It’s the autumn season, a time for apples, pumpkins and rich copper-colored leaves crunching underfoot. Nature’s gifts to man.
And man has created a splendid complement to these seasonal gifts: apple cider.
Indeed, autumn lovers and cider connoisseurs agree that this nectar of the boughs is much more than a beverage. It captures all that is right about the season.
“Cider is the tangible essence of fall,” says cider maker Richard Polansky, owner of Hafs Road Orchard, a 14-acre apple orchard about five miles north of Genoa City, Wis., just across the McHenry County line. Folks flock there from throughout northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin year-round to stock up on jugs of cider. They even show up during the spring and summer seasons when the orchard store is closed.
“We’ll get folks knocking on our door in the middle of winter, and we’ll pull a jug out of the freezer,” Polansky says. “They just can’t seem to get enough of the stuff.”
What makes cider so special is that its simple pleasures-the fragile taste of freshness, healthy qualities and old-fashioned country image-belie its painstaking, time-consuming and labor-intensive method of preparation, say Polansky and other master cider makers.
“Cider symbolizes fall and that fresh country feeling,” says Charles Voigt, extension specialist for the Illinois Department of Agriculture in Urbana. “You put a pot of mulled cider on the stove, and suddenly you feel like you’re back in Grandma’s kitchen out on the farm somewhere.”
Voigt adds that cider’s popularity has increased in recent years, as consumers’ tastes for things natural and authentic (i.e. no preservatives) have increased.
“The clear apple juice is just not good enough anymore,” Voigt says. “The cloudy, brown, murkiness of cider has become more and more attractive.”
There are several differences between apple cider and apple juice. Cider is the liquid produced by pressing apples; no sugar is added. Juice is usually apple concentrate mixed with water; sometimes sugar is added, sometimes preservatives.
Here, throughout the north and northwest suburbs, where a large number of apple orchards dot the landscape, apple cider is in-big time. For some, in fact, autumn wouldn’t be autumn without the tempting aroma of hot mulled cider on a chilly afternoon or a thirst-quenching glass of the cold stuff on an Indian summer day.
So what’s the lure of apple cider? Who better to answer that question than just a few of the folks who blend and crush thousands of pounds of apples to create the autumn nectar. Their enthusiastic answer to the question is simply, “Bet you can’t try it without liking it.”
Consider the response of Joe Bystricky, owner of Bystricky’s Orchard just north of Woodstock: “There’s nothing quite like a cold glass of apple cider.”
Talk to him a little more, and you’ll soon discover that the former business-honcho-turned-orchardist has an interest in cider that is nothing short of passionate.
Twelve years ago, the former mechanical engineer retired from his post as director of manufacturing for Borg-Warner in Chicago to head out to the country and take over the 12-acre apple orchard he helped his dad plant back in 1945, “on the day Franklin Roosevelt died,” he clearly remembers. Despite the 12-hour days picking, pruning and fertilizing his 800 trees and working the cider press each fall, he’s loved every minute of it.
Moreover, Bystricky swears by cider, drinking at least three or four glasses of it a day, year-round. He stores more than 100 gallons in a freezer for himself, wife Harriet, daughters Darlene and Joanne, their spouses and his four grandchildren.
At age 76, Bystricky is a walking confirmation of the adage “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” attributing his good health and his dawn-to-way-after-dusk burst of energy to his daily doses of apple cider.
“My doctor keeps saying to me, `You know Joe, I don’t think I know anyone who works as hard and as long hours as you do at your age. No, I take that back, I do know one person, and that is you. That cider must be some pretty great stuff.”‘
The health benefits seem irrefutable: Apples and their juice-cider-are not only outstandingly high in vitamins and minerals, they supply carbohydrates for energy and are low in calories. Historically, folks have used apples and cider to cure digestive problems, points out Bystricky,, who also seems to be a walking medical journal on the assets of apples and cider.
Bystricky uses no preservatives in his blend and does not pasteurize it either.
Trial and error guided him through the early stages of his cider recipe development, testing and tasting. He also enlisted the help of a slew of family and friends, many of whom still head out from their city homes each fall weekend to help in the cider-making.
It’s not an easy task. First, there is the handpicking the apples off the boughs. “We never use apples that have already fallen off,” he says. And he points out that you get three gallons of cider from each 42-pound bushel. Then, there’s working the press, a laborious task that takes five or six hours per every 100 bushels of apples. And, finally, the clean-up, a three-hour production.
Bystricky’s secret for good cider: a blend of Jonathans (for their tart, juicy flavor) and red or golden delicious (for their tangy-sweet flavor). Each year, he produces 2,000 gallons, selling them for $3 apiece.
“We’ve never had leftovers,” he is proud to boast.
People have been tempted by the apple since the days of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. These days, this popular fruit can be found in orchards throughout the north and northwest suburbs, where cider is often sold as an added treat.
But not all cider lovers head to the orchards for this beverage. Some head to the Apple Haus in Long Grove. Located at the hub of a bustling retail center, the Apple Haus attracts visitors who flock there from throughout the region and as far away as Florida to watch the cider mill churn.
