Quentin Barrow and Jim Howden, both of Oamaru, have set up Stonewall Cyder Company, which will be based in the Totara area and use heritage apple trees to produce cider.
They have planted about 900 trees of vintage varieties on about 4ha of land, made an apple press which was being used yesterday to crush fresh apple juice to their own combination of apples recipe, for the crowd at the Totara Estate Victorian Farm Comes Alive event.
Mr Barrow has been producing cider for his own use for about eight years, but with Mr Barrow decided to go into production using vintage apple varieties.
Next year, they hope to start producing commercial quantities of cider.
They are building their own commercial press and eventually plan to produce up to 15,000 litres of cider a year.
Television cook Richard Till was also a drawcard yesterday, especially as those watching him had the chance to sample traditional fare at the end.
In keeping with the historic estate, one of the dishes was ''colonial goose'', using a mutton shoulder.
