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Business & Tech

Apples, Apples Everywhere: Minea Farm

Minea Farm turns fall harvest into cider, other tasty products.

One of the things I most like about living in Woodinville is its proximity to the Sammamish Valley. And one of the things I most like about the Sammamish Valley is that it is home to Minea Farm. Honest. If you haven’t been, go.

You won’t find better tasting apple cider anywhere. Lee and Vanda Minea (pronounced “min-ee”) sell single varietal ciders as well as mixed and spiced versions; their customers come from as far away as Olympia and Mt. Vernon to buy it. But that’s just the beginning.

A visit to the farm store, located in the Mineas’ 90-year-old barn on the Woodinville-Redmond Road, is more than a shopping expedition. It’s an opportunity to learn about apples and cider and, if you’re lucky, to see a century-old cider press in action.

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The Mineas always have several varieties of cider to taste and purchase – when I was there the choices were Aurora, HoneyCrisp and Jonagold. In addition, they sell cooking apples, and fruit leathers, “apple chips” (dried apple wedges), fruit butters, apple syrups and cider vinegar, all made by Vanda on the premises.

The Mineas know apples, and are eager to share their expertise. Vanda is happy to explain how to store and/or pasteurize cider, or make apple chips, apple butter or fruit leathers at home. She uses photos from a Transition Woodinville class she taught last spring to illustrate.

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The Mineas’ interest in apples and cider started back in the 1980s when Lee saw a sign for cider on Highbridge Road in Monroe. He and Vanda visited the farm and saw the press in action.

“I think we could do that,” Vanda remembers saying. After seeing another press in Clearview, they decided to build one of their own. That year – 1989 – the Mineas pressed 1,500 “gleaned” apples, says Vanda. They went door-to-door with an offer: “We’ll bring you cider if you let us pick your apples.”

In the years since, the Mineas have expanded operations. They purchase apples from farmers in the area and elsewhere in Western Washington. Once a week or so, they drive their old Chevy pick-up to Eastern Washington and get six bins of apples at a time. They now press about 90,000 gallons of cider a year.

Still, Vanda says, she’s glad she followed the advice of a friend to “stay small.” The Mineas only sell their products from the farm store, three days a week. In the world of apples and apple products, Vanda says, “we’re little people.” And that’s the way she likes it.

The Farm’s current press – the one the Mineas first saw in the 1980s – is itself a piece of history. The Mineas acquired it from the Tuck family in 2000; the Tucks had gotten it from the McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary, a completely self-contained institution that produced all of its own food. The Penitentiary used the press to squeeze apples for vinegar that was used to pickle the summer’s bounty for winter consumption.

According to Lee, it was made in the 1890s, most likely around 1895. “This was a revolution” in technology at the time, he says. Although Lee has had to replace and rebuild pieces of the press, the two-story tall machine still has many original parts, including its chain and conveyer. “I would guess it has produced a million gallons,” he says.

On days when the Mineas press cider, the whole place smells of apples. The process starts when they dump a full bin of apples in to a water bath at the base of the press. They discard any leaves or branches and guide the apples up the conveyer to the grinder, which reduces the apples to a pulp.

Next, they release the pulp onto stacked trays; when the trays are full, the press is engaged. It applies 75,000 pounds of pressure to extract the juice, which cascades out from all sides of the trays, pooling in a basin below. From there, it is piped into a cooling chamber, where it can be stored until it is pumped into jugs that are hand-filled and capped.

The pressing and bottling – and everything else the Mineas do at the farm – is clearly a lot of hard work…and it’s just as clearly a passion. “If we didn’t love it, we wouldn’t do it,” laughs Vanda, admitting that the amount of work during the Fall harvest can be a bit daunting.

It’s a “family affair,” she adds. The Mineas’ son, daughter-in-law and three granddaughters all get in on the action, helping with pressing and bottling and in the store.

“It seems to make people happy,” Vanda says of their efforts. Her customers are “good people,” she adds. “They don’t have to come in,” she says, but they do. And so should you…really. You won’t be sorry.

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