After getting our share of apple picking at Wittle Willowâs Spring Farm we continued our apple-centric adventures by driving a few minutes down the road to B F Clydeâs Cider Mill. Itâs claim to fame is that it is the USâs only steam powered cider mill still running today. And it sometimes gives tours â although it appears only on the weekend and we were there on a Thursday so I apologize for my complete and utter lack of photos.
What I can say is this place was hoppinâ! SO MANY PEOPLE had gathered here and it was pretty clear why. They had everything here. Regular cider, hard cider in more varieties than I could easily count, all sorts of old timey county store type things (like the pumpkin pancake mix and pumpkin butter we ended up bringing home) and I was thrilled they had apple cider doughnuts too which I gluttonously ate while sipping a cup of hot cider. It was then as we were all sitting around just enjoying ourselves that the jig was finally up. My companion looked up from his phone.
âItâs your birthday?!â
âYeahâŚâ
He looked around at where we were, where we had come from, and what we were eating. âThis is kinda an awesome birthday.â
âIt is!â I laughed.
After this we ambled around some more. There was another little shop there with more touristy things and I bought a magnet figuring it was high time to replace the ones on my fridge currently. Outside this there was a tasting station for all the various hard ciders (and wines? Champaign is a wine I think. Fuck if I know, Iâm a teetotaler. ANYWAYâŚ) Across from this they were setting up a hard cider slushee station which our friend gave a go. Sounds like some fresh hell to me but he was impressed and thatâs all that matters.
This place was amazing and I left stuffed to the gills but we werenât done. From here weâd walk off those doughnuts at the Old Mystic Village.