Holmberg Orchards in Gales Ferry has been a mainstay along Route 12 for more than 70 years. Most people in this area have seen the large red apple sign countless times as they pass by, either traveling to or from Norwich. It’s rare to find someone who has never stopped at the farm market at least once. If you haven’t visited recently however, what you find might surprise you.
This year marks the first year Holmberg Orchards has offered a variety of self-produced hard ciders and wines. With an ever-expanding variety of products being offered at the farm market, the fourth generation of Holmbergs is beginning to put its own stamp on the family enterprise. While diversification is paramount to small farmers these days, tradition is still of the utmost importance to the Holmbergs.
The family farm can be traced back to 1896, when Adolph and Hulda Holmberg, immigrants from Sweden, purchased the property. Used primarily to produce vegetables at that time, the Holmberg farm quickly began building a reputation for its high-quality produce. By 1931 the second generation of Holmbergs had taken over, as brothers Harold and Henry purchased the farm from their mother and in 1935 planted apple, peach, and pear trees to create the orchards that exist today. Harold’s son, Richard, represented the third generation of Holmbergs to run the farm, and he has been joined by the fourth generation, his daughter, Amy, and son, Russ.
“I’ve always been here, and it’s just kind of what I always knew I’d do,” Russ said, explaining his decision to stay with the family business.
“If you ask a farmer why he does what he does he’ll tell you, ‘Because that’s what I do,’” Richard said, laughing. “One of the really nice things about being a farmer is that your job is always different. One day you’ll be out in the orchards harvesting apples; the next day you’ll be fixing a tractor or putting up a greenhouse. It’s never the same so you never really get bored with it.”
The same can be said for the Holmbergs’ customers, who seemingly find new products nearly every season. This year the surprise came from Russ, who crafted a traditional English cider.
Russ picked up the hobby of wine making from a professor at UConn where he graduated with a degree in horticulture in 2006. He quickly merged his hobby with his work, approaching his parents with the idea of producing hard cider at the orchards.
“His mother and I were very supportive of the idea,” Richard said.
“I guess I remember the day with a little more clarity,” Russ laughed.
Accepted right off the bat or not, Russ did win his parents over, largely because of the well-thought-out business plan he had put down on paper before even mentioning his intentions. It was that same business plan that enabled the Holmbergs to land a state grant to help fund the cost of building their distillery. Though his initial plan worked to near perfection, Russ says what went into getting the project up and running took a little more work.
“Nights and weekends—many, many nights and weekends,” Russ said. “It was a lot of extra work on top of what we already do around here every day. There was a lot of research put into it as well, figuring out what equipment we needed and where we could get it. A lot of the stuff we have came over from Europe. Our bottle filler, for example, came straight from Germany.
“And that’s another thing; it ended up being quite simple, but it’s a pretty nerve-wracking feeling to wire tens of thousands of dollars to a company in Europe and then cross your fingers and hope something actually gets delivered to your doorstep,” he added.
Richard agreed.
“My hair was brown when we started this project,” Richard joked, pointing to his full head of gray hair. “When that crate showed up from Europe we were just hoping there was something in it and that the something in it was what we had ordered.”
They did indeed receive what they had ordered, and by 2007 the distillery was fully functional.
Many farms and orchards in New England produce a hard cider, but as Russ explained, what he’s producing is a whole different animal.
“It really stems from the colonial times,” Russ began. “In Europe, and England especially, alcoholic cider had been produced for hundreds of years. They would press the apples, add yeast, and the yeast would eat the sugar in the juice, producing alcohol. What you’d get is an effervescent cider, similar to a beer or malt beverage just made from apples. What the first settlers here found, however, was that because of the relatively low alcohol content, about 6 percent or so, the cider didn’t keep very well so they would add more sugar before fermentation, which in turn raised the alcohol content, producing what essentially is like a wine.”
In effect, what we know as cider is just called apple juice in England. What we call hard cider is apple wine, and what the English refer to as cider is only found in the U.S. in package stores, bottled like beer. That is until now.
The 2007 crop produced five types of “hard” cider and wine, including the traditional English draught cider, a Courtland cider, and a Russett cider as well as the Three Sheets Apple Wine and their Pearfection pear wine. But before they hit the shelves, Russ wanted to gauge the quality of a few of his products and entered them into the 2007 Eastern International Wine Competition where the Three Sheets Apple Wine won a double gold as best in show and best in category out of more than 2,000 competitors. In addition to the accolades, Richard and Russ said the ciders are selling beyond their first expectations.
“We anticipated selling about 1,000 gallons in this first year,” Russ said. “But projecting forward using the current numbers we have now, we’re on track to sell 1,000 cases, and with each case carrying roughly 2.4 gallons.”
The quality of the product is certainly one reason for such a successful first season, but Richard will be quick to tell you another major reason is the creativity and hard work put in by the farm market retail manager, his daughter, Amy.
“She has really done a lot of work with that store,” Richard said. “She graduated from college just a few years before Russ did, and she came back to us with plenty of ideas of her own. She has brought in a lot of new products and is really arranging the store so that you can find everything you’d need for a complete meal. She really does an excellent job of marketing our products.”
While retirement was never mentioned, Richard did acknowledge that it’s comforting knowing that the future of his life’s work and his family’s life’s work is safe in the hands of his two children, even joking about when his future grandchildren will start working the orchards.
“Of course there is a tremendous amount of pride there,” Richard said. “To see this continuation is very, very unique and very, very satisfying. It’s not something that occurs all the time...with all the work there is, you get caught up in the immediate and you don’t really see the big picture. But sometimes when you do get a chance to step back and realize what we have here, it’s a pretty special thing.”
For more information on new and existing products at Holmberg Orchards, visit www.holmbergorchards.com.