From a distance, a row of apple trees appeared more red than green, the young branches seeming to overflow with clusters of small, round fruit. Two people moved from tree to tree, pulling the cherry-sized produce by hand, filling buckets held on their chests by straps.
It was the last day of apple harvest at Dendric Estate, the high mountain cidery and orchard in Kamas, and they’ve saved this cold-hardy varietal for last to give the fruit time to fully develop.
Dendric Estate horticulturist Max Eatchel cut the small Everest crab apple in half to reveal the slightly brown seeds, an indication of ripeness. Earlier in the harvest, this variety hadn’t gotten its “bricks” up, meaning sugars.
“A good way to judge ripeness is actually based on the seed color,” he explained. “The seed coat is brown here, and when we were opening these up a couple weeks ago, they were completely white all the way through.”
The Everest crab apple trees now stand around 5 feet tall after two years in the ground, and their productivity is a great sign for the budding orchard. The variety was first planted in Dendric Estate’s research-and-development plot to experiment with how these apple trees would do in the Kamas Valley at 6,440 feet. That project started in 2020, switching out apple varieties through trial and error until this year — their first estate harvest for production.
Dendric Estate co-owner Brendan Coyle said they harvested just under 15 varieties totaling around 2,000 pounds of apples from the research plot. The most substantial harvests came from nine types, including Everest crab apples, Manchurian crab apples, Liberty apples, Stoke Red and Dolgo crab apples.
It may sound like a lot, but that will produce barely enough juice for one 275-gallon tote, said Brendan. For reference, wife and co-owner Carly Coyle said Dendric Estate is pressing 200,000 pounds of apples this season to have enough juice for year-round production of its new Dry Cut Cider. While the Coyles’ orchard harvest is small, and they won’t be ready to release an estate cider until summer of 2027 at the earliest, it’s a turning point for the husband-and-wife team as they transition from the research phase to full production.
This year was dry during the tree’s spring-to-summer growing season, but there was less threat of fire blight, a common bacterial disease that affects apple trees, Eatchel said.
“We have a lot of really good advantages to growing in a climate like this. Because we’re so high in elevation, drier climate, warmer weather, we tend to have a lot less pathogen pressure and insect pressure,” he said. “Every disadvantage in agriculture also comes with a subset of advantages, so it’s kind of about playing your hand wisely and being able to react quickly and taking it as it comes.”
Once the apples ripen, the goal is to bring them all in to keep the orchard pest-free and healthy.
“We don’t want to harbor pathogens or increase pest populations of anything that would eat apples. So it’s important that we get all the fruit, even if not 100% of it’s going to the press,” he said.
Dendric Estate is also able to “ground harvest” as a cidery with a fermentation step, which means any apple that has fallen off the tree or is dropped during the picking is still OK to be juiced. Brendan said fruit with minor imperfections is still usable, too, joking that “ugly fruit tastes better” in the cider world. Using more apples means more cider.
“We’re not looking for that perfect, grocery store-ready fruit that looks the best,” he said. “There are a lot of blemishes and a lot of little damages in the fruit that can go through because the juice is fantastic. That’s one of the nice things about having a cider apple orchard is that you have far less waste.”
The small staff collected all the fruit from the orchard over two weeks, starting late September, with the help of volunteers, Carly said. Neighbors, friends and family came out to help, and even the Kamas-based Gateway Gardener’s Club braved late-summer warmth and surprise snowstorms while earning community service hours.
“It’s been nice to have expanded our team this year so that we have delegated things out. People have been so interested to come on site and get their hands on the apple trees. It’s been really nice to have both operations running at the same time,” Carly said.
By both operations, she meant the pressing or juicing process. As a cidery, Dendric Estate produces cider using other orchard’s apples, which is how they released Dry Cut well before their estate yield was ready. So while the estate pulls in and juices its own apple harvest, they are receiving and pressing fruit from orchards in Oregon and Idaho, an overlap that makes this an especially busy time.
Ideally, juicing happens while the apples are still fairly fresh off the trees. Brendan said sometimes they’ll “sweat” or rest the fruit to allow the last sugars and starches to settle in, but fermentation follows quickly to maintain that freshness.
Fermentation and maturation continue throughout winter and spring, and by late spring or early summer, the cider is ready for blending and bottling.
Meticulous notes on what varieties went into the juice at what ratios will help Brendan and his team develop future single-origin and blended ciders once the fermentation is complete. This first year will have modest yields from most varieties, Brendan said, so most of the juice is being blended together into a single estate ferment. In the future, more single-varietal fermentations may be possible.
“We’re doing lab analysis on those to get the sugar content of the juice, and doing tastings for the flavor profile and everything,” he said. “Even if we’re not harvesting enough to get an impact in the blend, we’re still learning a lot from whether to go forward with that varietal or not.”
The Coyles are excited about the red-fleshed Redfield apple, one of their higher-investment varietals. They have 1,600 trees arriving this spring — destined for future single-estate releases and possibly sparkling rosé-like cider.
Eatchel plans to wean the trees off water and prepare them for the winter now that the harvest is finished. While entering their dormant phase, the trees will naturally push their carbohydrates down toward the roots to protect from cold stretches and future freezes. He’ll go through and prune the branches in late February and early March to optimize the trees for fruit production.
The Coyles are finishing up the pressing, monitoring the juice through fermentation, and bottling Dry Cut as needed in the meantime.
Because of the almost year-long process of making a cider — harvesting apples, pressing and juicing and starting fermentation in the fall, then resting, finishing and bottling by early summer — the estate is still a few years out from having an estate cider to release.
In the meantime, Dry Cut bottles, made from the 2024 harvest, will be available to purchase at the Dendric Estate facility through the winter noon to 6 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays at 2617 S.R. 32, Kamas. Each 750 ml bottle is $18.32. Dendric Estate also sells “splits,” smaller 375 ml bottles.
“Dry Cut pairs so well with all of the flavors for Thanksgiving, so we’re really looking forward to seeing Dry Cut on a lot of people’s Thanksgiving tables this year,” said Carly.
