FEATURED PRODUCERS

ELEANOR LEGER | EDEN CIDERS • VT

Co-owner & cider maker producing ice ciders, aperitifs and naturally sparkling ciders from locally grown heirloom and cider apple varieties. Eden works with the same growers year after year in long term partnership and grows over 35 varieties of apples biodynamically in their own Eden Orchards. After she spent 25 years working in management consulting and business, Eleanor shifted her attention to cider making. In 2007, with her husband, Albert, she purchased an abandoned dairy farm in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, where they planted heirloom apple trees on a remote hillside. A year later, she launched Eden Specialty Ciders and began selling craft ice ciders – ciders made from the juice of frozen apples. “Ice cider seemed like the purest expression of Vermont terroir, and we wanted to do something that reflected our land and climate,” says Léger. Léger has earned a reputation for making complex ice ciders with elegant sweetness and crunchy, juicy acidity. But that hasn’t stopped her from pursuing other experiments. Eden offers a range of ciders that includes dry varieties, both sparkling and still. 

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AUTUMN STOSCHECK | EVE’S CIDERY

For Autumn, growing apples and making them into cider is the intersection of creativity and labor.  And it’s these two ideals that motivate her work: To make beautiful cider and to farm in harmony with nature.

“A bottle of cider is a way to communicate: a place, a time, a deeper meaning. It’s an expression too, of the people who make it  – who tend the trees and look after the yeasts. They are guardians of some still mysterious process that transforms fruit from the tree into pleasure for the table.”

SHOP WOMEN’S MONTH CIDER