Using New York Fruits to Make Tasty Spirits

From Empire Farm & Dairy magazine:

By DEBRA J. GROOM
Empire Farm & Dairy
 
Everyone knows you use grapes to make wine.
 
But did you know you could take just about any type of fruit grown in New York and make other types of spirits? And you can also make wine out of other fruits.
 
“Distilled apple beverages and apple wine have really taken off,” said James Allen, president of the New York Apple Association.
 
The numbers bear this out — there were 10 farm distilleries in New York state in 2011 and there are 85 today, according to figures from the state Liquor Authority.
 
An example: Apple Country Spirits in Williamson, Wayne County.
 
David DeFisher, a fourth-generation fruit farmer, began the business in 2012 after trying to figure out if there was a product he could make to bring in more profit from his fruits.
 
“We sold (our fruits) to processors for years,” DeFisher said. “Then in 2010-2011, I started thinking about what sort of value-added product could we begin producing that would bring in a better return.”
 

Tart cherry cordial by Apple Country Spirits

He and his wife took a course about distilling at Cornell University and then bought a still and built a 7,000-square-foot facility at the farm. Today they make a variety of distilled spirits — vodka, a cherry cordial, and bourbon- and whiskey-like products — from apples and other fruits.
 
He does not make apple vodka, which he said is regular, grain-distilled vodka flavored with apple.
 
“Our product, our vodka, is made from apples,” he said.
 
DeFisher operates a tasting room at the farm where people can taste the vodka, cherry cordial and bourbon-like and whiskey-like products and even a hard cider. The tasting room is open from noon to 5 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. For more information, visit applecountryspirits.com/events.
 
Distilling has a long history in New York state.
 
According to numerous online histories, back in the early days of our country, a distillery could be found on just about every corner. Seems the Founding Fathers and others in this new land liked to keep themselves supplied with a steady source of alcoholic beverages.
 
But once Prohibition grabbed hold of the country in the early 1900s, the distilling industry took a huge hit. New York state went from hundreds of distilleries to none.
 
Passage of the Farm Distillery Law in 2007 helped change that.
 
The law, signed by then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer, established a farm distillery license for small-liquor producers that use mostly New York farm products. The distilleries make no more than 35,000 gallons of liquor annually and can conduct tasting on their licensed premises, much the same as wineries throughout the state.
 
The first to open was Tuthilltown Distillery in the Hudson Valley. Founders Ralph Erenzo and Brian Lee took a mill that had once milled grain into flour and turned it into the state’s first distillery since Prohibition.
 

“Today, Tuthilltown Spirits distills Indigenous Vodka from apples grown at orchards less than five miles away and the highly awarded Hudson Whiskey line, using grain harvested by farmers less than 10 miles away,” according to the Tuthilltown website.
 
“The Visitor Center offers guests the opportunity to taste the collection of whiskeys, vodkas, gins, liqueurs and other unique, handmade spirits,” the website entry states. “Tours illustrate how Tuthilltown’s spirits are made by hand, one batch at a time.”
 
Another distilling company that started up shortly after Tuthilltown is Finger Lakes Distilling in Burdett, Schuyler County. President Brian McKenzie said the passage of the farm distillery license bill was key to the business opening.
 
“We wouldn’t be here without it,” he said.
 

McKenzie got the idea for the business in 2007, made the first batches of spirits at the end of 2008 and sold to the public for the firs time in July 2009. The distillery is in the heart of Finger Lakes (five miles north of Watkins Glen on Route 414) wine country, making whiskeys, bourbons, vodkas and liqueurs using locally grown grapes, berries, rye, corn and other fruits and grains.
 
The location might seem odd, but it makes a lot of sense.
 
“A big reason why we’re situated where we are is the draw from the wine tours — we have a captive audience,” McKenzie said. “And then it’s a great spot because of all the agricultural products grown right near here. We have all the fresh, raw material we need right here.”
 
McKenzie said their flavored vodkas and liqueurs are made in the traditional manner, by soaking real fruits in the spirit.
 
“We don’t add extracts or synthetic flavoring to speed up the process,” McKenzie says on the distillery’s website. “Our whiskies rest in oak barrels for as long as they need to, until they mature into the rich, aged spirit we offer with pride.”
 
The entire process, from processing the raw ingredients to labeling filled bottles, is housed at Finger Lakes Distilling, which makes 18 different products. Its tasting room is open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
 
And then, of course, there are those who still make spirits the old-fashioned way.
 
