Shacksbury

Daring and Complex. Far from ordinary, apples are the most diverse food plant on earth. Unfortunately, only a handful of varieties are cultivated at scale in America, and all of those are designed for eating, not cider making.

At Shacksbury, we believe cider can, and should, be daring and complex. From gnarled trees on New England farmsteads to Old World orchards in England and Spain, our cider will change the way you think about this amazing fruit. The apples of America’s early cider tradition, lost for a variety of reasons, are not hard to find in Vermont – once you know what you’re looking for. Though far less numerous than they once were, the trees materialize around every bend, and over every hill, hiding in plain sight. To us, these trees represent a door to another time, and the basis for superior cider.

In the fall of 2013, and each subsequent harvest, we set to find some of these trees. We have sampled thousands of apples, fermented cider from over 150 unique trees, and selected twelve varieties to propagate. We have grafted these twelve varieties to over 1,000 trees, marking the beginning of our “Lost Apple Orchard” at Colin’s farm and with our partners, Sunrise Orchards and Windfall Orchard. Each year we continue to harvest, graft, and plant trees in an effort to expand our source of Lost Apples.

Our 2015 Lost and Found cider is currently available for sale at select locations. Check out our Ciders page to learn more about the Lost Apple ciders.