News 2026 8 10
Greetings to all, Summer has already entered its second half, and it's time to share what has happened since our last update.
First and foremost, we organised Kvas 2026, our Fermentation Festival, in Kout na Šumavě. The weather was good, although it was quite hot, but we managed well enough in the shade of the mature trees. Attendance was roughly what we had expected, with more than twenty people joining us. Surprisingly, Friday turned out to be the main day of the festival. The feedback was positive, and as the main coordinator, I'm very happy that everything went so well. Next year's festival will build on what worked and hopefully avoid the mistakes we made this year. You can read more about the event here.
In previous newsletters, we mentioned that we had expanded our growing activities this year. A year ago, we started with a garden bed of around 16 m² and approximately the same amount of space in our plastic greenhouses. This year, we added a small field of roughly 80 m². We have been focusing on crops suitable for further fermentation, such as Jerusalem artichokes and onions. We are also growing fresh vegetables, pumpkins, squash, and crops suitable for storage, particularly beans and potatoes. Unfortunately, we have had to deal with one of the worst droughts experienced in Bohemia in recent decades. There has been hardly any substantial rainfall since around mid-spring, so we had to come up with a solution for watering our crops. We use standard tap water, which we pump into an IBC container, transport to the field, and then transfer into another IBC positioned on top of a second container. This arrangement gives us enough height to water the field reasonably effectively by gravity, using a one-inch hose. Given the severity of the drought, we would like to prepare better for the coming growing seasons by establishing a water storage capacity of at least 2,000–3,000 litres near the field. We also plan to collect rainwater from nearby roofs and pump it into the elevated IBC containers for gravity-fed irrigation. We will need to install a pressure pump and a filter, which should also allow us to introduce drip irrigation. The amount of plastic involved in these systems is dreadful, but there doesn't seem to be much of an alternative. We would also like to purchase a petrol-powered water pump, which would enable us to draw water from ponds and streams.
I realise that these agricultural activities are not directly connected with fermentation, but as part of the Kvasírna Jara project, we definitely intend to focus not only on processing agricultural products but also on growing crops, especially those suitable for fermentation. Anyone who would like to contribute their knowledge or lend a helping hand is very welcome. We are only just beginning to gain experience ourselves!
As for our commercial activities, the two biggest events coming up in the next month or so will probably be the Chodské Slavnosti festival in Domažlice (14–16 August) and the Scottish Games at Sychrov (28–29 August). If you are planning to visit the Chodské Slavnosti, please let us know. It is possible to stay overnight in Kout na Šumavě. During the last weekend of September, 23–28 September, we will be travelling to Gijón, Spain, to present our products at SISGA, one of the largest international cider events in the world. Wish us luck!
The final part of this update concerns the upcoming apple harvest and processing season. We are planning the first round of apple picking and grass cutting for 2–8 October. We will probably travel directly from SISGA to the harvest, as we expect to leave by car for Spain around Sunday, 20 September, and return to the Czech Republic on Friday, 9 October. The second harvest period is tentatively scheduled for 1–12 November, and the third for 29 November–5 December. These dates are preliminary and will depend on how the season develops. The third harvest period may be cancelled if we manage to collect almost all the remaining apples during the second round, and it will be also depending on the weather.
Apple picking in the Czech Republic will take place on weekdays and possibly Sundays, mainly during the second half of October and throughout November.
That's all for today! We wish you a wonderful summer — and hopefully a little rainfall as well!
On behalf of Kvasírna Jara,
František Algoldor Apfelbeck