The Farm

To understand what makes Birchden special, let’s take a stroll.

From the moment you set foot on our beautiful 23-acre working farm, your shoulders drop. As time slows, you pass the beehives and the chickens to be greeted with the Pinot Noir vineyard. As the morning sun kisses your face each of your senses sharpen and your breathing deepens.

You stop to take in the teeming lakes and keep an eye out for nesting geese, before meandering through the bird-loud orchard and dewy two-acre wildflower meadow. You can feel nature's healing powers coursing through you.

Finally, you head through the Bacchus Field and up towards the Tasting Den. Since you’re here, you’ve surely earned a glass of wine.

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    our orchard

    You can’t leave Birchden Vineyards without grabbing some of our delicious home-grown apple juice. Pressed from a blend of hand-picked crab apples and cooking apples.

    We have over 30 fruit trees in our orchard. Some are planted for the birds and some are for us to enjoy! We can't wait to offer more fruit blends in the future.

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      the beehives

      Alongside our wines, we make raw, unfiltered, unheated and 100% pure honey. It's light and fragrant, woody and earthy, and has the slightest hint of salted caramel.

      Each day our bees collect nectar from a myriad of plants growing within the High Weald's 'Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty' known for its ancient woodlands, wildflower meadows, and farmland. The complexity of flavour this gives our honey makes it truly special.

      The honey is collected in small batches from our apiaries, and strained in our purpose built 'Honey Cabin' to maintain the quality. Our honey is truly homemade, with the entire process from extraction to placing the honey in the jars all being undertaken here at the Farm.

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        MORE ABOUT our BEES....

        Bees make honey from nectar and honeydew. They use their tongues to suck the nectar from flowers, and then bring it back to the hive in their 'honey gut'. Finally, the nectar is deposited in the honeycombs where it dehydrates into the delicious honey we all know and love.

        The flavours, colour, smell, and medicinal properties of honey are all dependant on the type of flowers and trees that are in season at different times of the year. Different plants are responsible for the different flavours in the honey.

        Most people think that nectar is mainly sourced from flowers, but this is a misconception. When bees come out of hibernation in early spring, it is actually trees including Hazel, Alder and Willow trees, that provide most of the nectar and pollen.

        Once spring is in full bloom, the bees have a myriad of nectar producers to choose from. The hedgerows are filled with Blackthorns and Hawthorns. The orchards are filled with apples, plums and pears. The wildflower meadows are covered in daisies, dandelions, bluebells, and poppies. This results in a unique blend of flavours which can be clearly tasted in our raw honey.

        wildlife on the farm

        The farm's unique positioning makes it an important linkage for wildlife going between Groombridge Place and Broadwater Warren.

        A recent birdlife survey identified over 40 bird species in two hours, which was noted as “quite remarkable." The study revealed that, along with thriving numbers of more common English birds, regular visitors also include Swallows, Lesser Redpolls, Bullfinches, Marsh Tits, Garden Warblers, and even the very rare Waxwing.

        From April, make sure to listen out for the cuckoos. You may also see Jays, Kestrels and Mistle Thrush nesting in the Eucalyptus trees. We’ve had the occasional Kingfisher sighting, usually somewhere around the woodland stream where they fish from the island in the lake. Other birds which have been spotted recently include Cormorants, Grey Wagtails, Lesser Whitethroats, and the Golden Finch.

        Photos by: Phil Sumner, Wild Groombridge, and Chris Wigner