Elias Barber, a sixth-generation farmer in Schoharie County, uses not-ready-for-prime-time potatoes from his farm to make vodka. He said Barber’s Farm opened its tasting room in October (right next door to its roadside stand) where visitors can taste the vodkas.
 
“We had been playing around with the idea for almost three years,” Barber said. “We wanted to create a value-added product from a waste product (the potatoes that are too ugly for the public to buy).”
 
The farm got a Farm Distillery License and started making vodka from those ugly potatoes. Farm workers make about 300 750-milliliter bottles a week.
 
And now, “the sky’s the limit,” Barber said.




  

Hard Cider Production Takes Off in New York State

From Empire Farm & Dairy magazine:

By DEBRA J. GROOM
Empire Farm & Dairy
 

Beak & Skiff 1911 Hard Cider

When the owners of Beak & Skiff orchard in LaFayette south of Syracuse decided to build a site to make hard cider, they put up a 30,000-square-foot building.
 
What they didn’t realize at the time was the hard cider industry would take off at such a rate that they outgrew their 30,000-square-foot building in a little more than a year.
Now, they are expanding just to keep up with demand.
 
“We thought this was a five-year building,” said head cidermaker Yann Fay. “But we were wrong. After 1½ years, we outgrew it. Today, we can’t keep up with the demand.”
 
Just listen to this — at Beak & Skiff’s 1911 Cidery, production has increased from about 20,000 gallons of hard cider in 2014 to an estimated 300,000 gallons this year. A total of 200,000 gallons came off the bottling line in 2015.
 
To meet the demand, Fay said the company built a new 30,000-square-foot addition onto the cidery and moved all the storage of product and supplies into that space. That frees up space in the main part of the cidery building for four new fermenting tanks to handle 18,000 more gallons of bulk cider.
 
Beak & Skiff isn’t the only New York business reaching new heights in the hard cider world. More and more farms are getting into the hard cider business. According to statistics from the state Liquor Authority, the number of hard cider makers has gone from five in 2011 to 22 now.
 
But these aren’t the only sites making hard cider. Some wineries are expanding to add hard cider to their repertoire. Craft breweries are also getting into the hard cider game.
 
Even longtime brewer F.X. Matt Brewing Co. in Utica, the home of Saranac beer, is making hard sodas — hard root beer, hard orange cream and hard black cherry.
 
Rochester also boasts a first hard cider-only tavern. Mullers Cider House opened in December and is serving 50 ciders from the United States (outside New York), France, England, Spain, Scotland, Ireland and Germany and 19 ciders (plus two seasonals) made in New York state. It also has a pub-style food menu.
 
“I think it’s time,” Patrick Jaouen, a co-owner of Mullers with Sam Conjerti Jr., told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle in December. “And just from the response we’ve gotten so far, people are ready for something new.
 
“There’s a million craft beer places and wine bars. When they come into Mullers, it’s going to be a new experience. I think people are craving that. I think that with the passion we have for this, that we have for cider, we’re going to be able to expose people to a whole other world that they weren’t aware of,” he said.
 
Part of what made hard cider a big deal in New York is the cider law signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in October 2013, which made a license available to farm cideries that use crops grown exclusively in New York state. That law led to the creation of eight farm cideries in the state and cider being made at craft breweries and wineries in the state.
 
The Farm Cidery Law created a license for cider manufacturers similar to licenses available to farm wineries, breweries and distilleries. In order to obtain a farm cidery license, the hard cider must be made exclusively from apples and other pome fruits grown in New York state, with production of up to 150,000 gallons annually.
 
Cuomo has had three New York Wine, Beer and Spirits Summits — in the fall of 2012, spring 2014 and fall of 2015. The summits brought the “farm-based beverage sector together with agricultural producers and government officials in an effort to accelerate and prolong the rapid growth exhibited by the state’s beverage industry,” according to a press release from the governor’s office.
 
All of this makes perfect sense since New York state is the second largest apple producer in the United States. New York growers harvested an estimated 1.1 billion pounds last year. The state is home to 40,000 acres of apple orchards, where growers produced an average of 31,500 pounds of apples per acre.
 
Fay, the cidermaker at Beak & Skiff’s 1911 Cidery, said there is no worry that places like Beak & Skiff will run out of apples for picking and fresh eating with more cider being made. He said Beak & Skiff is always planting more trees to meet the demand.
 
