If you’re the sort of one who appears ahead to a day journey spent selecting apples every fall, there’s a bit of hamlet tucked away on the western border of New York the place you possibly can have an much more sturdy seasonal apple expertise.
On the banks of the Delaware River within the Catskills, you’ll discover Callicoon, New York. The very small city is simple to overlook for those who don’t have a motive to cease, however there’s a culinary vacation spot hiding out right here that makes it price staying for an evening or two: Seminary Hill Orchard & Cidery.
Chicagoans Doug Doetsch and Susan Manning based Seminary Hill to offer again to the group that Doetsch grew up in. This spectacular campus encompasses a cidery and enormous restaurant perched on high of a picturesque hill, so you possibly can peer out of the eating room’s large glass home windows on the natural apple orchards which might be rising all throughout the slope beneath. Peeping up behind all these apple bushes is the highest of a stone tower, a part of a former seminary that the hill and cidery are named after.
Doetsch and Manning constructed Seminary Hill — which can also be the first passive house-certified alcohol manufacturing facility within the United States, a designation that lauds excessive vitality effectivity — from the bottom up. Its orchards are nonetheless pretty younger, with the primary batch of bushes planted in 2014, however the bottles of crisp, dry cider coming from this comparatively new producer present the extent of care and talent that go into every bottle.
To correctly benefit from the views at this small-town cidery, snagging a desk at its restaurant is crucial. Try to ebook one throughout sundown so you possibly can watch the sky’s colours change by means of the eatery’s giant home windows whereas overlooking the orchard.
The menu at Seminary Hill’s on-site restaurant, The Tasting Room, modifications seasonally, a flexibility that permits government chef Jack Tippet to focus on elements at their peak. Dishes are easy and well-executed.
If you’re searching for a superb roast rooster, that is the place to get it, though the wild mushrooms served alongside the poultry would possibly simply steal the present. The fried rooster skins with buttermilk and scorching sauce for dunking are virtually a compulsory begin to your meal, and brunch at The Tasting Room is price reserving — be sure you snag an order of the biscuits and jam.
You can get pleasure from cider by the glass (or perhaps a tasting flight) alongside your meal, and the drier taste profiles that Seminary Hill focuses on in its bottlings pair nicely with meals. However, for those who’re making a weekend journey to Callicoon, a tour and tasting on the cidery is prone to be the spotlight of your trip.
As you stroll by means of the rows of younger apple bushes rising simply downslope from the restaurant and the first cidery manufacturing facility, you’ll be taught concerning the greater than 60 apple varieties (and even pears) that Seminary Hill experiments with and blends collectively to create its bottles of crisp, small-batch cider. If you go to within the hotter months, you’ll spot butterflies and bees as they buzz by means of the orchards, pure pollinators which might be essential to the following crop’s success.
After a stroll by means of the rows of apple bushes, take a peek at the place the cider is made in an energy-efficient area immediately beneath the restaurant. Vats of fermenting cider have handwritten labels detailing the mixtures of apples inside that may assist decide the ultimate drink’s taste.
Each tour is adopted by a guided tasting of the obtainable ciders produced by Seminary Hill. Most of the choices listed below are on the less-sweet aspect, however for those who’re in search of one thing with a bit of bit extra sugar, there’s a vary within the Seminary Hill cider choice. Offerings might change relying on while you go to; the cider is produced in small batches, in any case, and a few bottlings are extra experimental.
My favourite was the Cackling Hen 2022, a semi-dry cider made with 62% Golden Russet apples along with a mix of Newton Pippin, Wickson, and Northern Spy fruits. The notes of citrus, ardour fruit, and mango with a brilliant, acidic palate on this cider make it the sort of tart, refreshing drink I’d get pleasure from year-round — which is proof that it doesn’t must be fall to go to Seminary Hill.
When you drive out to Callicoon to get pleasure from your cider-fueled weekend, this community-minded cidery — which provides seasonal occasions together with cooking courses and reside music — has the right place so that you can keep simply down the highway. Seminary Hill’s Boarding House is a peaceable, elegant property that emulates precisely what its identify implies: the atmosphere of a historic boarding home.
The Boarding House isn’t the sort of place the place you’ll be waited available and foot — it’s largely a self-serve operation, full with a vintage-style kitchen the place you possibly can cook dinner your individual meals — it’s a phenomenal, stress-free area that made it simple for me to unwind. The finest method to decompress whereas there’s having fun with a bottle of cider with a buddy on the Boarding House’s entrance porch after a day of studying all about the way it was made.
