Is Kingsbury Episcopi the true heart of the cider world? Martin Hesp joins poet James Crowden to explore a landscape of 'ghost' apple varieties, Somerset oak brandy, and the proper old-fashioned cider houses of the Levels.

A Celebration of Perry at the Malvern Show James Crowden, a great friend of these pages, invited me along to the Malvern show where he was judging at the Three Counties Cider and Perry Association’s annual Perry Festival. The event is dedicated to promoting knowledge, understanding and appreciation of that most delicious of English drinks, made from fermented pear juice. The Orchard Marquee: A Cathedral of Apples and Pears It all takes place in the amazing orchard marquee. If

AI, Processed Information, and the Value of First-Hand Experience This week Google announced a new way of browsing for information online - a system that relies on artificial intelligence to find out, describe or explain whatever it is you wish to learn. Which will no doubt be very useful. But, as an expert told the BBC Today programme, it’s the information equivalent of highly-processed food - and I know what most readers of this newspaper will think of that.   The Hesp Out

<p class="">The hunt is on for old cider apple varieties - Martin Hesp discovers how DNA fingerprinting could help the Devon firm Sandford Orchards to bring back the fabulous ciders of yesteryear</p>

<p class="">Cider-maker Roger Wilkins talks about his Banksy works of art and tells Martin Hesp about other celebrities who have been to his old cider shed at Mudgeley, on a little ridge in the northern Somerset Levels. </p>

<p class="">Here’s a little bit of cider history for those who are interested in the drink which is made from fermented apple juice</p>

<p class="">Sandford Orchards makes really good cider - and good for them for taking on the Big Boys in the drinks industry and producing a high quality Devon cider, says Martin Hesp</p>

<p class="">In the third of our Six Somerset Walks, Martin Hesp enjoys the wonderful circular route that takes hikers from Langport to Muchelney and back</p>

<p class="">A video of Roger Wilkins, of Wilkins Cider, shot 30 years ago is today’s Exmoor Lockdown Diary</p>

<p class="">Another video from Normandy nearly 30 years ago when Tim Bannerman and Martin Hesp were filming everything there was to film about orchards and cider making in the region</p>

<p class="">Martin Hesp puts the 100th Exmoor Lockdown Diary on his website by presenting a video of an interview he did 30 years ago with an old cider-maker from Glastonbury</p>