“The best thing about fresh cider is its variability in flavor and color. Commercial producers are limited in the number of varieties they can press—they have to be apples grown in sufficient quantities to meet their high demand. Even so, the larger producers achieve subtle differences as the season progresses, as some batches are sweeter or more tart, a deep opaque brown or a light copper color. Even a traditional variety like McIntosh can taste slightly different depending on where it is grown and when it is picked. The smaller artisan producers can achieve a wide range of flavors by pressing heirloom varieties, some of which may be grown in only a handful of orchards, and mixing them together in unique blends. A single orchard may have three or four distinct blends, all worth trying.”

—Russell Powell, former executive director of the New England Apple Association and author of America’s Apple (Brook Hollow Press, 2012)

As a restaurateur, I know there are a large number of my regular customers who dine out several times a week, and doing so is deeply ingrained as part of their lifestyle. Many people think they are entitled to eat out as a reward for hard work, even in tough economic times. Those people sustain my business, and it is counter to my own economic interest to have people dine out less. Yet I can’t help believing, as New York Times food writer Mark Bittman does, that a home-cooked meal is not only less expensive and healthier, but fundamentally more soul warming.

Mike Ballon
Castle Street Café
Great Barrington