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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M
@barmas.bsky.social
1.1K followers 440 following 3.9K posts
Maker of Kertelreiter cider & perry. Planter of orchards. Pear freak, wannabe pomologist, cider historian, homebrewer, former beer blogger. Editor at Cider Review. ACA Certified Pommelier. Irish in Germany. Owned by a border collie.
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 3h
Thankfully not!
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 3h
I pledged for the T-shirt too! 😃
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 3h
Not just saying this because I wrote a contribution, but James’s planned book looks really interesting from a broader cultural perspective, covering an aspect seldom thought about when it comes to orchards. I think worth supporting the kickstarter if you can!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/vag...
The cover of the planned “Vagrant’s Pomona”, with a Lino cut of a skeleton picking apples.
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 8h
The local beaver dam is nicely established now. There was another one upstream, but someone removed it. I hope officially.
A beaver dam across the river Schefflenz. Yellow leaves collecting on the surface of the upstream, higher side.
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 9h
Oh nice! Are you going?
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 13h
Damn you for planting that in my sleepless head.
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 14h
One of the bad things about going to bed early is instead of waking at 3 or 4 and being unable to fall back asleep, is waking at 2 instead 🤔
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 1d
And the last component, Kirchensaller Mostbirne. Just a little of them.
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 1d
And now a dessert pear, the lovely Kieffer’s Hybrid originally from Pennsylvania.
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 1d
Showing the Luxemburger Mostbirne, which makes up 10% of the pear bill in Levitation.
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 1d
Catching up on some video posts. This is going to get very boring for anybody not interested in perry pears, but a short series explaining each of the pears that feature in our 2025 Levitation perry, pressed last Saturday.
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 1d
Making our barn more romantic than it is.
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 2d
More awkward positioning than at the back of the barn, but they’re making progress. Installing the new laths as they move up the roof.
Four people on the roof of our barn, about half of the old tiles removed and dumped in a trailer
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 2d
Early this morning. All in place for the roof removal.
A photo of our front yard with a half timbered house on the left a barn on the right and a great big trailer sitting in front of both
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 2d
Then we stopped by an elderly lady who phoned last week, as she wanted someone to take away all the quince she can’t use. Car is now filled with about 120kg, so probably enough to make a single tree quince wine.
Golden quince on the ground. My wife and some neighbour on the roof of a shed, shaking down more quince.
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 2d
There weren’t many pears left, but have 12 bags of pears to ID and compare to the list. The area is one of many projects implemented by a society that is doing some amazing conservation work, so we got a tour of some other projects they are running.
A workshop from the society, filled with nest boxes that they make A map of the meadow orchard they planted with 105 trees.
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 3d
Off to Walldürn, as an old chap asked for help identifying the pears on a meadow orchard project they planted some years ago. They were told to remove the labels, as sometimes newly planted trees get stolen, but they never made a map of what is where! But at least there’s a list.
A photo of a typed up list of pear varieties planted at this project meadow orchard.
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 3d
Yeah, I saw someone suggest they were used in ale, but I have never seen any actual reference to that. I’ve planted a couple trees, Elsbeere they’re called here.
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 3d
Hahaa, I’m sorry 😄
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 3d
You’ll all be pleased to know I just made 5 more vids 😜
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 3d
Ah, right, I think I recall you mentioning whitty pear before! I’ve seen reports of them being sold in medieval London markets, so ised to be more common in Britain maybe. Eric Bordelet has pressed them on their own too, but fantastically expensive, so I can’t afford to buy a bottle 😄
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 3d
I’m keeping an eye on the time in future, I just don’t know when to shut up when it comes to fruit 😁
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 3d
Yesterday I made a 3:50 long vid about Speierling/Sorbs and their historical use in Apfelwein, which I didn’t realise was too long for Bluesky 😁 But I had made a first take that was interrupted by a tractor arriving, and that’s under the 3 minute limit, so fuck it, here you go 😄
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 3d
And one 60L batch of apple/pear mix had 9kg of these whole, frozen wild plums from last year. As we had no apples last year I kinda had to wait 😄 The look rather like Bullace, but I don’t know if you get them here in Germany.
Small round plums defrosting.
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barmas.bsky.social
Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 3d
Earlier today. Pomace from two of the pressings, Jeremias Runde and Karcherbirne, were put into buckets with lids and will be taken to a research station to sow out to develop new rootstocks. The rest will be picked up by a farmer friend to be fed to his very cute highland cattle.
Two buckets of spent apple pomace. 8 tubs of spent pomace from pressing apples and pears.
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