UTOPIA skin-contact perlant, 2020

We wanted to eat clean. So we moved to Bohemian Highlands. 2011. To Stronghold Sudkův Důl Farm. To grow, raise, forage, ferment. To build our pocket of the contemporary pre-industrial. With plenty of clean, nutritious foods. And beverages. For our family and friends on their frequent visits. We planted trees and shrubs, established vegetable beds, raised bees, sheep, geese, ducks, chickens, carp and trout. In 2015 we made our first ciders from friend's orchard in our valley. 80 years old trees. In spring 2017 we planted the young orchard (2,5 ha). The orchard floor and soil bustling with life. No spraying, no vole poisons. Just neighbour’s horse manure and our apple pomace compost. Foxes take care of voles. Years will pass before the first real harvest. Selected rootstocks slowly grow large, vigorous trees, a healthy cider apple orchard - in 50 years hopefully as magnificent as the old orchards that we are privileged to harvest now. Endlessly grateful to all, who planted them heritage apples 60, 70, 80 years ago. In this age of industrial denaturation of foodstuffs, the foods and beverages emerge close to utopically here. As for ciders: old orchards without spraying・spontaneous fermentation by indigenous cultures・12 months sur-lie in 225l neutral oak casks・no filtration, fining, pasteurisation, force carbonation・no added sulphites, acids, tannins, enzymes, aromas・no preservatives, sterilants or colorants. Our fine drinking vinegars with no added sulfites are spontaneously fermented by local cultures in 225-liter cider oak casks for 12 months. Over the following 6+ months, the original slow orleans fermentation method in vinegar oak casks produces unusually delicate and aromatic fine vinegars suitable for drinking. (Conventional vinegars take only a few days to produce.) Not pasteurized, no sulphites added, only coarsely filtered. Subsequent eventual maceration of blackcurrants, wild cherries, fresh thyme, jalapeño peppers, elderberries or other fruits, flowers or leafs foraged in our valley, grown in our garden or sourced from organic farmers, forms additional layers of flavors and aromas in limited batches of our macerated vinegars for drinking. Our vinegars are not pasteurised, no sulphites added, only roughly filtered. We work with Czech heritage apple varieties from orchards as old as 80 years. We experiment with new varieties and have planted an orchard combining Czech heritage varieties, promising local bittersweet seedlings and English cider varieties. Our oak casks do fine without treatments with sulphites. That’s because we fill them with new season’s juice as early as one day after bottling the cask’s previous vintage. Our casks and most of the cidery equipment get sanitized with steam. Not with chemicals. We purchase clean electricity from renewable resources.