HUDSON VALLEY FARMHOUSE CIDER

Established 1996

HUDSON VALLEY FARMHOUSE CIDER was founded in 1996 by award-winning cider farmer, master, and “Grand Dame of Hudson Valley Cider” Elizabeth Ryan at her original orchard, Breezy Hill, near Rhinebeck, NY.

In 2014, Ryan saved the beloved, 200-year-old Stone Ridge Orchard in Ulster County from the threat of development by purchasing it and adding it to the Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider family. All together, she now has over 145 acres of fruit-bearing trees with more than 100 varieties of apples including a dedicated hard cider orchard housing many traditional and heirloom cider apples such as Dabinett, Binet Rouge, and Kingston Black. On the culinary side, her apples turn up everywhere from the Gramercy Tavern and the Studio Cafe at the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan to public school cafeterias in New York City and farmer’s markets throughout the state. Many of the varieties she grows are almost impossible to find anywhere else in the country.

With a degree in pomology from Cornell University and intensive study of cider making in Somerset and Hereford, England, Ryan has been making and perfecting her cider techniques since the early 1980s. The result is an impressive collection of highly drinkable ciders in the traditional style featuring a robust New World flavor profile.

Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider produces a line of exceptional farm-based ciders with style and character. The cidery is based at two beloved Hudson Valley farms, Breezy Hill Orchard near Rhinebeck and Stone Ridge Orchard near New Paltz, both known for their commitment to ecological growing and the production of highly flavored fruit.

MEET THE OWNER/ CIDER MAKER

Elizabeth Ryan

Elizabeth Ryan is the producer of Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider. She is a renowned fruit grower and cider maker who studied cider making in Somerset and Hereford in England. Ryan made her first barrel of cider in 1980, while obtaining her Pomology degree at Cornell University. In 1984, she bought Breezy Hill Orchard in Dutchess County and her operation has been ever-expanding leading up to the launch of Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider in 1996, and the addition of several farms and orchards including Stone Ridge Orchard near New Paltz.

As one of the founding GrowNYC Greenmarket farmers, bringing fantastic farm-based products to the greater public has always been her mission. She also opened a café in Harlem in order to bring fresh, healthy food to a neighborhood that was known, at the time, as a food desert. For these efforts, she received the Cornucopia award from Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, was inducted into Cornell’s Hall of Fame for alumna, and was a Smithsonian Fellow.

She was a keynote speaker at the New York State Governor’s Alcohol Summit where she advocated for policy to support small-scale hard cider production. She also helped to create a line of home brewing kits for the WilliamsSonoma Agrarian collection, including hard cider, mead, wine and sparkling wine.