Growing cider culture: a family farm perspective with Manoff Market Gardens & Cidery

In 1984, Amy and Gary Manoff started Manoff farm, which has become Manoff Market Gardens & Cidery, in New Hope, Pennsylvania. By 2018, inspired by a Penn State University Extension cider tour in England, the married team acquired a winery license in order to make and sell cider from their farm’s fruit.

Cultivating the land and planting orchards while building their fanbase at farmers markets, their retail market and their tasting room, tthe couple also raised their two children, Michael and Chelsea. Now the siblings work alongside their parents: Michael on the farm and Chelsea as assistant cider maker.

“Our parents instilled in us early, ‘Don’t cut corners, but be smart and efficient,’” says Chelsea. Amy and Gary taught by example, working to craft a range of expressive single-varietal and blended ciders. Inspired, Chelsea helped create a Cider Club that offers Manoff’s supporters seasonal discounts, special access to on-farm and ciderhouse events and, above all else, showcases the Manoff small-batch cider.

“We are an orchard-based cidery, so we try to let the apples shine in our cider,” Chelsea says. This means paying attention to — and honoring — which techniques and styles suit different apples. Pink Lady’s acidity, for example, lends itself to a naturally fermented Spanish-style cider. Stayman improves with age — four months in a chestnut foeder imported from Italy helps bring out the apple’s natural roundness and maturity. The critics agree: Manoff Cidery’s 2022 Pink Lady and 2022 Stayman ciders both medaled in the 2023 Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition.

In addition to highlighting such single varietals, the craft involves blending different apples and even different fruits to elevate the finished cider. Manoff Cidery’s 2022 Reimagine cider, for example, is an enticing blend of American apples, a semi-sweet base of Newton Pippin and Golden Russet complemented by the slightly tannic addition of Wickson Crab. The 2023 vintage is coming soon.

Chelsea also credits their parents with teaching her and Michael to remain curious and continue to learn. This curiosity can be seen in ciders like Forgotten Fruit, which showcases pawpaw. A custardy, almost banana-like fruit that is native to Pennsylvania and other parts of North America, pawpaw is rarely seen in retail settings. “I was first introduced to this fruit by a local artist, Sean Mount, whose work hangs in our cidery,” Chelsea says. “He was familiar with it from foraging and knew a guy who was growing pawpaws in an orchard setting.”

Through the Northeast Farming Association, she connected with West Farm in Branchburg, New Jersey, which was cultivating the fruit and willing to give her a tour. Now, she’s beginning to graft it on the Manoff farm. “Pawpaw has enormous potential as a native crop and as a value-added product,” says Chelsea, but like other fruits in their orchard, pawpaw takes time to grow in a responsible way. “The fact that we have recognized and grafted pawpaw cultivars at all owes much to Kentucky State University’s research program and Neal Peterson, an early researcher and enthusiast who saw the potential of this fruit through a lens of food justice.”

In fact, despite Manoff’s seasoned success and recent accolades, much of Chelsea’s attention is placed on the future. “Orchards require foresight,” she says, since trees take a long time to mature and produce fruit. Alongside recent additions like pawpaw, Manoff’s youngest apple orchard boasts cider-specific cultivars. Chelsea is excited for a future where she’s able to turn these fruits — often too bitter, astringent and tannic to be enjoyed out of hand — into complex ciders with unique depth, nuance and longevity in the bottle. “As the trees mature they will have the most impact on the style of cider that we make and the people who appreciate natural cider,” Chelsea says.

How does that make her feel? “Invigorated and hopeful.”