Appleseed's Elixir
BY KEITH DALBEC
Ah, the law of unintended consequences!Johnny Appleseed, widely known as the pioneer nurseryman who introduced the apple to large parts of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, was gathering seeds from the pomace of cider mills, 3,000 to the bushel, for start-up nurseries.
But he may have inadvertently been providing a source for the most easily produced alcoholic beverage of the time — hard cider.
Traditional cider is made from a blend of bittersweet and bitter-sharp apples with a little crab apple thrown in. The tannin from these apples gives some twang to the beverage, just like red wine. Since the German immigrants had not yet arrived in large enough numbers to make beer for us, and the civilized activity of planting vineyards for wine had not been established, hard cider, of the Anglo-Saxon tradition, was our national adult beverage of necessity until the mid-1800s.
Our mountain apples today can be fermented, but rather than calling it hard cider, it is commonly referred to as apple wine.
But not all cider is alcoholic. Lindsey and David Butler of Sky Top Orchard are successfully capturing the nostalgia for old-fashioned non-alcoholic sweet cider. The Butlers have turned the 100-acre farm that has been in David’s family for almost 50 years into an agri-tourism center that has delighted locals and tourists since 1981. They produce a fresh, non–pasteurized cider from a blend of apples at their Pinnacle Mountain Road U-Pick facility.
The Butlers claim that just the smell of fresh cider causes a rush of nostalgia for many adults. A visit to Sky Top is about more than just buying apples — it summons up memories of grandma’s pies and hayrides, chickens and farm animals and pumpkin patches.
The farm, situated at 2,800 feet, just south of Flat Rock on Highway 25, started their retail sales in 1981 in a tent. A summer storm blew the tent across the road so the next year they built a small wooden shed. Today, the 2,000-square-foot shed houses bins for retail apple sales, an apple processing facility, a cider mill, a 700-gallon cider storage tank and a 500-bin fruit storage cooler.
For the total experience, try the fudge-dipped apples, made with fudge from Van’s Chocolates. Or, choose fresh baked bread and scones from the Flat Rock Bakery. Wash that down with an apple cider slushy. For dessert you can have fresh-made apple ice cream and an apple doughnut.
Had enough of apples? Next year, the Butlers plan to produce an Asian pear cider.
