Q&A: Award-winning cider maker Elizabeth Ryan

I visited Stone Ridge Orchard to chat with a legendary Hudson Valley cider maker.

“Last month, New York cider maker Elizabeth Ryan was awarded the prestigious Apple Advocate Award, a lifetime achievement prize from the American Cider Association.

Ryan, a producer of Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider, uses apples from 150 acres of historic Hudson Valley farmland (she grows over 100 varieties and runs six orchards) to make award-winning ciders. She made her first barrel of cider in 1980 while studying at Cornell University. Since then, she has made many thousands of gallons of cider, co-founded the Union Square Greenmarket in New York City and successfully campaigned in Washington to have taxes on cider lowered — a move that arguably led to the drink’s revival in the U.S. and a new boom in cider production all over the Hudson Valley…” Read the rest of my profile/Q&A here.