287: Elizabeth Ryan | Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider, NY

"Every hand that touches the apple has a story to tell."

Who is Elizabeth Ryan?

She is the founder of Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider, but that is only part of the story. At heart she is a farmer having grown up in Iowa on a family farm. She moved east to Ithaca to study at Cornell University to originally study engineering. Life had other plans for her and she soon found herself involved in farm activism and food rights which eventually led her switching her study to the Pomology at Cornell.

In 1977 she left Cornell to work in Washington DC to work with communities on food sustainability. Elizabeths network in the food scene and farming inspired her to move back to Cornell and finish her degree and get her own farm.

Elizabeth and Farming

In 1984, Elizabeth and then husband Peter bought a farm on the east side of the Hudson River called Breezy Hill. Today Breezy Hill has a tasting room (that will reopen post the pandemic), a cidermaking production room and a large orchard. In addition to Breezy Hill, the Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider brand also has Stone Ridge Orchard and the newest addition the Milton Farm.

Stone Ridge Orchard has an outdoor entertainment space, a tasting room that often hosts special cider dinners, a cider production and a glorious 350 year-old oak tree.

Milton is to the south of Stone Ridge and has a small orchard. This site is not open to the public.

Elizabeth and Cidermaking

A man by the name of Lester Funk helped Elizabeth make her first barrel aged cider.

Today there is a wide selection of ciders available under the Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider brand name which became licensed to sell commercially in 1995. The apples for all her ciders are coming in from each orchard and even some other select orchards in the region.

The following is what I wrote on the Traditional Cider that we tasted during this recording.

"My go-to when enticing friends to give cider a try is the "Traditional" by Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider (NY). Expect a sparkling cider with a clean finish that comes in 750ml flip top bottles providing a "pop" every time to ring in good cheers! This semi dry showcases local New York terroir as it dances in the mouth with a touch of tannin and Stone Ridge Farm apple love!"

Contact Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider

website: http://www.hudsonvalleyfarmhousecider.com/

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