CRAFTSBURY, Vt. (WCAX) - Changing leaves and ice-cold apple cider are sure signs of fall in Vermont. But, on this Craftsbury farm, hard cider is always in season.

“A blend of apples and pears, and this is for my pear cider that I make,” said Cedar Hannan, making a batch of cider.

Hannan owns Wildbranch Cider , a 15-year hobby-turned-business. In 2019, Hannan ordered 120 apple trees in anticipation of starting up a retirement cider operation. When they arrived amid the pandemic, those plans changed.

“In the spring of 2020, I was planting my trees and by the time I was done planting them, I decided that I didn’t want to be doing computer work anymore, which is what I had done for 24 years,” explained Hannan. “I enjoy being outside, I enjoy working in the dirt, I enjoy pressing apples, picking apples... basically anything other than just sitting in front of a computer.”

Those trees he planted are just now maturing enough to produce fruit, but that didn’t stop Hannan from getting started. All of his apples are from Vermont, whether they be from another farm or a field.

“I do a lot of foraging, so about a third of all the apples I use are wild apples. I have a lot here on my property. Wild apple trees love to grow in old pastures, so there’s a lot of pastures, a lot of farmland around here,” he explained.

Five years ago, Hannan made his first batches to sell. When those initial batches came out pretty well, he took it a step further.

“Submitted my cider to the Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition, which is kind of like the cider Olympics, it’s the largest cider competition in the world... and I won a gold medal,” he said with a smile. “At that point, I felt like it might work; I might be able to do this.”

He has certainly done it, turning about 1,000 gallons of cider each year. It starts with the fruit, finding apples best suited to be squeezed.

“Some bitterness to them, maybe a little bit more acidity, not necessarily as palatable as an eating apple... but they have wonderful properties for cider-making,” Hannan said.

The apples are ground up, wrung out and the juice is poured into tanks to ferment. For the most part, it’s a one-man show, with Hannan tackling bottling, labeling and selling, too.

“It’s a very, very small production, even by Vermont standards,” Hannan said.

He offers a few varieties, from his classic “Spinney” cider to others made with different fruits or those done in collaboration with other alcohol-makers, like Barr Hill. His glass bottles are sold at the Burlington and Montpelier farmers markets and at small stores across Vermont. But, beyond product and profit at Wildbranch, Hannan has a broader hope for cider’s role in Vermont agriculture.

“Cider can play a part in filling in the gap where dairy is leaving off in terms of the economic stimulus and just sort of the landscape of keeping the land open and productive,” he said.

These locally made libations are helping to forge a new front in the agriculture economy.