About
Hello! We are the Ballard of Stud Farm Fruit; a family farm, nestled in the Abberley hills, Worcestershire. The farm is currently run by me, Jeff, alongside my wife Louisa and my parents, Bill and Louisa, who have been living at Stud Farm since 1991. I am the fourth generation of Ballard to farm here. Historically, here at Stud Farm we used to grow berries and other soft fruit along with our famous apples. It was in 2004 that the decision was made to concentrate on purely growing and selling apples and our apple based products.
Our apples:
Stud Farm Fruit currently has 30 acres of apple orchards, with four different varieties of apples, Bramley, Gala, Red Falstaff and Golden Delicious. All our apples are of the highest quality, in fact, our Bramley apples are frequent winners of awards, such ‘Best Apples’ at the Malvern Autumn show and Three Counties Showground! We sell our apples to supermarkets and local farm shops and we use our dessert apples in our own dipped apples (see below). In 2008 we had a brand new packing house built and had ‘cold rooms’ installed (this has since permitted us to pack apples for the supermarkets), along with our a computer controlled apple grader. Our business has continued to flourished and we are proud to be SALSA and British Red Tractor certified.
Our dipped apples/ Toffee and Chocolate apples:
We have been making Toffee and Chocolate apples in our family since 1995. It is our own grown apple inside our dipped apples, well… until our toffee and chocolate apple orders exceed our crop! We currently supply 3 major supermarkets during the autumn season, peaking in sales over Halloween and Bonfire Night where we can make up to 40,ooo apples a day! ! On top of that we make Chocolate and Toffee apples for private orders which often include special weddings, events and school functions all year-round. In 2015 we upgraded our equipment and machinery used for the commercial production of these apples allowing us to deal with the high quantities that supermarkets order from us.
We are so proud of our farm, we work hard and our fruit is a labour of love. To be able to provide apples up and down the UK is something we have worked hard for and with the dipped apples it great to know that they are one of the few confectionery treats to count as ‘one of your 5 a day’!
We do welcome any feedback and love hearing from you. Please follow us on Instagram and Facebook: Stud Farm Fruit.
Our apples
The main apple grown on the farm is the Bramley apple, which is most commonly used for cooking. We have almost 18 acres of Bramley orchards here at Ballard’s, all well-maintained throughout the year so that the Bramleys we produce are of the highest quality.
On the farm we also grow Fiesta, Golden Delicious and Gala apples; the Gala have been planted in the tree wall approach to apple growing. This allows for a much high volume of apples per acre and they are also much easier to maintain. We plant more Gala every year as we grow them for use in our ever-popular Toffee and Chocolate Apples!
All our apples are sold on supermarket shelves; but those that do not meet supermarket standards due to size and shape are used in other ways such as the wholesale markets and for juice.
Toffee and Chocolate Apples
All our toffee and chocolate apples are made here on the family farm, less than 100 metres from our front door. We have been making chocolate apples on the farm for twenty five years and toffee apples for almost fifteen. It all began with our Uncle Jem, who in 1980 became one of the first to commercially produce toffee and chocolate apples in the UK and it was through Uncle Jem that we were handed down the honour of being one the premier Toffee and Chocolate apple manufacturers in the UK.
He was the man that taught us the delicate art of boiling the toffee to exactly the right temperature and of tempering the chocolate so that it is the perfect thickness. Jem sadly passed away a few years ago but we make sure to honour his memory by continuing to produce the finest quality toffee and chocolate apples. We are proud to be a major supplier of Toffee and Chocolate apples to supermarkets such as Lidl and Iceland.
We offer a variety of products in our online shop year-round including Milk Chocolate and White Chocolate apples, Traditional Red Toffee and Golden Brown Toffee apples and our newest addition, Sugar-free Toffee Apples. However we are more than happy to accommodate requests for other products such as Caramel Apples, chocolate apples without sprinkles, and a whole variety of other toppings so if what you want isn’t in our shop, please get in touch!
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