If you were looking for a two-word description of a perfect Rondout Valley Saturday destination, the words “farm bar” might well catch your eye. Add “serves pizza,” “cider on tap,” and “dogs welcome,” and you begin to understand what makes Stone Ridge Orchard a hit with visitors and locals alike.
While you’re enjoying the wood-fired pizza and refreshing cider, not to mention the delicious offerings at the farm stand and the beauty of the surroundings, take a moment to acknowledge how close we came to losing this 114-acre treasure to development pressure. Thankfully, it’s a destination and a living monument to the tenacity of its owner, Elizabeth Ryan, granddaughter of a farm family who now operates a family of farms.
The Stone Ridge tasting room, farm market, and u-pick operations welcome guests to a very genuine working farm experience, seasoned with intelligent fun, a wide variety of fruits, and ecstatically good apple cider donuts.
Special events held under a spreading centuries-old oak include tastings and specialty markets, along with weddings and milestone celebrations.
Elizabeth’s passion for agriculture led her first to the ag program and then to major in pomology, the science of growing fruit, at Cornell. It was there that she made her first barrel of cider in 1980, going on to study the craft in England. In 1984, she purchased Dutchess County’s historic Breezy Hill Orchard. She has, over the years, been a co-founder of the GrowNYC Greenmarket program, a Smithsonian fellow, and the recipient of the Cornucopia Award from the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. She helped foster the hard cider boom that’s now an integral part of New York’s craft beverage renaissance as an industry advocate and keynote speaker at the Governor’s Alcohol Summit.
And in 2008, Elizabeth took over management of the 200-year-old Stone Ridge Orchard, mplementing her ecological growing principles and fighting to keep the farm established enough to fend off the prime location’s development. In 2014 she succeeded in buying the farm after four years of negotiations, and it’s now—along with Breezy Hill—a source of the top-notch apples and pears that create Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider. She’s still one of a short list of women cidermakers, tapped by Williams Sonoma to create home cider, mead, wine, and sparkling wine for their agrarian line.
“You can come out and sit by the fire pit, feast on pizza from the wood-fired oven along with other special treats, and kick back with live music.” –Sage Newkirk, Marketing Director
And she’s still having an absolute blast. The Stone Ridge tasting room, farm market, and u-pick operations welcome guests to a very genuine working farm experience, seasoned with intelligent fun, a wide variety of fruits, and ecstatically good apple cider donuts.
The Farm Bar is one-of-a-kind. “We’ve got cider on tap and in bottles and a host of other New York State beverages, too,” says Sage Newkirk, the farm’s new marketing and social media director. “You can come out and sit by the fire pit, feast on pizza from the wood-fired oven along with other special treats, and kick back with live music.”
Special events held under a spreading centuries-old oak include tastings and specialty markets, along with weddings and milestone celebrations. Themed makers markets this past spring included “FINDINGS: Rare Plants and Garden Antiquities” and a Mother’s Day weekend Women in Food & Farming Festival. This summer, the farm will host The Comedy Orchard, followed in June and September by Cider, Blues & BBQ, Amythyst Kiah in July, and Applepalooza—leading up to the start of u-pick season and Pooches & Pumpkins— in October.
But don’t wait until the apples are blushing on the trees. Stop by for splendid produce and a farm bar evening and become part of the Stone Ridge Orchard community. “Elizabeth is a live wire, a constant source of inspiration,” says Sage. “There’s always something new and fun going on—we just added a little family of alpacas.”
stone ridge orchard
3012 Route 213, Stone Ridge
845-687-2587
stoneridgeorchard.com
