Cider house owners press ahead

Idea for Orondo fruit stand grows into something much bigger
By Rene Featherstone, For The World

ORONDO -- The Podlich family of Orondo is pressing on.

Having weathered some tough times in the orchard industry, Priscilla Podlich and her son, Chuck, and his wife, Sharon Podlich, and their four daughters opened Orondo Cider Works.

Located on Highway 97, this cider house is big and bright red like many of the tree-ripe apples the family will be pressing.

Customers can sit at a long counter and watch through windows the operation of the 100-gallon per hour "rack-and-cloth cider press" that sends cider through an ultraviolet pasteurizing unit and into a 300-gallon refrigerated tank.

There are also donuts, made on site, a convenience store and a fruit stand.

"It'll be interesting," Chuck Podlich said, "to see if we'll sell more (frozen) pizzas and Pepsi, or more peaches and nectarines."

Sharon Podlich said that they hadn't originally planned for quite so extensive a business. "But once we started looking into all the permits we'd be needing, it made more sense to commit fully to this."

The Podlich faimly hails from back East. Chuck was reared in Maryland , Sharon in Vermont , and their closest connections to agriculture were their respective grandparents.

Chuck Podlich was studying horticulture at the University of Vermont , where he met Sharon .

They came out West because he wanted to apply the science he'd studied, in the form of fruit production, Chuck Podlich said. The couple moved to Orondo in 1979, even though Washington State University was not encouraging him. "The extension agent told me that the only way to get an orchard was to inherit it or marry it," Chuck Podlich said.

In 1980, he said, "we bought our first orchard with sweat equity and help from partners."

In 1988 they bought the 88 acres they farm as their own today. Sharon Podlich said: "This property was a fixer-upper. There was a lot of unplanted land."

The couple planted Grannies, Galas, Gingergolds, Pink Ladies and Fujis.

As for the cider house idea, that took more than two decades to fully germinate. Chuck Podlich 's first exposure to cider came when he spent his junior year of college at Bath , England . Later on, he said, "about 20 years ago, I visited a cider mill in Michigan . They were doing cider and donuts, and they did a great business. I've always thought that a cider mill is a great idea, but I didn't think it would be profitable here until the last few years. Only now is there the critical mass (of farm-direct buyers) for us to justify investing in the necessary infrastructure," he said.