Sweetland Orchard

On Monday, my wife and I took my nephew to Sweetland Orchard to do some apple picking.  It couldn’t have been a more gorgeous fall day.

Gretchen, Mike, Audrey (baby), and Fletcher (dog) were awesome hosts. We had such a great time walking amongst all varieties and trying different ones.  I was super suprised by the sweetness and complexity of Chestnut Crab (this week’s cider) and the subtle notes of Ginger Gold (in next week’s cider).

More than anything it reminded me of the how much more important it is to have relationships rather than just suppliers, because it’s the  connections that are ultimately what’s important.

It is through our connection to Ames Honey Farm that I learned this year has been a rough year on the local bee population and so we won’t be able to have Ames Honey this winter.  Rather than think of this as a simply supply issue and just buy another honey, we’re working with this reality and looking at a selection of small artisan maple syrups for our sweetened latte. We look forward to keeping a relationship with Ames through this rough time and look forward to buying honey again from them come Springtime hopefully.