Hard Cider

I know when it comes to crops, monoculture is generally undesirable. While polyculture and biodiversity are both very good and the ideal. I’m familiar with Seed Savers and heirloom fruits and vegetables. I even know a little about heritage breeds of livestock. But until I watched the lush PBS documentary The Botany of Desire (Based on the book by Michael Pollan) I did not understand how important it was for us to drink hard cider. Yes indeedy. Hard cider is not made from the handful of popular sweet apple varieties to be found in grocery stores. No, hard cider is made from all the myriad tart apple varieties, including the precious antiques. So every time you purchase a bottle of hard cider you are supporting polyculture and biodiversity. Every time you drink a toast with hard cider you are saving the planet!

As soon as my consciousness was raised I went directly to our liquor closet. I chose one of the bottles of cider from West County Cider of Colrain, Massachusetts and popped it into the refrigerator. We enjoyed it that evening with the roast pork and it was a lovely accompaniment. Massachusetts’ own Johnny Appleseed would have been proud.