 This
program starts in early September as soon as the
apples are ripe. It is a 20 to 30 minute time period.
Kids first come into the storage building and
see the huge rooms where the apples are “put to sleep for the winter” in
800 lb. bins stacked 20 feet high in the coolers. Then they see the apples being
sorted into the 3 lb. bags that they buy in the store.
Now
comes the fun! Each child is given a small bucket and off into the orchard
we go to pick apples for the cider mill. This is
the real thing---kids get to be
workers in the orchard as little apple pickers. From preschool to 4th grade
kids, they beam with pride at their overflowing buckets.
From here they go to the “Kids
Hopper”. This is a kid-size hopper they dump their apples down, joining
the big hopper with apples rolling down to the cider mill. The excitement builds
as they march into the cider mill. Kim, the Cider Meister, takes the time to
show the kids how their apples get turned into scrumptious apple cider on an
old
wooden rack and cloth press. The best part is next---upstairs the cider doughnut
machine
is quietly pumping out dozens and dozens of world class cider doughnuts. On
a circle of hay bales outside, the children get to reap the bounty of their
labors
by enjoying fresh cider and delicious doughnuts.
This program runs on Monday
and Thursday mornings, starting at 9 am and going
every 45 minutes until noon. The
cost is $5.00 per person. Please call ahead to
reserve your time slot. Reservations are taken as early as August 25th. Thirty
people is the maximum size for one time slot. If no one answers the phone,
please leave your phone number, contact person, number
of people and your preferred
time and day on the answering machine. Depending on the weather, we usually
finish this program for the season during the first
week or second week in October.
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photo credits: Stephen Brooks, Brett Carpenter,
Kevin Clayton, Cindy Cowles, Brent Harrewyn, Terry Hotaling,
Amie Humphrey, David Humphrey, Megan Humphrey, Nick Seifert, Tucker Watson,
and Natalie Stultz
Shelburne Orchards | 216 Orchard Road | Shelburne
VT 05482
(p) 802-985-2753 | (f) 802-985-8763
info@shelburneorchards.com
Nick Cowles, Proprietor
Copyright© 1999-2008 Shelburne Orchards.
All rights reserved.
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