PITTSBURGH — When it comes to apples, only a handful of states do it better than Pennsylvania.
Last year alone, the commonwealth produced a whopping 556 million pounds of fruit, in thousands of orchards dedicated to some 100 varieties ranging from heirloom favorites, including Golden Delicious and Northern Spy, to newer cultivars such as the Honeycrisp, a crisp modern variety developed by the University of Minnesota for cold-climate growers.
Around a third of the harvest will end up at farmers markets and grocery stores, which means the typical Pittsburgher should have no trouble keeping the doctor away with the “apple a day” prescribed for good health. Everything else gets processed for applesauce or packaged slices, or pressed into juice or cider.
So when the Pennsylvania Tourism Office decided to build upon its runaway hit of an ice cream trail with four additional culinary trails tied to the state’s unique food culture, well, of course the humble apple was quickly picked to be among the distinctive foods featured.
As executive director Michael Chapaloney noted, “We’re the fourth-largest producer in the country for apples, so we knew we had something to work with.”
The self-guided Picked: An Apple Trail launched in September 2021, with nearly 60 stops cultivated in partnership with Chatham University and food historian Mary Miller. Organized by four regions, the suggested itineraries include everything from cideries, distilleries and orchards to restaurants, wineries, inns, farm markets and even the occasional brewery spread across the state’s 67 apple-producing counties.
“We really wanted to connect back to the heritage and history and strength of Pennsylvania,” says Chapaloney, and for that, “apples are a natural.”
When you plan a trip for someone, they tend to really enjoy following along, he adds — especially if it’s an accessible trail that invites everyone to explore with lots of variety. It can’t hurt that Pittsburgh native and HGTV star Steve Ford is helping to spread the word through a new series on the Pennsylvania TV channel on Apple TV called “Stuffed with Steve Ford.” It launched in August.
With 14 stops from Carnegie to Erie, the Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania’s Great Lakes Region trail certainly takes stock of all the ways apples can be consumed, with family-owned orchards such as sixth-generation Apple Castle in New Wilmington and decades-old Norman’s Orchard in Frazer, and old-school fruit presses such as Sally’s Cider Press in Butler County’s Lancaster Township near Harmony on the travel plan.
Sally’s is only open to the public Saturdays through fall, but it’s a terrific place to get a firsthand look at the old-fashioned way some local farmers markets and individuals turn their bushels of apples into freshly pressed cider.
A former educator at Freedom Area School District, owner Tom Davis has been working the antique apple press on Route 19 for decades. He purchased the now century-old press way back in 1976, when he was working part time at the sawmill, which still stands behind the barn-like structure that houses the operation. Sally’s is named for his wife, who for many years ran the operation with her sister.
It only takes about 10 minutes to turn the fruit into fresh cider and fill the pressing room with its sweet aroma. After being washed and loaded onto an elevator that ferries them up and over to a hammer mill, the apples are crushed — 3 to 4 bushels at a time. They’re then dumped onto burlap-covered wooden pallets that are stacked “about this high” on top of each other, says Davis, 83, gesturing a distance of about 2 feet with his hands.
After being pressed with a hydraulic pump that squeezes the pallets together, the apple juice then drains into troughs beside the pallets and then flows into a tank below, after which it’s pumped upstairs via an ultraviolet light column to another tank for jugging.
Davis started treating his cider with UV to kill harmful bacteria — instead of pasteurizing it — about 12 years ago because it makes for a better-tasting cider. “Heat reverts it back to apple juice,” he says.
Longtime customer Pete Beccari, who on a recent Thursday hauled some 500 pounds of four different kinds of apples from his 80-acre farm in Collier for processing, agrees UV makes for a superior product.
“It doesn’t change the flavor,” he says, adding, “I call it liquid apple instead of cider, because that’s what it is.”
The colorful mix of Golden and Red Delicious, Stayman and Empire apples — deliberately chosen to make a “taste” — resulted in 74 half and 10 full gallons of hand-bottled cider for his farm market on Thoms Run Road.
So long as you bring at least four or five bushels, you too can get your favorite mix of apples pressed into cider from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays through Oct. 29, for a $25 processing fee plus $2.75 per gallon. (Caps and jugs are 50 cents each.) Or, simply buy it there by the quart or gallon, along with Davis’ apple butter and Amish-made cashew crunch.
And if you prefer your cider hard? Picked: An Apple Trail has something for you, too.
Travelers can (and should) celebrate Pennsylvania apples as adult beverages at places like McLaughlin Distillery in Sewickley Hills, Apis Mead in Carnegie and Arsenal Cider House in Lawrenceville.
Threadbare Cider House in Spring Garden, which celebrates the region’s apple bounty with fruited, specialty and barrel-aged ciders made in small batches, is another suggested stop. This time of year, visitors can enjoy seasonal, apple-forward cocktails like The Riveter, which pairs Wigle Pennsylvania Bourbon, simple syrup, lemon juice and Bouquet de Rose (hard) Cider. It’s delicious.
Wherever you stop on the trail, it’s bound to create an appetite for the fruit that is Johnny Appleseed’s legacy throughout Pennsylvania. To help you decide what to do with them, we dish up three easy recipes to put an apple-focused spin on breakfast, lunch and/or dinner.
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