One of the things that we’ve loved about the mead industry is the cooperation and fellowship of the owners of other meaderies. There’s never been a feeling of competition because our real competition for sales is beer and wine… not other meads. We’ve loved the friendship and sharing that we’ve built up over the years with local meaderies, especially Honeygirl Meadery in Durham. Now, as we venture into the cider industry, we’re finding a similar level of friendship and assistance there too.
Last week, Ben and I, plus Ethan and Erin (the production team), and their spouses traveled down to James Creek Cider House in Cameron to discuss cider and all things cider making. Ann Marie and David were so welcoming, provided amazing hospitality, and answered way too many questions! We had a blast!
James Creek grows almost all of its own apples for cider, specializing in Southern heirloom varieties and cider apples. They have a huge farm with acres of apples, peaches, blueberries and pears. (Beautiful to look at from the second story deck!) Some of the fruit they grow ends up in their ciders, the rest goes off to market at the Carrboro Farmer’s Market.
That’s a really big barrel!
Inside we talked about types of cider apples and how David loves fermenting in oak barrels. (So many oak barrels!) One of the unique vessels they have is this huge oak fermentation barrel. It was taller than me! We also sampled ciders made from different apples to taste the differences. It was amazing how much difference tartness or tannin levels made in the flavor and perception of the various ciders.
After much talking around the table, and bottles of cider shared, we took our leave vowing to come back again to taste more yummy ciders. We’re so grateful to find this level of sharing and kindness as we grow into our new cider making business, thanks to our new friends at James Creek Cider House!
(Missed how we got into cider, check out this blog here.)