The People Behind Farnum Hill Ciders

FAMILY

Stephen Wood has grown apples at Poverty Lane Orchards since his teens. In the 1980s, he planted the first substantial acreage of specialized cider apple varieties in the United States, which necessitated learning to make consistently delicious dry ciders, which necessitated planting more cider apples, and so on. He works on every aspect of apple and cider production, and on cider events and organizations. He also collaborates with new cider orchardists and cidermakers to expand the range of American orchard–based ciders.

Louisa Spencer (Wood) works mostly on explaining and promoting Farnum Hill’s ciders through writing, speaking, graphic and package design, and tastings.

Their sons, Harrison Wood and Otis Wood, grew up at the orchard. Each of them jumps in on any work needed, in the fields or the cider room, whenever he is home.

YEAR-ROUND CREW

Brenda Bailey manages the Poverty Lane/Farnum Hill office year-round, runs the retail stand every fall, and keeps everyone in touch with what everyone else is doing every day. She started in 1980 packing apples for wholesale.

Fitzgerald Campbell understands, shows, and teaches how fruit trees need to be pruned and trained; he also runs field crews and does carpentry. He started in 1992 on the seasonal picking crew.

Nicole LeGrand Leibon applies her exceptional nose, palate, and experience to bringing Farnum Hill Ciders from the press all the way to the bottle. She started at Farnum Hill in 2000 after working in brewing, tea, and commercial yeasts.

Jacques Tourville maintains and repairs a menagerie of tractors and machines, does field work year-round, and works in the cider room as needed. From an orchard family, he started at Poverty Lane in 2007.

Corrie Wolosin uses her skills in marketing and sales to move ever more Farnum Hill Ciders off the hill to meet ever more cider aficionados across the states. She started in 2007.

Jeffrey Williams works in the fields and in the cider room, and keeps the Poverty Lane home farm looking civilized in all four seasons. Wanda Lloynds works on cider production most of the year, but also energizes the orchard retail and pick-your-own in the fall. Lucille Rogers works in the orchard retail stand. John Smith and Ryan Bishop work in the cider room and orchards, and they run the cider press.

HARVEST CREW

When orchard work hits peak load, the “normal” workweek goes away. Dozens of different varieties must be picked when they reach their best—not too soon, not too late. As October progresses, freezing nights increasingly threaten to destroy the fruit left on the trees. Every harvest, a crew brings in the fruit, presses cider, packs apples for retail and wholesale, and takes the pressure. Everybody works long, hard hours. Most crucial every year are the people with experience in the orchard: James Gerlack first worked the harvest in 1988; William Crawford, Kenneth Woodhouse, and Vivian Currie in 1992; and Wayne Brown in 2013.