“We have 300,000 trees on 300 to 400 acres,” he said. “We plant 8,000 to 10,000 new trees each year. There are four to six apples in each bottle of hard cider. So there will always be enough apples.”
 
The 1911 Cidery at Beak & Skiff has a beautiful state-of-the-art bottling line that automatically fills 750 milliliter bottles (about the size of a wine bottle) with hard cider. The cidery employs seven full-time production people and six full-time sales people and is planning to add new employees this year.
 
Making hard cider is much the same process as when regular apple cider turns hard. Remember finding a bottle of regular cider that had been pushed to the back of the refrigerator and forgotten? 

After a while, that cider turned hard because the sugar in the cider turned to alcohol.
 
It’s the same with hard cider made at cideries, except you don’t have to wait forever for the natural fermentation process. Fay said things are helped along by adding yeast, which works to break the sugars down into alcohol. The cider sits in fermentation tanks for anywhere from six weeks to six months and then is bottled.
 
It has an alcohol content of 5.5 percent to 6.9 percent, just a tad more than beer.
 

Apple Country Spirits in Williamson

Most spirits are noted by proof, say 100 proof or 80 proof. The alcohol content of these would be 50 percent for the 100 proof and 40 percent for the 80 proof (take the proof number and divide by 2 to get the alcohol content, according to the Serious Eats website).
 
Wine ranges from 10 percent to 18 percent alcohol.
 
The hard ciders can be made in varying flavors and, like wine, can run the gamut from dry to sweet. 

Fay said as a cidermaker, it is his job to experiment using different varieties of apples and mixing different apples and even hops to come up with creative tastes. 1911 Cidery has even come up with some seasonal blends, like its pumpkin hard cider in the fall. 
 
David DeFisher, a fourth-generation fruit farmer in Williamson, Wayne County, recently moved into the hard cider business at his farm. He also runs Apple Country Spirits, which he opened in 2012, which makes a variety of alcoholic spirits made from apples and other fruits.
 
DeFisher welcomes consumers to visit the farm, ask questions about the distilling process and hard cider fermentation process. Oh, and also, try some of the beverages.
 
“The farm cideries legislation opened the door to new opportunities for New York’s cider manufacturers, and the progress they have made since it became law is truly remarkable,” Cuomo said in a speech. “From offering tastings to selling their world-class product alongside other made-in-New York goods, our state’s cideries are driving economic activity across the state, and I am proud that we have been able to play a part in their success.”
 
Here are some other cider operations that have opened of late:
 
** November 2015 — Angry Orchard Cider Co. opened a new Innovation Cider House, home to a small-batch cidery, tasting room and hard cider research-and-development center at Angry Orchard’s 60-acre apple orchard in the village of Walden, Orange County.
 
Angry Orchard is investing $9.1 million in the Innovation Cider House and  employ at least seven full-time employees through 2018. The facility has also been awarded a $175,000 Empire State Development capital grant to cover the costs of the cidery’s machinery and equipment. The facility will be home to cider research and development for the cider maker, including small batch experimentation with different ingredients, apple varieties, recipes and processes.
 
At the orchard, visitors can learn about cider as well as try samples of exclusive, handcrafted Angry Orchard ciders. Ciders developed at the orchard may eventually become part of the Angry Orchard family of ciders available nationwide. First launched in 2012, Angry Orchard is the number-one selling hard cider in the United States, where cider consumption has nearly quintupled since 2010.
 
** December 2015 — Mullers Cider House, a hard cider-only bar and tavern, opens in Rochester.
 
** April 2014 — The Anheuser-Busch (owned now by InBev) plant in Baldwinsville in suburban Syracuse makes the company’s first hard cider, Johnny Appleseed.
 
** 2015 — The Empire Cider Center opens in Geneva near the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. It is an business incubator of sorts for cider makers, where lab testing, research and development, small-batch production, bottling and cold-storage goes on so producers can test their products. It is making its first hard ciders this month (February). 
 
For more information on New York cider, visit www.nycider.com, a website run by the New York Apple Association.

Cider, Hard Cider and Apple Spirits Abound in the Fall

Cider is a refreshing bit of fall — tangy and sweet apples in a drink.
 
New York is filled with places to buy cider, whether it’s a grocery store, farm market, farmstand or straight from the orchard.
 
James Allen, president and chief executive officer of the New York Apple Association, said apple cider is big business in the state, as people pick up gallons or half-gallons when they visit the scores of orchards across New York.
 
