The Special
This week we are pleased to feature ice cider from Eden Ice Cider of West Charleston, Vermont, as well as organic potatoes from Pete’s Greens of Craftsbury, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use Eden Ice Cider and Pete’s Greens products in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Farm to Table Special!
The Farm
Eden Orchards and Eden Ice Cider Company was started by Eleanor and Albert Leger in the winter of 2007. Located on what was an abandoned dairy farm in West Charleston, Vermont, the business currently consists of around 1000 apple trees and a small pressing operation and winery in the basement of the rebuilt farmhouse. Eden Ice Cider products can be found in locally and nationally in farm stands, natural and gourmet food stores, and fine restaurants.
Eden Ice Cider
It is autumn in the Northeast Kingdom, and the colors red and gold fill the senses. They are in the brilliance of the trees on the hillsides, the flames of the first fire made in the woodstove, and the ripe apples and fresh cider coming in from the orchards. In West Charleston, Eleanor and Albert Leger are putting a twist on a New England tradition with their ice cider, a slightly sweet, slightly tart dessert wine that has its origins in Quebec. The Legers have been operating Eden Orchards and Eden Ice Cider Company since 2007. Located on what was an abandoned dairy farm, the business currently consists of around 1000 apple trees as well as a small pressing operation and winery. This is only their third season, but Eden Ice Cider has already won gold medals at the Los Angeles International Wine Competition and at the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition. “From day one we knew we didn’t want to be a mass market, cheap thing,” says Eleanor. “We wanted to be high quality and reflect the place that we’re in, the climate that we’re part of, the land and the beauty of the environment.”
Before this relatively new venture, the Legers lived in Massachusetts. Albert was a chemistry teacher (“so he is the science behind it,” says his wife) and Eleanor had a corporate business career. The couple "had always been food and wine appreciators,” and had always wanted to own a working farm with heirloom apple orchards in the Northeast Kingdom, where Eleanor’s family members have been residents and visitors for seven generations. Eleanor was writing business models for hard cider and apple brandy, but she was having a hard time seeing how they could make money producing either. “We were thinking about wonderful and interesting ways to use these fabulous apples, and we wanted create something that was high quality and tasted good,” she says. It was on a trip to Montreal to visit Albert’s sister (he is French Canadian) that Eleanor and Albert first tried ice cider. “We literally tasted it, looked at each other, and said ‘We’re going to make this!’” says Eleanor.
Unlike ice wine, apples used for ice cider are not left to freeze on the trees, but are harvested, pressed, and frozen as a liquid in large tanks. Ice cider is produced during the coldest months of the year, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, so that ambient outdoor temperatures can do the freezing. The cider press produces up to 250 gallons of cider per day, which is pumped into large tanks that are placed outside to freeze. After about 6-8 weeks, the containers are brought back inside and warmed to 36-38 degrees. When the tap is opened, the first 20-25% of the cider that melts is what will be used to make ice cider. This liquid is denser and contains all of the sugar and flavor of the fruit. The concentrated cider goes into stainless steel fermentation tanks and is warmed to about 55 degrees, at which point yeast is added and the cider is left to ferment for around 2 months. When the cider reaches 10-11% alcohol content, it is placed back outside to kill the yeast, which dies naturally at temperatures under 40 degrees. Each batch of cider is made from only one kind of apple (mcintosh, empire, russet, etc.), and the different batches are blended to create the final vintage of ice cider. The final product is filtered into bottles, labeled, and allowed to sit for a few weeks before being shipped. The Legers will sell over 12,000 bottles of their ice cider this year to regional and national distributors as far as California and as prestigious as the Union Square Café in New York City.
Eden Ice Cider and other local producers of “value-added” products (items like cheese and wine in which raw materials are manipulated to create a more valuable product) are having a positive impact on the Northeast Kingdom’s agricultural economy by catering to a national market and creating local, sustainable jobs. They are also making the Northeast Kingdom an attractive destination for culinary vacationers. “There is a lot of support in Vermont from the Agency of Agriculture and the USDA for making value-added products, because we’re never going to be big commodity producers of anything,” Eleanor says. “So I think value-added, but also culinary tourism, will be the future of farming in Vermont.” She recently attended an international conference on culinary tourism in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as part of the Vermont delegation. Eleanor believes that, with a bit more emphasis on marketing, the Northeast Kingdom’s excellent food, beautiful scenery, and unique culture are ripe for culinary tourism. “We have a great tourism business in Vermont, and we just need to branch out beyond ski resorts and beautiful leaves to say there’s other stuff to do here, which is to experience an incredible variety of value-added products, and the farmers themselves,” she says.
Culinary tourism in the Northeast Kingdom will be strengthened by the strong spirit of collaboration that already exists between the local producers of many value-added products. The Cellars at Jasper Hill in Greensboro, Vermont, is an internationally acclaimed producer of local artisan cheeses, and they often pair their cheddars and bleu cheeses with Eden Ice Cider for client cheese tastings. The Cellars at Jasper Hill also partners with the Legers to make an artisan cheese that is hand-wrapped in grape leaves soaked in ice cider, and Grafton Cheddar’s cheesemaker recently won third prize at the American Cheesemaking Society Awards for cheeses marinated in Eden Ice Cider. Eleanor suggests pairing Eden Ice Cider with local artisan cheeses, especially bleus and cheddars, and also with savory hors d'ouevres like foie gras, patté, and venison sausage. The Legers enjoy sampling their wine with cheddar cheese, and for dessert, a small glass with a sugar cookie is a perfect way to end the day.
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