UTTS #046 Thistly Cross: Scotland's Original Artisan Cider

When you think of Scottish produce, especially fruit, apples may not be the first thing that comes to mind. After all, in 2009 70 percent of the apples sold in Britain were estimated to have been grown abroad and imported. In 2015 "The Sunday Herald" reported that 90 percent of the UK's orchards had been dug up for development or other agricultural uses. But it wasn't always that way...

Turn back the clock some 800 years and apples were abundant all across Scotland. Orchards were common on large country estates and in city center monasteries, some numbering upwards of 10,000 trees. Much of...