More On Cider Industry

Sherrye Wyatt, Executive Director for the NW Cider Association has a passion for cider and it seems a lot of people are discovering that passion as well. She says a lot of people are really interested in something that is produced locally.

WYATT: Cider just seems another natural connection that people have to the land and they want to taste what's being made and grown locally. Another reason is that the national brands have jumped in and have started looking at cider and it's putting cider in front of people on the television set and in restaurants and bars. It's creating this whole new energy and excitement about connecting with something that was really America's drink.

She says that right now there are small pockets of cideries going in all over the northwest.

WYATT: In Hood River, Oregon there would be a group or Bend, Oregon or Port Townsend, Washington where there's orchards and there's cideries and it becomes sort of a destination and a tourism draw so right now the growth continues and we have lots of room for more.

Wyatt says that while ciders tend to be made from cider varieties of apples that more mainstream varieties are being used as well.

WYATT: There are a number of cideries who are finding ways to use juice that's produced from rather dessert or culinary type apples. Apples that you recognize in the grocery store like Granny Smith so we can make cider from other apples.

The UK is the largest consumer of cider and Wyatt says there are still a lot of misconceptions about what cider really is. The best idea is to taste it for a true appreciation.

That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.