OLD NEWS: 2012.
1. Farmstand: Unbelievably wet days chained together during much of September, rain coming down like the bars of a cage, particularly during the traditionally apple-mad weekend at the end of the month. But people have poured into the orchards during the drier times and trooped in pretty
Having a clean moment
steadily during the soggy bits. The most annoying effect for customers has been that we’ve had to suspend weekend trailer rides through the orchards. When the ground is this soft, the carefully-maintained grass that supports the “orchard floor” (true orchardspeak) can get ripped and rutted, not to mention the modest layers of gravel on tractor roads between the fields. Newton the amphibious Labrador has been in mud heaven, so not everyone is miffed.
2. Field Work: Our Fall VIP’s, the picking crew, are doing delicate work in rough conditions, bringing in Uncommon Apples to fill orders from NYC. (Cider apples are easier, since they’re headed for the press rather than for tastefully-lit produce displays.) Some day soon we’ll put up a proper tribute to the guys who show up in September, exert their dazzling powers for ten weeks or so, then head off home. This operation would be doomed without them.
3. Cider “Press” – Ink – Publicity: Stunning to all of us who remember the early, lonely years. No time to list all the mentions, links, signs of enthusiasm for the American cider enterprise, new cidermakers, new surges in public taste: Search the Web for: “Cider Week NYC,” “Farnum Hill Ciders,” “cider makers.” “Dooryard” is finding more friends than we dreamed. (LDS)
4. UPDATE November 17th: Farnum Hill Exclusive New Jersey Dooryard rolled off to the Garden State, soon followed by Corrie Wolosin who introduced it, to great acclaim, in various gracious retail settings. Our prized allies at Hunterdon Brewers, who thought this all up, report with satisfaction that Dooryard #1131NJ is running out fast.
P.S. From the Cider Is Interesting Dept: Before and throughout Prohibition, New Jersey produced perhaps the finest and best-known ciders in the country. In the mid-19th century, about half the bottles labeled and sold here as imported Champagne were filled with — yes — cider made in the Garden State. In the “dry” years, a famous fluid called Jersey Lightning, distilled from — yes — Jersey cider, did much to address popular demand and undermine law. Jersey farm ciders could rise again: plenty of unpaved ground in the Garden State. We’d love to see that. (LDS)
