Savour Ciders at Braidwood Farm Stay Cafe
The amazing Sully family has kindly let me pair their vibrant ciders with our Ploughmans Lunches for our guests here at Braidwood Farm Stay & Cafe/Saddle Camp. You don’t need to pair it to enjoy it though!
I can’t think of a better way to spend a sunny afternoon than swinging in a hammock, snacking on cheeses and sipping cider!
The ciders are made at the Old Cheese Factory in Reidsdale with apples collected from local farms.
In the 1800's Reidsdale was known as Irish Corner. Many Irish immigrants settled here after having success on the goldfields. It has rich alluvial soil, moistened daily by the Monga Mist that moves in each afternoon, making it an ideal place for cottage farms. These farms fed the 30,000 gold fossickers who moved through the area in the 20 year gold rush.
It was also beautiful land for dairying, and the local rural co-op built a state of the art cheese making facility in 1912. But after World War II the cheap fuel prices made it easier for cheaper/inferior quality cheese to flood the market, and the Cheese Factory closed in 1957.
Nearly 50 years later, the Sully Family immigrated from Wales to ACT to work on the New Parliament House. They fell in love with the Braidwood District and opened the Deli in town. Then they received a Grant from the National Trust to restore the Old Cheese Factory. It’s now used again as a community commercial kitchen, where local growers bring their produce for bottling, pickling, baking, etc.
Gary Sully was blown away by the wide variety of heritage apples coming in through the doors from the old local orchards. Gary says “Cider making lore says to make a good cider, put a rainbow in your barrel. Red uns, green uns and yellow uns.” In his Sparkling Cider - the Perky Pecker - there are 8 different types of apples.
We have his Mad Hare Still Cider, Frisky Fox Still Cider, Perky Pecker Sparkling Cider and non-alcoholic Rhubarb & Ginger Beer available for sale in our Farm Shop.
Chilled and ready to drink :)
You can visit us all all weekend - from 9.30 am to 7 pm!
This is Dexter sampling the gorgeous Rhubarb & Ginger Beer https://youtube.com/shorts/wfJvAFSWMAk?feature=share.
