Zollinger's defies big-biz trends to keep making old-fashioned cider

By Katie Ashton

March 28, 2005 | Although the harvest has long since past, and frost covers the rows of trees on either side of their house, one Cache Valley family stays hard at work with the treasure left by fall.

Ron Zollinger, owner of Zollinger's Apple Orchard in River Heights, remains occupied year round with what some people might see as a summer trade.

However, Zollinger's business prevents him from following the "V" of geese flying south for the winter.

His occupation encompasses apple cider processing and maintaining a nursery landscaping business as well.

Even with the market continually challenging the small farmer to reinvent himself or to sell his land to the next housing development, Zollinger could not comprehend the possibility of not making apple cider.

Zollinger has a made a reputation for himself, and his cider, with many of the valley residents.

John Richard Thunell, a resident of River Heights for 55 years, said he bought cider from Zollinger's father 40 years ago.

"It's a fresh cider," Thunell said.

"They've kept a very, very excellent farm. They're very good farmers and good people."

Yet, with increasing state and federal regulations, cider processing is under strict scrutiny, Zollinger said, and many farmers cannot, or chose not to, keep up.

"I remember there were orchards all over the place 30 to 40 years ago," he said.

According to The Washington Post, apple juice production in the United States has been declining for five years.

In comparison with apple cider, consumption of apple juice is much higher.

According to The Post, cider consumption peaked in the mid-19th century, however, in 2003 and 2004, only 1.5 percent of U.S. consumers drank cider.

Despite the changing trends, there is still a certain pride that shines through Zollinger's eyes when he stares at the machinery.

"I just love drinking it so much myself, I couldn't see myself not making it, " he said.

"I have a whole freezer just dedicated to cider. We freeze it so we can have it year around."

Indeed, Zollinger freezes whatever he thinks will last the year, about 80 to 90 gallons.

"Of course I give some out to other family members," he said.

Most shoppers, while traveling the aisles of the grocery store, may not know the difference between apple cider and apple juice.

Apple juice is a clear, amber-colored liquid that has been filtered and pasteurized and does not require refrigeration before opening.

Cider, with the taste of Christmas, has a crisp bite in comparison with apple juice.

It is a cloudy, caramel-like liquid that contains more apple pulp.

Zollinger's golden infusion is not pasteurized, but rather is treated in an ultraviolet unit, about half the size of a refrigerator, to kill any living organisms.

The strict regulations, which call for either pasteurization or the use of ultraviolet light, stem from several cases of E-coli in the 1990s and require Zollinger to maintain equipment that is, "super clean and sanitary."

Pasteurization is a partial sterilization that heats the liquid up enough to kill harmful microorganisms.

However, ultraviolet light does not heat the liquid, which prevents the cider from losing some of its flavor, Zollinger said.

Yet the complexity of national requirements of cider production does not compare to the intricacy that comes when the process begins.

Zollinger employs three steady apple pickers from spring to fall, who arrive early in the morning and pick until 4 p.m., where they bring the apples into a faded green, aluminum-sided building directly behind Zollinger's house.

Walking into the building a cold, apple aroma bombards the senses.

Inspection of the apples determines which will be sold to grocery stores as produce, and which will be destined for cider.

The apples travel through a green, carwash-like machine about 4 feet high, allowing the inspectors to pick out the ones with blemishes or discoloration for cider processing, Zollinger said.

By most standards, the 4,000 bushels yielded per year on the 90-acre plot is considered small.

However, during the peak season, from late fall to the end of January, Zollinger produces about 600 gallons of cider every other day.

The most work in cider production comes from cleaning and setting up the equipment.

The apples are dumped into a chlorinated vat for cleaning.

Then travel overhead, about 9 or 10 feet high, to be rinsed then finely chopped into pulp.

The apple pulp is then dropped into trays of nylon cloth placed on large, plastic palettes the size of a card table.

Each palette is stacked on top of one another in a sandwich-like fashion. The stack undergoes about 20 tons of pressure, which causes the juice to come out between the pores in the nylon cloths.

After the juice is stored in two 300-gallon tanks, then process follows Zollinger's "family trade secret," which is "evidently unique in the whole United States."

Even with the local reputation the cider has made for Zollinger, there is still competition that requires him to reposition himself in the market.

Zollinger, graduating from Utah State University with a major in landscape architecture, maintains a landscaping business growing 50 varieties of shade trees and a full range of ornamental shrubs and perennials, which is now the largest part of his business.

Small farms are disappearing at a rapid rate, Zollinger, in matching denim jeans and a long-sleeve denim button-up shirt, said.

The hardships faced by farmers are hard for the public to comprehend.

"You'd have to run one to really understand," he said as his facial expressions lose the signs of comfort and shift to a distant, expressionless gaze.

The nationwide competition requires small-acreage farmers to run their land efficiently, but it can require the same type of equipment and investment that larger businesses maintain, causing the small farmer to face higher expenses.

"It's just a real challenge," Zollinger said as he stared out of the east-facing window of his office.

What keeps the small farm in business is the appeal of the farm atmosphere, Zollinger said.

Around Halloween parents will bring their children out to walk through the pumpkin patch and take pictures, he said.

"It is the experience that brings people out," Zollinger said.

Elementary schools used to take tours around the orchard and cider processing room two to three years ago, he said.

The students would file through and he would hand them a Dixie cup full of cider at the end.

However, Zollinger said he was getting to busy to continue the tours.

"It was taking up too much of our time," he said.

"We couldn't afford to do it anymore.

It was kind of hard to make that decision.

While the competition continues to grow, Zollinger said he focuses primarily on the customers who want to travel to his orchard, which lines both sides of his winding dirt driveway.

"We have a pretty good reputation with a lot of people in the valley," he said.

Even with the stresses of maintaining a small business, Zollinger's interests continue to occupy his time.

In the fall, the tree harvest and landscaping crew are running full board.

"I'm usually all over the place," he said. "I'm kinda just checking on everybody."

When things slow down for Zollinger, he works in an office about the length of a Dodge Ram and not much wider, inside the green aluminum-sided building.

His drawing table, already showing signs of activity with a bridge and a few shrubs sketched in the center, offers little to no color, but allows him to focus on his landscaping business.

For the time being, Zollinger will maintain the orchard his grand farther, William Zollinger, began in 1904.

The Zollinger's at the time lived in Providence and would travel to River Heights, until the house was built in 1949.

The orchard remains an important part of Zollinger's life.

"My father, before he died, that was one of his last requests, if possible to keep the land as it was," he said.

"In the last little while we've been going through the process of trying to save the farm."

Zollinger's son is planning on taking over the business to keep the land within the family.

When a family, from one generation to the next, puts hard work into a common purpose, "it tends to mean a lot to you and you want to keep it going," Zollinger said.

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