By Kevin Revolinski | Photography by Ruthie Hauge
Deirdre Birmingham, certified of The Cider Farm, has had a long relationship with agriculture. She holds three agricultural degrees and did several years of field research in parts of Africa.
But apples were never part of her studies until she came to UW-Madison for her third degree and met John Biondi, who asked her, “Have you ever thought about having a farm?”
She and Biondi, now her husband, purchased 166 acres in the Driftless Area in 2002. Farming organically was a given.
“We wanted to do a farm-based business … and create a high-quality product. There were hundreds of wild apple trees on the farm and I found myself reading about [hard] cider production … I shared that with [John], and since cider is made like a wine, that appealed to him,” Birmingham explains.
The couple’s farm has 16,000 apple trees — but they’re not for eating or making pies — these apples are for fermentation or distillation. Or as Birmingham puts it: “I grow apples just for booze.” It took the duo 10 years to release their first product, an apple brandy.
The Cider Farm is one of the few cideries that grows its own apples, while much of the rest of the industry, Birmingham says, uses juice concentrates from table apples.
“Most of my apples don’t taste good because tannins in their raw state are bitter or astringent,” she says.
All of Birmingham’s ciders are dry, and most are blends — the result of a lot of experimentation. Like a wine- maker, she blends to arrive at complex but balanced flavor profiles, and adjusts annually for subtle crop differences for consistency.
To expand upon the brand, the couple opened a cidery and tasting room in 2019, but it lacked a full kitchen, so they moved and opened Orchard, their own restaurant, in Verona last April. Airy and open with natural light, the upscale gastropub features seasonal menus ranging from salads and smashburgers to steaks and brick-oven items. A semi- circular bar puts patrons face to face, and offers a strong cocktail program, along with their fine products, such as pommeaux, a mix of two-year apple brandy and juice aged together in a used brandy barrel for a year.
