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CapitalPress.com
April 17, 2015
Taste for cider prompts new varieties in orchards
By GAIL OBERST
For the Capital Press
Beer and wine are not the
only beverages to take root in
Oregon and Washington soils.
Chehalem Valley
Orchard Equipment
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Orchardists are now taking
a hard look at the Northwest’s
growing cider industry. Many
are planting apples in response
to demand from craft hard ci-
der makers.
“We’re on
the cusp of
something that’s
really going to
take off,” said
Brad
Sleep-
er, whose new
orchard in the
Sleeper
Coast
Range
foothills above
Oregon’s Haag Lake is planted
to 40 varieties of cider apples.
“These new cideries are all go-
ing to need apples.”
Growing cider apples is old
hat to Kevin Zielinski of E.Z.
Orchards in Salem. He planted
his cider apple trees in 2000
with an eye toward making his
own “cidre” using traditional
French methods. Into his Wil-
lamette Valley Cidre go his ap-
ples traditionally cultivated for
Online
www.nwcider.com
Photos by Gail Oberst/For the Capital Press
Orchardists often graft cider apple varieties to hardy rootstock for
best results.
their tannins and French cider
characteristics — Champagne
Rienette, Douce Moën, Mus-
cadet de Lense and St. Mar-
tine are among the varieties.
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E.Z. Orchards’ 155 acres also
feature heirloom apples, pears,
peaches and hazelnuts.
When fermented, dessert
apple flavors are muted, cider
makers say. On the other hand,
fermentation brings cider ap-
ple tastes alive. Most craft ci-
deries blend cider and dessert
apple juices, much like a vint-
ner blends grapes for a particu-
lar effect in wine, Sleeper said.
“American dessert apples
lack the characteristic tannins
of European cider apples,” said
Abram Goldman-Armstrong,
owner of Cider Riot, a Portland
cidery. Goldman-Armstrong,
for example, uses cider apples
grown in yamhill County —
yarlington Mill, Harry Mas-
ters Jersey, Dabinett, Kingston
Black, Somerset Redstreak
and others — blending these
with dessert apples from Scio,
Ore., and the yakima, Wash.,
and Hood River, Ore., areas.
Cider has been made with
wine-like attention for hun-
dreds of years in England,
Ireland, Germany and Poland
— to name a few. Here in the
West, hard cider makers are
catching up, prompted by de-
mands of consumer palettes
now educated by regional craft
beer and wine.
Most of the cideries in the
Northwest are also orchard-
ists, using their own apples in
ciders they produce, according
to Sherrye Wyatt of the NW
Cider Association. Of the asso-
ciation’s 60 members, 23 are in
Oregon, 25 are in Washington
and the rest are in Montana,
Idaho and British Columbia.
This year alone, 16 orchardists
who don’t produce cider have
joined as association affiliates,
another indication of growing
interest in growing apples for
cider, Wyatt said.
Sleeper, owner of the small
Springwood Valley Farms, has
planted 1,150 trees with 600
more in the works this year
— due to produce marketable
fruit in 2017.
Some growers are hesitant
to go all-in. With dessert ap-
ple prices currently below the
price of production, Jack Feil
of Feil 1908 Family Orchard
near Wenatchee, Wash., said
he is testing cider apple vari-
eties but is waiting for a more
mature market.
“Pricing and profit are a big
question mark. It appears there
are a lot of growers looking
into producing cider apples
and the volume needed for ci-
der production is not great, so
producing cider apples would
be a minor supplement to the
orchard’s profitability. As of
now it’s a wait-and-see propo-
sition for us,” Feil said.
Wyatt, however, doesn’t
hide her enthusiasm.
“The region is emerging
as a national leader in craft
cider production and our ci-
der culture is clearly being
established. However, in order
for our industry to be a fully
sustainable cider region, we
need a reliable source of local-
ly grown cider apples, “ Wyatt
said.
The association recently
submitted a proposal to the
Specialty Crop Block Grant
program of Oregon Depart-
ment of Agriculture to seek
support for growing cider ap-
ples.