Dookin' Fer Apples

It's autumn, and that means harvest. The combine harvesters are going full kilter, the lambs are all eaten, and there are hundreds of rosy cheeked women in floaty white blouses up trees picking wicker baskets of dewy apples. At least, that's the image of the countryside that will be celebrated from 18 to 24 October at the Three Sisters in Edinburgh at the Thistly Cross Cider Festival.

The Three Sisters will stock the full range of Scotland's only registered cider Thistly Cross, including Thistly Cross Original (7.2%), Original Still (7.2%), Red (4%), Ginger (4%), Gold (Whisky Chips), four of which have recently won Gold in the Great Taste Awards 2010. All of Thistly Cross's ciders contain Scottish apples and are made with an East Lothian variation of a traditional English farmhouse brewing recipe that take around 6 months to achieve full flavour.

Also on the menu for the week will be a specially designed dish of bangers and mash with cider onion gravy. Family-run Findlays of Portobello use a splash of Thistly Cross Still cider in their Pork and Cider sausages which feature in this dish, and the business has also won multiple taste awards since 1974 for their high quality locally-scourced products.

The festival culminates in a day long celebration at the Apple Pickers Ball on Sunday 24 October featuring an acoustic set from The 10:04's and the first annual Thistly Cross and Three Sisters Apple Dookin' Championship. For some yummy local food and drink and some wet t-shirt action, head along from midday.

Three Sisters
139 Cowgate
Edinburgh
EH1 1JS
www.festival-inns.co.uk
01316226801

Findlay's of Portobello
116 Portobello High Street,
Edinburgh,
EH15 1AL
www.findlaysthebutchers.co.uk
0131 669 4559

Thistly Cross Cider
Belhaven Fruit Farm,
Dunbar, East Lothian
EH42 1RG
www.thistlycrosscider.co.uk