- We came up with the name Milk & Honey from the same, the land of milk and honey, liking this notion of the fat of the land, the richness of the land kind of thing, and just a name that says something good, you know?

(soft pleasant rhythmic music) My name's Adam Theis, and my business partners are Aaron Klocker and Peter Gillitzer, and we all grew up right around here.

What is a cidery?

Well, there's a lot of different, I would say, identities for what cideries' focus is or what they're trying to do with their beverage, but when it comes down, the most simple thing is that a cidery is a place that ferments the juice of apple.

(pleasant instrumental music) - [Announcer] To improve on our supply of apples, orchard men constantly search for a branch that bears perfect fruit.

- There'll be people that use basically the side stream from all the culinary apples that are growing in the United States, but for us, what our focus has been from the beginning is we were very intentional about the varieties of apples we use.

Before we started making cider on a level that was intended for production and sale to the public, we did a season where we gathered as many apple varieties as we could.

(soft bright upbeat music) But there was another class of apples that we wanted to get access to that, at first, we just couldn't find it, and that is bittersweet apples.

Those are the real cider apples.

Like if you go to England or you go to France, that's what they're using for their cider.

Why do people come to Milk & Honey?

Well, I maybe don't know, but what we envisioned was someplace that captured this countryside experience, right?

(bright upbeat folk music) And not only that, just create a space where I think maybe we would imagine wanting to hang out, you know?

And so we're on the edge of the Avon Hills where it starts going into these beautiful rolling forested hills, and when you look out, we're set on a hill.

It's great.

It's like perfectly sloped.

My favorite cider of ours, usually Fauna, but also like our estate cider, and we did a single varietal Kingston black cider that was fermented from our own fruit.

Those have been cider that we were really proud of when we made them.

(soft music) I would say what we hope to do is continue to provide a really great experience for people and contribute something culturally to the area.

Hopefully, you know, we're trying to create something different than just a place to go drink but a place that's a social cultural contribution where we have a lot of events here.

We have music, concerts in the summer.

We have, like later today, there's going to be a sauna and cold plunge event that's generally, we have that coupled with the yoga, and so just anything like that that we can find, interesting things we think people are gonna enjoy.

(slow pleasant upbeat music) (bright rhythmic electronic music) - [Narrator] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.

Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota, on the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails, and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Council's arts calendar, an arts and cultural heritage funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota, on the web at lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7 KRAM, online at 967kram.com.

(bright soft rhythmic music)