The bar at Heartwood Ciders is made from a bowling lane, taken out of the now-closed Lucky Jack's in Traverse City. Outside the windows of the tasting room on South Lautner Road are 10 acres of orchard, where the family planted 2,000 apple trees two years before the doors opened. Until those trees mature, Heartwood makes its cider from juice it buys from other local farms.
A few miles away, on East Lincoln Road near Cedar, Taproot Cellars is in the same position. It opened in July on a 36.5-acre property with five acres of young orchard, and the owners told The Ticker their apples were still maturing. Southern Leelanau has two new cideries this year, and both followed the same order: buy land, plant trees, open a tasting room, and make cider from other growers' fruit until their own orchards can supply it. What you can drink at each one this season comes from that gap, and from where each family chose to buy apples while they wait.
Heartwood buys from its neighbors
Rachel and David Barnard left corporate jobs at Target in 2021, sold their house, and moved to Leelanau County with a loose plan to open a cidery. They run Heartwood with Rachel's parents, Ed and Cathy Nyberg. Ed told The Ticker his family is "probably four or five generations" deep in the county. Before they found land, the Barnards started a cider and wine tour company, NoMi Tours, to meet local growers. David also spent a harvest season learning from George and Max Koskela at Two K Farms in Suttons Bay.
In the spring, The Ticker reported that David was making cider from apple juice bought from other local farms, because Heartwood's own trees wouldn't be mature for a couple more years. The long-term plan is to make most of the cider from estate apples and put "a little bit more spotlight on the individual apple varieties," Rachel said.
Some of that plan is already on the menu. Heartwood's tap list includes two single-variety ciders. Old Mac Donald is a semi-sweet McIntosh at 5.9% ABV, and Spyglass is a semi-sweet Northern Spy at 4.5%. Every pint on the list is $8. The rest of the list covers a wide range:
- Sweeter: Bramble, a berry cider at 6.2%, and Golden, a crisp, classic apple cider at 4.5%
- Fruit: Just Peachy and Cherry Bite, a tart cherry cider
- Drier: Hop Vine, with citrus hops at 6.9%; Half Harvest, a tart and sweet apple; and Sharp Edge, semi-dry and tart
- Lighter: Spiced Lite, with cinnamon and vanilla, and Lite Press, both low-calorie at 4.2%
- Warm: a 12-ounce hot apple cider, mulled with a spice tea bag, for $10
That's about a dozen ciders. Rachel had expected to open with eight. Once Heartwood's own fruit comes in, the single-variety idea behind Old Mac Donald and Spyglass can be made with apples from the rows outside.
Taproot buys organic, from Saginaw
Jen Viren started Taproot Cider House in downtown Traverse City in 2016. Her husband, Andrew Viren, trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago and worked as a private chef in England, Croatia and France before becoming head chef at Taproot. He leads Taproot Cellars, on farmland the couple owns together. They call it Taproot Farmstead.
Taproot faced the same wait as Heartwood and chose a different source. The cidery's website says the farmstead follows organic practices, and that while "our young trees are still establishing their roots," it uses organic juice from Almar Orchards, which The Ticker describes as an orchard in Saginaw. Andrew described the first season's base to The Ticker:
"The juice that we made cider with for this season is organic apple juice from Almar Orchards… and it's a blend of 18 varieties of apples."
With one blended juice as the base, Taproot varies its ciders through what Andrew adds. One was fermented with a Sauvignon Blanc yeast and tastes something like wine. Another is sweetened with strawberries and elderflowers grown on the farmstead. So the farm's fruit was already in Taproot's cider before its apples were ready. Planting the orchard took about three years, and in July Andrew said this fall would bring the first planned harvest.
Side by side
| Heartwood Ciders | Taproot Cellars | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 13775 S. Lautner Rd., off M-72 | 8844 E. Lincoln Rd., near Cedar |
| Owners | Rachel and David Barnard, with Ed and Cathy Nyberg | Jen and Andrew Viren |
| Orchard | 10 acres, 2,000 trees | Five acres on a 36.5-acre farmstead |
| Current fruit source | Juice bought from local farms | Organic juice from Almar Orchards |
| Seating | Walk-in, first come, first served | Small room, reservations recommended or required |
| Food | Charcuterie and cheese spreads | Chef-led, built around regional ingredients |
Two different ways to visit
The two families made different choices about the tasting room, too, and that changes how you plan a visit.
Heartwood is built for dropping in. The website says reservations aren't needed, seating is first come, first served, and tour groups should call ahead. Pets aren't allowed because of health department rules. It posts these fall hours:
- Monday and Tuesday: closed
- Wednesday and Thursday: 3 to 8 p.m.
- Friday and Saturday: noon to 9 p.m.
- Sunday: noon to 6 p.m.
Hot cider is served Friday through Sunday. For food, there's a $22 charcuterie box for two to four people and $12 Natural Northern cheese spreads, including a Traverse City cherry and jalapeño. There are also Great Lakes Potato Chips, Dot's Pretzels, Northwoods sodas, and Heartwood's own nonalcoholic sparkling apple for $4. A group with mixed preferences, including people who don't drink, will find something here.
Taproot is meant for small groups. Andrew told The Ticker they wanted a room that feels "like you're going into someone's home," and a "comfy, cozy, tranquil, get-away-from-the-city feeling," without "the chaos" of the busy season. When it opened in July, the hours were noon to 6 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays. Reservations were required on Sundays and recommended on the other two days, through taprootcellars.com. Those were summer hours. Check both websites for winter hours before you drive out.
Both cideries say they're about five miles from Traverse City. If you live in Cedar or Maple City, either one is a short drive on the M-72 side of the county, so you don't need to plan a whole afternoon around it.
The cider trail Ed Nyberg wants
Heartwood's owners have a bigger idea. Ed told The Ticker he'd like to see an "up-north cider trail," modeled on the Leelanau Peninsula and Old Mission Peninsula wine trails. He pictures "a passport kind of thing, where you would go to each cidery, get your passport stamped, and maybe if you finish it, you get a hat or a t-shirt." Rachel explained the reasoning in the same Ticker interview: "Michigan is, I think, the third largest producer of apples in the whole country."
Part of the region's cider scene grew out of farming changes. Ed said that when he and Cathy moved from mead to cider, a lot of local cherry farmers were pulling out cherry trees and planting apples, which grow well here. Heartwood and Taproot fit that pattern. Both families bought farmland, put in young trees, and opened tasting rooms years before their first full harvest. The Ticker's history of local cider gives a sense of how fast this has happened. When Taproot Cider House opened in 2016, Tandem Ciders in Suttons Bay had been around since 2008 and Suttons Bay Ciders had opened the year before. Townline Ciderworks in Williamsburg and Two K Farms didn't exist yet.
Heartwood's 2,000 trees and Taproot's five acres are both young orchards. Each cidery opened on purchased juice, and each plans to move to its own fruit as the trees mature.
If you've driven past orchard land off M-72 and wondered what a parcel like that could become, Schaub Team Premier Realty knows the farmland and buildable acreage around Cedar and Maple City well. We're glad to walk a property with you and tell you honestly what it is worth today. Ask us for a free property valuation whenever you're ready.
