Charley Voorhis, who did our cider production video, has just released another incredible piece for Olympia Coffee Roasting Company. Captured during a 10-day trip to multiple sites within Central America, this video captures the process, places and faces involved in bringing incredible coffee from its origin to your cup.

Curious what happens after it's harvested, processed, dried, sorted, and shipped to Olympia? This video should satisfy that curiosity.

As farmers, producers of a full-flavored drink and, let's face it, flavor nerds, there are a multitude of similarities between the approach to making cider and roasting coffee. Both are subject to the forces of nature, climate and terroir. Both are affected by how the fruit is handled after picking. And both are capable of packing a whallop of complex and delicious flavors if handled with care and finesse.

This fall we were able to capture the story of what it takes to grow, pick, crush, press and bottle our artisan ciders here at the orchard, thanks to local filmmaker Charley Voorhis. Charley has been incredible to work with and did an excellent job capturing the warmth of the harvest season in mid-October as well as the sights, sounds and faces* that make up our cidermaking process. If you're in the market for film, we highly recommend him!

*It should be noted here that the man most responsible for the ciders, Peter Ringsrud, only makes a brief shadowy appearance at 0:20 because he was so busy actually making the cider while we filmed the process

Additional thanks to Adam Butler for the music, and to our many friends for their help and willingness to be caught on camera.

Photo: David White of Old Time Cider

Check out the full article and read their descriptions of our Orchard Select and Semidry ciders here.

Photo by Chris Hoover

It's amazing how cider keeps popping up around every corner. Some more corners to watch for are Cider Summit Northwest Sept. 11 (just heard there will be 50 ciders there!), Wenatchee Downtown Association's Taste of the Harvest Sept. 18, Vashon Ciderfest, and Ivar's Salmon House's Fall Cider Celebration.

And speaking of being in the press, our early season apples are ripening up and will be going into a press of another sort in the next week or so…

This was our first experience with a 6-course, 4 ½ hour dinner event. To start the evening off, we toured their formal herb garden where we sampled various herbs and flowers that would be used with the dinner and heard a little bit of their story.  The first course was a trio for cider which featured emmer blini with housemade fresh chevre and various toppings with a champagne-style cider from Finnriver. The second course featured farmstead rabbit paired with Wescott Bay’s traditional cider. The third course was squab paired with Wildfire Semisweet Ember and our own Cliffbreaks Blend. The fourth course – pork with Red Barn’s Burro Loco. We had a cheese and house-made prosciutto paired with Wandering Angus Bloom cider.  For dessert, balsamic bing cherries with Bavarian cream paired with Blue Mountain’s cherry cider.

The presentation for each course was elegantly done and many of them had a cider reduction to compliment the entree. The portions were sized appropriately so as not to have overeaten. The Herbfarm did the best the best job that I have experienced so far in pairing cider elegantly with food. It was a very enjoyable time and it was hard to believe that it was after 11:00 when we left. The hard part was keeping alert for deer on the 3-hour drive home.

The dinner event at The Herbfarm was definitely a highlight to our dining experiences and a great opportunity to connect with other cider makers and enthusiasts. There were several people capturing photos of the evening, we'll try to connect with them soon and share the feast visually. A very big thank you to Nancy Bishop of Wildfire Cidery and Sharon Campbell of Tieton Cider Works for organizing such a wonderful event.

"#1 Destination Restaurant in the World" - National Geographic

Years ago when Peter and Mary Ann lived in Seattle, they could only dream of dining at the Herbfarm, with the restaurant being so sought-out that reservations were regularly booked 6-9 months in advance!

Now our cider has the honor of being selected as part of the menu at the Herbfarm's upcoming Northwest Cider Maker's Dinner on June 29th. This will be a night of incredible seasonal Northwest food centered around cider pairings, all in honor of some of the most key people to bring about the Northwest's current resurgence of great ciders – Dr. Bob Norton, Gary Moulton, and Peter Mitchell. We are absolutely grateful for their work in the realm of cider.

Reserve your spot for Tuesday night and come visit with Peter & Mary Ann and other great cider makers and cider lovers, and enjoy the dinner of a lifetime!

For more information on the schedule, parking, etc. head on over to their site.

Friday, June 18, 4 - 9pm 21+ only
Saturday, June 19, 11am - 9pm All Ages
Sunday, June 20, 11am - 6pm All Ages

Location: 
St. Edward State Park
14445 Juanita Dr. NE, Kenmore, WA 98028
Directions