It’s also a fun fall family activity to pick fresh apples and buy cider.
 
But New York orchards are much more than cider.
 
For adults, many apple growers are expanding into hard cider and apple spirits — a variety of alcoholic beverages made from apples.
 
“Distilled apple beverages and apple wine have really taken off,” Allen said.
 
David DeFisher, a fourth-generation fruit farmer in Williamson, Wayne County, began Apple Country Spirits at his farm in 2012. He makes vodka and other spirits from apples and other fruits grown at his farm.
 
“We sold (our fruits) to processors for years,” DeFisher said. “Then in 2010-2011, I started thinking about what sort of value-added product could we begin producing that would bring in a better return.”
 
He and his wife took a course about distilling at Cornell University and then bought a still and built a 7,000-square-foot facility at the farm. Today they make a variety of distilled spirits — vodka, a cherry cordial, and bourbon- and whiskey-like products — from apples and other fruits.
 
DeFisher is quick to point out that he does not make apple vodka, which he said is regular, grain-distilled vodka flavored with apple.
 
“Our product, our vodka, is made from apples,” he said.
 
Anyone interested in testing these spirits can visit his farm’s tasting room from noon to 5 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. And throughout October, there is a cocktail party at the farm each Friday and Saturday night. (Visit applecountryspirits.com/events for more information.)
 
DeFisher said his farm also recently has moved into the hard-cider business. He welcomes consumers to visit the farm, ask questions about the distilling process, and try some of the beverages.
 
“Sales are beginning to pick up,” he said.
 
For more information on New York cider, visit www.nycider.com, a webiste run by the New York Apple Association.
 
Here is a list of several farms and orchards that sell their cider or spirits during the season:

SOUTHERN TIER
Hemlock Grove Farm, 180 Walding Lane, West Danby, Tompkins County, (607) 564-3346
Littletree Orchards, 345 Shaffer Road, Newfield, Tompkins County, (607) 592-8177
South Hill Cider, 560 W. King Road, Ithaca, Tompkins County, (607) 279-7563; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Redbyrd Orchard Cider, 4115 Newtown Road, Burdett, Schuyler County, (607) 546-4340; also has hard cider and apple spirits

CENTRAL NEW YORK
Second Chance Orchard, 7319 Kirkville Road, East Syracuse, Onondaga County, (315) 656-0005
C&M Farms, 7645 Myers Road, Kirkville, Onondaga County, (315) 656-7173
Abbott Farms Inc., 3275 Cold Springs Road, Lysander, Onondaga County, (315) 638-7783
Rocking Horse Farm, 3736 Apulia Road, Jamesville, Onondaga County, (315) 492-1100
Beak & Skiff Apple Hill Campus, 2708 Lords Hill Road, LaFayette, Onondaga County, (315) 696-6085
1911 Spirits by Beak & Skiff, 2708 Lords Hill Road, LaFayette, Onondaga County; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Navarino Orchard, 3655 Cherry Valley Turnpike, Syracuse, Onondaga County, (315) 673-9181
Critz Farms, 3232 Rippleton Road, Cazenovia, Madison County, (315) 662-3355
Harvest Moon Cidery at Critz Farms, 3232 Rippleton Road, Cazenovia, Madison County, (315) 662-3355
Owen Orchards Inc., 8174 Grant Ave. Road, Weedsport, Cayuga County, (315) 252-4097
Elderbery Pond, 3728 Center Street Road, Auburn, Cayuga County, (315) 252-3977
Twin Orchards Farm Inc., 4695 Middle Settlement Road, New Hartford, Oneida County, (315) 736-5883
Clinton Cider Mill, 17 Fair Meadow Lane, Clinton, Oneida County, (315) 853-5756
Parker’s Cider Mill, 437 Otsego St., Ilion, Herkimer County, (315) 894-4660
North Star Orchards LLC, 4741 State Route 233, Westmoreland, Oneida County, (315) 853-1024
Windy Hill Orchard & Farm Market, 577 East St., Cassville, Oneida County, (315) 822-0046
Hollenbeck’s Cider Mill, 1265 Route 392, Cortland, Cortland County, (607) 835-6455

NORTH COUNTRY
Burrville Cider Mill, Inc., 18176 County Route 156, Watertown, Jefferson County, (315) 788-7292
Kaneb Orchards, 182 Highland Road, Massena, St. Lawrence County, (315) 769-2880; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Everett Orchards Farm Market & Cidery, 1945 Military Turnpike, Plattsburgh, Clinton County, (518) 643-6824; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Rulfs Orchard, 531 Bear Swamp Road, Peru, Clinton County, (518) 643-8636

