Father Rainer Verbourg

Ampleforth College Orchard

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Published 2008

About

Forbidden Fruit

The late summer sun is faint, but warm, the orchard trees growing down the side of the Abbey grounds; they are spread along the valley side. Clouds of midges dancing to the sound of cooing wood pigeons, perched on the rooftops and spires of this Benedictine Monastery. Situated in the magnificent Howardian Hills, the monks have been growing apples here since their arrival in the valley in 1802.

Father Rainer Verbourg, a Benedictine monk of Ampleforth Abbey Roman Catholic School, who is in charge of their orchards, was a chef from Germany in a former life and is, like the other monks, obliged to do some hard ‘graft’ each day, I presume as some sort of penance. His farming family had a great tradition of picking and preserving the fruits of the countryside, and this is where he learnt to make cider as a child, which was to prove very useful in a later life. This we will come to.

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