There was a time when the small family farm was the heart of American agriculture, a time when local food production wasn’t an exciting new trend but just the way things were. The face of American farms has changed dramatically in the last century. Overall farm land is being consolidated, individual farms getting larger, and farmers getting older with the average age now pushing 60. And while industrial mono-crop farms may keep the cost of commodity foods lower, there is a sense that some piece our cultural heritage has been lost in the wake of these changes. In recent years, though, there has been some flow in the other direction with young farmers taking up the call and getting their hands in the dirt, farmers such as Keith and Crystie Kisler of Finnriver Farm and Cidery.
Keith and Crystie have distinctly different origins. His family has been farming in eastern Washington for four generations; she’s from the Big City east. But they have a mutual love for the land and a desire to share their vision of rural life. They found a place to put down roots in the verdant Chimacum Valley of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, and in partnership with farmers and friends Kate Dean and Will O’Donnell, created Finnriver Farm in 2004 (Finnriver gets it’s name from the couples’ 2 eldest sons, Finnegan and River). They began by growing a diverse mix of certified organic fruits, and vegetables, berries in particular, selling to local restaurants and farmers’ markets and inviting the public to visit the farm to pick berries for themselves. From the beginning they have thought about ways they could weave the life of the farm into the fabric of their community while including elements that would allow city dwellers to experience some of their own connection with the land. It is this vision that eventually led them to include cider making as one facet of the farm’s output.
Neither had thought much about cider until their good friend and neighbor, Elijah (Lige) Christian, brought over a bottle of his own one day. They were struck by its complexity of flavor and sense of authenticity, things that they hadn’t found in the ciders they’d tried before. Keith did a handful of experimental batches with apples from their existing orchard, heirloom dessert and culinary varieties, and within a few years they launched the cidery, winning a double gold medal at the 2010 Seattle Wine awards with their first release. They have had such success that they recently expanded their cider apple and perry pear orchard by leasing the 50 acre historic Brown Dairy Farm nearby, with expectations of growing it to 4000 trees, including more than 900 cider apples transferred from the orchard of their mentor retired cider maker Drew Zimmerman. And the cidery crew has grown from just Keith and cidery co-founder Eric Jorgensen to a crew of at least a half dozen, including chief cider maker Andrew Byers, who came from the respected Eve’s Cidery in upstate New York.
The ciders themselves seem to spring from the gestalt of the farm. The contemporary-style ciders such as the Habañero, fruity and dry with a pleasant sting of pepper in the nose and a warm, mild burn on the finish, and Dry Hopped, dry with an herbaceous citrusy tang from their own Cascade hops, are clearly inspired by the many fruits and vegetables grown just outside the cidery doors. The seasonal releases speak more to the way the sense of the surrounding land changes as the seasons pass. The Black Currant Lavender is fruity and somewhat sweet with a floral underpinning that speaks of hot summer afternoons. The Forest Ginger, a mix of organic ginger and fir tips that give the cider a rich resiny nose, brings to mind walking into the woods on a crisp fall morning. As the produce and botanicals needed are brought in from regional, organic growers, when not grown on the farm, these ciders add a bit of agricultural sustainability to the greater area, forming part of the web of rural relationships that Finnriver seeks to promote.
Relationship, connection, and stewardship are all significant driving forces at Finnriver. With the assistance of the Jefferson Land Trust, conservation easements have been placed on the property so that it will remain agricultural land into the future. The 12 creek-side acres are undergoing salmon habitat restoration and reforestation through the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, so the farm is not only certified organic but certified salmon safe. When Dean and O’Donnell left to pursue other ventures, the Kislers found additional financial support through the first Local Investment Opportunity Network from investors wanting to keep their money in the community. Finnriver also participates in the Jefferson County FIELD intern program offering aspiring farmers a chance to learn by getting their hands dirty.
Offering the public an opportunity to connect with rural communities was part of the Finnriver ethos from the beginning. In addition to the cidery tasting room, which often pours one-off experimental ciders born from the imagination of one of the crew members, they have created a guided Soil and Salmon Trail that wanders through the fields and creek restoration project, giving visitors a overview of sustainable farming practices. And each October the farm hosts a World Apple Day festival, an event inspired by similar ones held since 1990 around the UK to promote apples as an example of a rich cultural/agricultural diversity worthy of recognition and preservation. In addition to music and food and tours of the farm, anyone is invited to bring their apples of unknown variety for identification by local apple expert Lori Brakken. And if they are more ambitious anyone can bring as many apples as they can carry to contribute to a community cider press. Part of the profits of the resulting cider, called Farmstead, are donated to the local Food Bank Association, just one more thread that adds to the fabric of community that the Kislers and Finnriver are weaving around them, one that shows how the small farms of the past can continue to be viable into the future.