HUDSON VALLEY
Hardeman Orchards, 194 West Market St., Red Hook, Dutchess County, (845) 758-5154
Migliorelli Farms, 46 Freeborn Lane, Tivoli, Dutchess County, (845) 757-3276
Stone Ridge Orchard, 3012 Stone Ridge Road, Stone Ridge, Ulster County, (845) 687-2587
Mead Orchards LLC, 15 Scism Road, Tivoli, Dutchess County, (845) 756-5641
Stone Ridge Orchard, 828 Centre Road, Staatsburg, Dutchess County, (845) 687-2587; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Breezy Hill Orchards, 828 Centre Road, Staatsburg, Dutchess County, (845) 266-3979
Clermont Cider House, 21 Gronwoldt Lane, Germantown, Columbia County, (518) 537-4437
Wilklow Orchards, 341 Pancake Hollow Road, Highland, Ulster County, (845) 691-8325
Hudson Valley Fruit Juice, 33 White St., Highland, Ulster County
Jenkins & Lueken Orchard, 69 Yankee Folly Road, New Paltz, Ulster County, (845) 255-0999
Yankee Folly Cider, 69 Yankee Folly Road, New Paltz, Ulster County, (845) 255-1155; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Saunderskill Farm, 100 Route 209 Accord, Ulster County, (845) 626-7103
Dressel Farms, LLC, 271 Route 208, New Paltz, Ulster County, (845) 255-0693; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Kettleborough Cider House, 277 State Route 208, New Paltz, Ulster County, (845) 419-3774
Minard Farms Beverage Co., 59 Hurds Road, Clintondale, Ulster County, (845) 883-7102
W.H. Walker & Son, 1153 Route 44, Clintondale, Ulster County, (845) 883-7457
Bad Seed Cider Co. LLC, 43 Baileys Gap Road, Highland, Ulster County, (845) 389-3087; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Mark Eger & Bros. Inc., 33 Eger Road, Hudson, Columbia County, (518) 828-3510
Thompson-Finch Farm, 750 Wiltsie Bridge Road, Ancram, Columbia County, (518) 329-7578

LONG ISLAND
Hicks Nurseries Inc., 100 Jericho Turnpike, Box 648, Westbury, Nassau County, (516) 334-0066
Martin Viette Nurseries Inc., 6050 Northern Blvd., East Norwich, Nassau County, (516) 922-5530
Jericho Cider Mill Inc., 213 Route 106, Jericho, Nassau County, (516) 433-3360

CAPITAL DISTRICT
Nine Pin Cider Works LLC, 929 Broadway, Albany, Albany County, (518) 449-9999; also has hard cider and apple spirits
The Farm at Kristy’s Barn, 2385 Brookview Road, Schodack, Rensselaer County, (518) 477-6250
Cronk Farm Products, 553 Old Best Road, West Sand Lake, Rensselaer County, (518) 326-2238
Goold Orchards Inc., 1297 Brookview Station Road,  Castleton-on-Hudson, Rensselaer County, (518) 732-7317
Goold Orchards — Brookview Station Winery, 1297 Brookview Station Road, Castleton-on-Hudson, Rensselaer County, (518) 732-7317; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Indian Ladder Farms Inc., 342 Altamont-Voorheesville Road, Altamont, Albany County, (518) 765-2956; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Bowman Orchards LLC, 141 Sugar Hill Road, Rexford, Saratoga County, (518) 371-2042
Lindsey’s Idyllwood Orchard, 267 Sugarhill Road, Rexford, Saratoga County, (518) 371-5785
Altamont Orchards, Inc., 6654 Dunnsville Road, Altamont, Albany County, (518) 861-6515
Golden Harvest Farms, Inc., 3074 Route 9, Valatie, Columbia County, (518) 758-7683
Harvest Spirits Distillery, 3074 US Route 9, Valatie, Columbia County, (518) 758-7683; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Samascott Orchards, 5 Sunset Ave., Kinderhook, Columbia County, (518) 758-7224
Lakeside Cider Mill Farms, 336 Schauber Road, Ballston Lake, Saratoga County, (518) 399-8359
Knight Orchard of Saratoga Inc., 325 Goode St., Burnt Hills, Saratoga County, (518) 399-5174
Borden’s Orchard, 2841 Valley Falls Road, Schaghticoke, Rensselaer County, (518) 692-2370
Sundog Cider, 343 State Route 395, Chatham, Columbia County, (518) 392-4000; also has hard cider and apple spirits

