To date, four Armagh farmers have become involved in the homemade cider industry, which is currently producing 28,000 litres of cider a year. Each farmer's cider is unique to his farm. The entrepreneurs have joined together to form the Armagh Cider Makers Association and, according to its secretary, Sean Mac An tsaoir, the project is proving very successful.

"All of us have our own orchards, so it's just a question of using our apples to make the cider, " said Mac An tsaoir. "Armagh is the 'Orchard of Ireland', and until recently we were the only apple-growing area in the world that didn't have a local cider."

Mac An tsaoir, who works as an apple research project leader at the Loughgall Research Station, first came up with the idea of home-produced cider five years ago.

However, licensing constraints and the temperamental nature of the cider-making process meant that the finished product wasn't available for sale until recently.

"The first time we tried it, we had a range of blends and some of them would have gagged you, " said Mac An tsaoir. "But then, some of them were fabulous, and all of them were different. Each of us just experimented with the different blend of apples until we came up with our own, high-quality, artisan cider."

Last November, the first batches of the cider were finally put on sale at a local farmers' market. The reaction, said Mac An tsaoir, was very encouraging. In the next few months, the farmers hope to get official branding and labelling for their cider. Then they'll be looking into organised tasting tours for visitors to the area.

"In Brittany, you'll see signs directing you to the cideries and distilleries, and the local tourist office will have all the information about the opening times and everything, " said Mac An tsaoir.

"The same business plan works very well in England too, so I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be a runner here. At the moment, we have bus tours full of people driving around the area during blossom season, and there's nowhere for them to stop off.

We'll be hoping to attract those tours to the farms, to taste the cider and buy a few bottles."

At present, the cider-making industry is meant only as a source of extra income for the farmers, rather than as their sole livelihood. "But if it does take off, it would be very easy to scale upwards, " said Mac An tsaoir. "We would never be selling abroad . . .

that's Bulmer's market . . . but there's nothing to stop us making much larger quantities of cider."