On a recent fall afternoon, during Long Grove’s first Applefest weekend, dozens of people-children and adults alike-leaned over the waist-high walls that frame the apple cider mill located on the floor below.
“Is that water shooting out or apple juice?” kids ask their parents as hundreds of apples make their way on a moving conveyer belt and are shot into a machine. “Ooh, that’s neat” and “Doesn’t that smell great” are the collective echoes of the crowd.
With crates of apples located just outside the building (fresh apples are shipped in weekly from Michigan orchards because local orchards use most of their own for cider making), workers dressed in jeans, and the sound and sights of the cider press, it’s easy for visitors to imagine they are on a farm.
The Apple Haus is one of the only local operations where visitors can witness the apple cider-making process.
“We don’t operate the press for certain groups at certain times, we operate it when we need to make more cider,” says Terri Deuerling, Apple Haus manager, adding that it takes 800 pounds of apples (they blend five or six varieties of apples for each batch) to produce 120 gallons of cider. “But there is always a crowd watching.”
During the peak selling months-from Memorial Day through Christmas-the Apple Haus sells an average of 400 gallons of cider a week, or almost 12,000 gallons. (The Apple Haus brand sells for $6 a gallon and $3.50 for a half-gallon.) That falls off significantly, however, to about 100 gallons a week for the remainder of the year, Deuerling says.
In addition to the cider, which is sold in plastic containers from a refrigerator right next to the press, other popular treats at the Apple Haus include apple cider freezes (slush-like drinks), hot-mulled cider and apple cider doughnuts. During the Applefest, for example, the store sold 36,000 cider doughnuts, Deuerling says.
Joining the staff of the Apple Haus in 1978, two years after it opened, the Wonder Lake resident has traveled across the country, attending seminars and talking to cider makers to continually improve the store’s product. Today, she’s been dubbed “The Apple Queen” by employees and the numerous repeat customers, many of whom purchase a dozen or more gallons at a time and take them home to freeze.
“Cider means to fall what strawberries mean to June,” Deuerling says. “Everybody goes crazy for that freshness they both symbolize. It’s part of the seasonal culture, the charm.”
Richard Breedanwould undoubtedly agree, especially after finishing off one of his apple cider milkshakes.
As owner of the Wauconda Orchards in Wauconda, the 78-year-old father of five and granddad of 11 describes the recipe he concocted for this tasty treat: “You take three scoops of ice cream, the real stuff, not that ice milk junk, mix it in a tumbler with a little cider and you’ve got the creamiest, best-tasting drink you could ever imagine. It just slides right down. Yum, there’s just nothing better in this world.”
Hordes of people from the city and suburbs descend each fall day on the 250-acre Wauconda Orchards, many in pursuit of its awesome famed apple cider shakes at the soda fountain and jugs of the orchard’s trademark Old Rick’s Apple Cider. (Guess who it’s named for.)
“Sure, everybody knows they can pick up a gallon of apple cider at Jewel,” Breedan says. “But the reason for traffic jams here is they can almost taste that good old country feeling here.”
Breedan, a born-and-raised Evanston city boy, headed out to the orchard 43 years ago and never looked back. He clearly understands what it takes to create the character and depth of a good cider.
He insists on adhering to the painstaking, time-consuming traditional methods of cider making.
First, he and his crew of 100 orchard workers pick 8,000 to 9,000 bushels of apples, refrigerate them for one to two weeks at “35 degrees, 10 degrees cooler than a consumer’s typical at-home fridge,” he points out.”You’ve got to sprinkle a little water on those apples, to create the humidity. Doesn’t work without it.”
Then it’s time to carry them out back to the separate building that houses his cider mill. No fancy technologically advanced equipment for him. Nope, he’s got a human labor-intensive cider press he imported from Australia.
“I found it on a trip there and just had to bring it home,” he says enthusiastically about his $35,000 piece of equipment, which he claims “makes the best stuff around.”
The apples are washed with a system of brushes he says were made by the Fuller Brush Co. They are then propelled up a conveyor belt and are diced into “itsy-bitsy little pieces of mush. Then it’s time for the workers to cover them in cheese cloth to squeeze out the juice. The juice is then pumped through a series of silk screens to further filter out the pulp. The juice blend is frozen overnight.
“It tastes much better that way,” insists Breedan, who sells 30,000 gallons annually at $4.25 a gallon and $2.25 for a half-gallon.
“We’re purists-no water, sugar or anything,” he insists.
And so, cider lovers, enjoy the last cool, crisp days of fall by hoisting a glass or mug of that sweet apple nectar, and heed the words of Betty Williams, food buyer for The Village Tavern, a restaurant in Long Grove, where customers each week consume 15 to 20 gallons of cider bought from the nearby Apple Haus: “You get that smell of hot-mulled cider going, and suddenly you’ve created the images of fall, the leaves falling and all those warm, fuzzy feelings. Everybody loves cider. Fall wouldn’t be fall without cider.”