WESTERN NEW YORK
Chateau Buffalo Ciderhouse & Winery, 175 Niagara Frontier Food Terminal, 1500 Clinton St., Buffalo, Erie County, (716) 704-4671; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Mayer Bros. Apple Products, 3300 Transit Road, West Seneca, Erie County, (716) 668-1787
Saville Farms Inc., 4020 N Buffalo Road, Orchard Park, Erie County, (716) 662-4485
McKenzie’s Beverages, Inc., 4475 Transit Road, Orchard Park, Erie County, (716) 912-5020; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Smith’s Orchard Cider Mill, 4960 Mapleton Road, Pendleton, Niagara County, (716) 625-4316
Cherry Bank Farm, 5140 Townline Road, Sanborn, Niagara County, (716) 731-5749
Red Barrel Cider Mill Inc., 8978 Boston State Road, Boston, Erie County, (716) 941-5959
Hall Apple Farm, 6100 Ruhlmann Road, Lockport, Niagara County, (716) 434-0838
Blackman Homestead Farm, 4472 Thrall Road, Lockport, Niagara County, (716) 434-7116
Cummins Cider Mill, 159 Portville Ceres Road, Portville, Cattaraugus County, (716) 933-8890
Pumpkinville LLC, 4844 Sugartown Road, Great Valley, Cattaraugus County, (716) 699-2994

FINGER LAKES
DeFisher Fruit Farms, 3274 Eddy Road, Williamson, Wayne County, (315) 589-8416; also has hard cider and spirits through its Apple Country Spirits at the same site
Finger Lakes Cider House, 4017 Hickok Road, Interlaken, Seneca County, (315) 351-3313
Blackduck Cidery, 3046 County Road 138, Ovid, Seneca County, (607) 532-4956; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Dadson’s Farm Market, 361 Route 318, Phelps, Ontario County, (315) 539-3643
Red Jacket Orchards, 957 Routes 5 & 20 West, Geneva, Ontario County, (315) 781-2749
Daring Drake Farm, 7726 Rock River Road, Interlaken, Seneca County, (607) 532-4956; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Bellwether Hard Cider, 9070 Route 89, Trumansburg, Tompkins County, (607) 387-9464; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Grisamore Farms, 4069 Goose St., Locke, Cayuga County, (315) 497-1347
Wager’s Cider Mill, 256 E. Main St., Penn Yan, Yates County, (315) 536-6640
Gansz Farms Cider Mill, 1697 Gansz Road, Lyons, Wayne County, (315) 946-4425
Kingtown Orchard, 9469 Kingtown Road, Trumansburg, Tompkins County, (607) 387-5958
Black Diamond Farm, 4675 Seneca Road, Trumansburg, Tompkins County, (607) 227-7960; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards, State Route 414, Hector, Seneca County, (607) 546-9463; also has hard cider and apple spirits
West Haven Farm, 114 Rachel Carson Way, Ithaca, Tompkins County, (607) 279-9483
South Hill Cider, 560 W. King Road, Ithaca, Tompkins County, (607) 279-7563; also has hard cider and apple spirits

MOHAWK VALLEY
Middlefield Orchard, 2274 State Route 166 Cooperstown, Otsego County, (607) 547-8212
Fly Creek Cider Mill & Orchard, Inc., 288 Goose St., Fly Creek, Otsego County, (607) 547-9692; also has hard cider and apple spirits
Dyn’s Cider Mill, 7915 State Route 28, Richfield Springs, Otsego County, (315) 858-2078
Sharon Orchards, 573 Chestnut St., Sharon Springs, Schoharie County, (518) 284-2510
Annutto’s Farm Stand, 5396 State Route 7, Oneonta, Otsego County, (607) 432-7905
Cornell Orchards, 709 Dryden Road, Ithaca, Tompkins County, (607) 255-4542

Apple Country Spirits in Williamson Gets Shout-Out in NY Times

Check it out at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/14/dining/front-burner-nourish-in-greenwich-village-tomato-soup-potato-chips-and-more.html?ref=dining&_r=0

Grand Opening Aug. 3 at Apple Country Spirits in Wayne County

Go to http://applecountryspirits.com/events/4/grand-opening/ to see all the info on apple vodka being made at Apple Country Spirits.