Farms and businesses in Franklin, Hampshire, Worcester and Berkshire counties, along with southeastern Vermont, will bring the tradition and history of cider making to the forefront this weekend, with three days of tastings, demonstrations and panels.
The 32nd annual CiderDays is set for Friday, Nov. 6, through Sunday, Nov. 8. According to the CiderDays website, there are more than 23 businesses and farms participating.
The weekend kicks off with the seventh annual Wild & Seedling Pomological Exhibition at the Williamsburg Grange Hall on Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., hosted by Matt Kaminsky, also known as Gnarly Pippins. Attendees can see and sample a variety of seedling apples and pears from across North America.
“Each year since the founding in 2019, we have had an increasingly diverse and interesting cohort of submissions from geographies and bioregions scattered across the continent,” Kaminsky wrote on his website.
Kaminsky makes another appearance in Shelburne Falls on Saturday, Nov. 7, moderating a panel on U.S.-U.K. cider at Raven Used Books. The panel is slated for 10 to 11 a.m. and is free to attend.
Calling it one of the biggest weekends of the year for his farm, Clarkdale Fruit Farms owner Ben Clark said it’s no coincidence that CiderDays is held on the first weekend of November. For many cider makers, he said, this represents a slower time of year after Halloween but before Thanksgiving. With that, Clark said his Deerfield farm gets plenty of local folks, in addition to visitors from outside Franklin County and the state.
“It’s decent weather, it hasn’t gotten too cold, so it’s still a great time to visit,” Clark said. “We do get a lot of folks from the local area, but also, over the years we’ve really established a following with folks in eastern Mass., Boston area, Connecticut, New York even. We even get people flying in from different parts of the country and even overseas.”
Clarkdale Fruit Farms will host events on Saturday and Sunday, with Ben Clark and his father, Tom, conducting an orchard history “walk and talk” tour on Saturday from noon to 1 p.m. On Sunday, Lucy Damkoehler of Sweet Lucy’s Bakeshop in Bernardston will be at the farm from 11 a.m. to noon, leading a demonstration on how to bake with apples.
“We’re a farm and not selling hard cider, so our [events] are family-oriented, [for] cooks and history buffs,” Clark noted.
Another business participating in the weekend is Pine Hill Orchards in Colrain. Owner-operator Brady Shearer said her business has “been a part of CiderDays from the get-go,” and that interested parties can register for a class on how to make their own cider.
This class will take place on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 9 to 11:30 a.m. It will be taught by Charlie Olchowski and Bob Delisle, and registration costs $105. The registration fee covers the 5 gallons of cider blend and all of the equipment needed. Shearer requests that those who are interested in registering for the class do so by 5 p.m. on Friday.
“We’ve got some people that we’ve kept involved with that are some wonderful cider makers and are really passionate about getting other people involved,” Shearer said. “They are going to be teaching this class. They’ve got combined decades of cider-making experience and they’re really fun to learn from.”
In addition to the cider-making class, Shearer said Pine Hill Orchards hosts its bulk cider sale, which she said has “grown immensely” since the inception of CiderDays in 1994.
“We’ve seen a lot more people really become involved, and we’ve seen a lot of repeat people that come back every year,” Shearer said. “It’s kind of cool to see how it wasn’t just a one-time thing for people, that people really have stayed involved and really [took] this on as a passionate hobby.”
Other demonstrations during CiderDays include an apple cider and apple spirits sampling at Cold River Package & Market in Charlemont on Saturday from noon to 3 p.m.; a bottle share and competition for amateur cider makers at West County Cider in Shelburne Falls on Sunday from 9:30 to 11 a.m.; a non-alcoholic cider tasting at Cameron’s Winery and Cidery in Northfield on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and a cider pairing dinner at the Gill Tavern, with cider from Altamira Ciderworks, on Saturday from 6:15 to 8:45 p.m.
For a full list of events taking place during CiderDays, visit ciderdays.org/schedule-of-events-2024.
