Distillery Lane Ciderworks

The good news for 2023 is that we had a banner crop of early season hard cider apples such as Tremlett’s Bitter, Kingston Black, and Bulmer’s Norman. These ripened abnormally early and were off the trees in July, before the August heat wave set in. And we’ll have a decent amount of late season disease-resistant apples, such as Liberty, Goldrush, and Pixie Crunch. The late season old American varieties like Roxbury Russet and Ashmead’s Kernel also appear to be doing OK.

The bad news for 2023 is the mid season varieties did not fair well. The unrelenting heat of 2023, coupled with a local drought, have taken a toll on our August and September ripening varieties.

Ergo, we will only be opening for on-farm sales on one weekend this Fall.  Our hours will be noon-5:00 on October 21st and noon-5:00 on October 22nd.  We will have 4 or 5 hard ciders by the bottle, like Witches brew, Rio, and Kingston Black, and by the glass (but sorry no tasting flights). We’ll also be selling about a dozen varieties of apples from our orchard. We don’t enough apples to make fresh cider this year (for the first time in 15 years!), although we will have some other local, fresh (non-alcoholic) cider available by the glass.

Note that October 21st is also the date of the Spook Hill Morning Fun Run in Burkittsville.  Check here for details and sign-up information: https://www.spookhill4mile.org/

While this will not be a “festival” weekend as we have had in the past, it will be an opportunity to sample and purchase our apples and ciders. And of course,  we’ll have apple cider donuts from nearby Farmer’s Daughter bakery. You are welcome to bring your own lunch and snacks. Beekeeper Rick will be at the orchard from noon-2:00 each day to talk about honey bees and demonstrate the ins and outs of beekeeping.

As with years past, if we have a delightful fall day weather-wise, we will be quite busy. This means the occasional wait in long lines (we will do our best!). You’ve been forewarned!  We hope to see you in October!