Spring 2026 Release

Greetings!

Let’s go on a pruning deep dive! You can’t talk about winter at Seminary Hill without mentioning pruning. Unlike other parts of the orchard cycle where things move quickly and tasks can feel urgent or rushed, pruning gives us an opportunity to slow down and get to know the trees. We usually start pruning in January, when our focus shifts to the season ahead and pruning becomes an act of hope. As spring nears, it is inevitable that the moments spent contemplating a tree before making any cuts are a luxury we can no longer afford. The end of the pruning season can often feel almost frantic, as the urgency of a new growing season overwhelms us.

I have come to understand pruning as part science, part intuition and part art form. From a purely scientific perspective, it is a way to create structure, increase airflow and sunlight, and balance vegetative growth, while promoting fruit bud development. We understand that different types of pruning cuts elicit different reactions from the tree. Thinning cuts tend to be calming in nature, while heading cuts tend to invigorate the tree resulting in a stronger vegetative response.

The rules are not hard and fast however, they must be adapted to each individual variety and in some cases each tree. Much like humans, individual trees respond differently to the same stimuli. This is where our intuition must be used and where our powers of observation are key. I often tell people the best tool we have for learning how to prune is observing the tree over multiple seasons. Seeing how an individual tree reacts to pruning cuts made the previous winter, gives us information no pruning manual can provide. If we don't take the opportunity to observe and adapt, the conversation between us and the tree becomes one-sided. After years of observation, we begin to visualize cuts before they are made and anticipate the tree’s repose. More than once I have found myself staring at a random tree in a park or someone’s yard, pruning it in my mind. This is when you know you are in deep!

Lastly, pruning calls on our artistic inclinations. If you had ten orchardists around an old apple tree, they would likely prune it ten different ways. The basic framework might be the same, but the end result would reflect each individual's personal aesthetic. Asking a pruner why they made a specific cut, can be as futile as asking an artist why they made a particular brush stroke. From my perspective, pruning is one of the most intimate ways I connect with the trees and is an opportunity for me to reset my intentions as an orchardist.

Now let’s talk cider for a moment. Joshua and Mark have been busy in the cidery racking, bottling and kegging some new ciders. There are also some exciting projects in the works including a skin contact cider, carbonic maceration and our first rosé cider made entirely from red-fleshed apples. Several weeks ago, three French oak barrels were filled with three different varietal pommeaus. Needless to say, it is going to be an exciting year to be drinking Seminary Hill cider.

With gratitude,

Chris and the Seminary Hill team

The Release

In honor of spring, we are sending some new ciders your way along with a list sip of a few older blends. First up is our 2024 Liberty. This cider is made with 100% estate grown organic Liberty apples. For those of you not in the orchard world, Liberty is a disease resistant apple bred at the New York Agriculture Experiment Station in Geneva, NY and released in 1978. Its resistance to multiple diseases quickly made it a popular variety for organic production. It is a cross between Macoun and Purdue 54-12, which introduced disease resistance from Malus floribunda (Japanese flowering crabapple). It is a productive variety and the fruit is tart, crisp and has good flavor, reminiscent of Macoun and other apples in the McIntosh family. We weren't sure what we would get when we pressed a single variety batch of liberty from the 2024 harvest, but we were pleasantly surprised by the result. This is a light bodied, fruit-forward cider reminiscent of our Spycraft from years past. It is naturally sparkling as the result of a secondary fermentation and has been aged on the lees in the bottle for over a year.

Next up we have our 2023 Susan’s Semi-dry. This cider is always a favorite of ours and the 2023 vintage is no different. This cider prominently features Dabinett along with Rhode Island Greening and Brown Snout. With 1% R.S. it is just sweet enough to bring the fruit forward, but dry enough to leave you with complexity and lingering tannins.

Lastly, we are sharing our 2021 Beechwoods with you one last time as we get down to the last few cases. This cider is still and dry and has aged nicely over its years in the bottle. Although I would never hesitate to recommend enjoying a glass of this cider on its own, it is incredibly food friendly and the perfect addition to a meal celebrating some of the bounty of spring.

The six bottle shares will also receive the last of our 2021 Dry Brook as well as a second bottle of 2023 Susan’s Semi-dry and our 2022 Tom’s Beard – a favorite of ours as we head into the warmer months. We hope you enjoy them. Cheers!