Unexpected outing yesterday with Bob to Shawnigan Lake where he picked up a new 12-foot aluminum skiff. On the way back we stopped in at the Merridale Estate Cidery, tucked into a lovely little valley, trees bare but at least the snow was gone & the sun was half-out. And there were free samples. The "scrumpy" (rough cider, made from small or unselected apples. Also attrib. in scrumpy cider. 1904 in Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v., These apples are of no good but to make scrumpy of. 1932 [see nobble v. 3].1962 G. Compton Too Many Murderers xii. 87 Scrumpy was only eightpence a pint. 1973 C. Bonington Next Horizon viii. 114 A brisk five-minute walk took you to the Coronation Tap, where you could down a pint of scrumpy cider and eat home-made pies) is quite something.

(from Scrump, v. trans. To steal (apples), esp. from orchards. Also transf. and absol. 1866 R. Hallam Wadsley Jack iv. 17 Dick Greasy ax'd me if I'd mak' one to goa a scrumpim', that is, fetchin' apples off sumboddy's trees. 1931 ‘G. Orwell’ Hop-Picking in Coll. Essays (1968) I. 71 Scrump, to, to steal. 1945 B. Naughton in C. Madge Pilot Papers I. 101 They'd come scrumping in Woolworths, or over at the market, or from the street stalls. 1951 A. Baron Rosie Hogarth iii. i. 137 Scrumping apples, remember? God didn't put 'em on that tree for Mr. Moggeridge. 1966 M. Torrie Heavy as Lead xiv. 169 His lordship was going scrumping. You know. Kids scrump apples, Sir G. scrumped rock garden plants. 1972 K. Bonfiglioli Don't point that Thing at Me i. 3 English policemendare not even spank the bottoms of little boys caught scrumping apples nowadays. Hence scrumped ppl. a.; "scrumper, one who scrumps; "scrumping vbl. n. 1946 Scrutiny XIII. 293 There is to be, after all, no development in Fant's moral powers: only, as it were, a schoolboy scrumping of all the redeeming fruits of experience. 1957 Times 20 Aug. 5/1 Scrumping is an offence which perhaps no one in this court-room has not committed. 1969 M. Wiggin Cottage Idyll ii. 26 One scoundrel sent me a message to the effect that he would like his cherished scrumping stick back. 1973 D. Orgill Jasius Pursuit i. 9 If the police had to jail every hippy fruit-scrumper, the prisons would soon be overcrowded. 1976 A. Hill Summer's End vii. 98 Scrumped apples always taste better than bought ones. 1981 Daily Tel. 3 Mar. 3/1 (heading) Rector used stick on girl scrumper.