Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/146156
A genuine bicycle built for two hangs on the front of Tandem Ciders. Dan and Nikki designed and built the building to resemble a traditional artisan cidery like the ones they visited in England. HISTORY repeated? R eputedly, hard cider is America's historic beverage, once considered safer to drink than water and easy to produce since apples grow readily. In 1726, according to one source, average per-capita consumption of hard cider was 35 gallons per year, and it was considered mild enough for children to drink. But the Temperance Movement in the late 1800s targeted hard cider as the evil drink that drained otherwise good husbands of ambition. Orchards were chopped down. Prohibition became the law of the land in 1920, and did lots of damage to breweries, wineries, and cideries, while apparently encouraging illegal distilleries and makers of bathtub gin. After Prohibition's repeal in 1933, breweries recovered first, and the wine industry followed slowly. The cider industry wants to be next in line. There is a long way to go. A lot has been forgotten. Tandem Ciders is a member of the Great Lakes Cider and Perry Association, which has 60 members in the Great Lakes states. They put together educational events, invite speakers from England and France, and hold competitions to test the skills of the cider makers. There are several pockets of hard cider revival in the United States, including the Pacific Northwest, the Northeast, and the Great Lakes area. In France and England, cider orchards are not the same as dessert apple orchards. Trees producing cider apples are large, Rothwell said. They need not be grown on dwarfing rootstocks. The apples need not be thinned nor the trees heavily pruned, since size and color don't much This planting contains 240 trees—20 each of 12 matter. Pest control is less strenuous. traditional English and French cider varieties. In Europe, specialized equipment is used to shake the apples onto the Their names are on the trellis posts. ground, sweep them into windrows, and pick them up by machine. Rothwell was amazed at the leaves, grass, and trash that find their way with the apples into European cider presses. But fermentation destroys bacteria and also patulin, the mycotoxin produced by certain species of fruit rots and molds that makes bad apples in sweet cider a health issue. "We sell some sweet cider," Nikki said, "so we are not using dropped apples or harvesting off the ground." But, in Washington State, experiments are under way to develop machines that knock cider apples off and sweep them up, just as they do in Europe. —R. Lehnert Jelinek Farm. Other ciders and growers get similar treatment: Ciders with names like Early Day, Farmhouse, Honey Pie, Pretty Penny, and The Crabster are made from apples from John Hoyt, Terry Rothwell, Badgerow Orchards, Kolarik Brothers, Wunsch Orchards, Smith-Omena Heights Farm, Steimel Brothers, Big Belly Farms, and Cherry Bay Orchards. Growing fast Tandem Ciders sold 6,000 cases last year. "We've been doubling every year since we started," Rothwell said. At the cidery, they have a tap system where they sell cider by the pint. They also sell cider by the growler (half gallon), keg, or barrel. "We're in some bars now—four or five," she said. Increasingly, bars and restaurants in Michigan are offering draft cider, especially if they also offer microbrewed beers. Last spring, Tandem Ciders planted a small orchard containing 20 trees each of 12 varieties. "We planted mostly French and English varietals," Rothwell said. The plan is to use American dessert apple varieties for the sweet part of the blend, and then add French and English bittersweets and bittersharps to balance the blend. The small orchard was planted at high density on dwarfing rootstock and on trellis, both as a source of apples and to show cidery visitors what the apples look like. "We like the idea of working inside a community and building it. —Nikki Rothwell Community spirit At one time, Young was interested in starting a microbrewery in Michigan, much like the one he ran in Massachusetts. But the idea of making a product from ingredients grown elsewhere was much less appealing than using local products, said Rothwell. "Here, there are apples all around us," she said. "We like the idea of working inside a community and building it." They work, they say, to build a place that reminds them of the many pubs from their English cycling tour: warm, fun, intimate places to stop, relax, and enjoy life for a moment. They also wanted their cidery to feel as though it was always part of Leelanau County, a place where neighbors and visitors would come for a pint or a taste on the weekend or each Friday night. Tourists can include the cidery as a stop on the Leelanau County Wine Trail. Rothwell hopes the problems she helps solve in her own business will help benefit the region's budding cidery industry. The problems they have in the business are problems other producers have, and the work she does to solve her problems solves problems for other growers as well. "It's a new industry. ," she said. "I talk to others about what they need and want. There's a lot going on in the cider world now, that's for sure." • www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER AUGUST 2013 43