Wheel-View Hard Cider to Debut During CiderDays

The Recorder, Novemeber 5, 2015 by Diane Broncaccio.

SHELBURNE CENTER — Add one more hard cider to the roster of local cider producers featured in this weekend’s Franklin County CiderDays.

On Wednesday, Carolyn and John Wheeler of Wheel-View Farm received their state “Farmer Winery” license and will debut their first batch of Standing Bull Hard Cider during an open house and cider-tasting at their picturesque farm Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 7 and 8, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The farm is located at 212 Reynolds Road in the Patten Hill district.

Along with cider-tasting and cider for sale, the Wheelers will have sales on their grass-fed beef, sweet cider, maple syrup, maple cream and jerky made from the grass-fed Wheel-View beef.

This farm has been in Carolyn Wheeler’s family since 1896, and they are the fourth-generation to farm there. She said they added the orchard to their farm in 2011, “but there’s so many apple sellers in this area already, this was a way we could preserve the apples and sell them in a different way,” she said.

Cider master Michael Barnes of Colrain has produced the cider from a blend of several apple varieties, she said. The “Standing Bull” logo is a nod to the Belted Galloway beef cattle that the Wheelers raise on their farm.

She said Wheel-View is the first farmer-winery in Shelburne.