parents and I would return to the particular spots we knew to find the chanterelles and ceps we craved. As we meandered through the tiny lanes in our old Morris Minor, frequently losing our way and arguing over which turning to take, we would often pass a sign to Tutt's Clump, a name that always amused my father. But as far as I can remember we never actually went there. Today, more years later than I care to recall, I finally did.

Tutt's Clump Cider is an award-winning product made with mostly local fruit (that would otherwise go to waste) at Traveller's Rest Farm in the hamlet. In pelting rain we drove through huge puddles into a yard surrounded by apparently ramshackle buildings and assorted old vehicles (the producer, Tim Wale, is a motor mechanic by trade, the cider making started as a hobby). We found our way into apple-fragrant sheds stuffed full of bubbling casks, enormous vats, racks of bottles and a labyrinth of pipes and siphons. The amber fluids were duly purchased and now, thanks to son Huw, who in so many ways channels the grandfather he never met, I can at last say I have been to Tutt's Clump.
(My father would have approved of the cider too. You can find out about it here.)