- Welcome to the second
episode of Spoiled Perfection.
The show that unlocks the
magic behind food techniques
such as pickling, fermenting,
curing, spicing, salting
and curdling, just to name a few.
Here we are in front of
the iconic tilted shed
of Tilted Shed Ciderworks
where we'll introduce you
to Ellen Cavalli.
Ellen is a self anointed cider evangelist,
who, along with her husband, Scott Heath,
produce unique hard ciders.
With a production facility
in Windsor and by sourcing
organic apples from scarce orchards,
in what is typically
known as wine country,
we'll learn how what
started as a hobby gone wild
is now a thriving Sonoma County operation.
(cool jazz music)
Well, Ellen, it's great to be here
in front of your tilted shed.
- Well, thanks for coming to our farm.
It's really a pleasure to
have you here, Garrett.
- Hey, so I understand that
you are native to this area,
but you've traveled around the country
and finally ended back here to make cider.
Can you tell me a little bit about that?
- That's true, we're a bit of
nomadic agrarians, I think.
So, my husband, Scott and I
are originally from Alameda,
which is the East Bay.
But we had both moved to New York City
for separate reasons.
He to pursue print
making and his art career
and I was there for publishing.
And it was great and so fun.
It was a very creative place
to be in your early 20s,
but there was something really lacking.
So, we're trying to
think where do we go next
because we have a spirit of adventure
and we're a little bit impulsive.
And we're walking down the
street in the East Village
and we saw a guidebook just
on the side of the road here
and we picked it up
and it said New Mexico.
We're like, hmm, we should move there.
We went on a little road trip.
We went through Santa Fe.
We fell in love with it and in
one month we had moved there.
So, that's how we ended up
in New Mexico the first time.
And real briefly, we moved around again
a few other times.
We went back to the East Bay.
We went back to New Mexico.
Just sort of trying to
find where do we belong?
We're really trying to
find out how can we bridge
agriculture and culture?
You know, how can we get back to the land
and not drop out of society?
And still pursue our
art and our publishing,
but also learn how to grow food
and take care of ourselves
and take care of our land.
And so, we ended up in New Mexico again.
In Northern New Mexico and while there
we were doing a little farming
and there was this old orchard on site
and we're just like, there's
only so much applesauce
you can make, Garrett.
- [Garrett] That's right, that's right.
- [Ellen] There really is.
And so what do you do when you
have a bumper crop of apples?
You make cider.
- [Garrett] You ferment them.
- That's right and so what we did
is at that time, our
son was just an infant.
He was just about three months old,
I had him on my hip, I
picked up the apples,
I threw them in the hopper,
Scott ground them up,
he pressed the juice, put it in a carboy
and let it go over winter in our barn.
But our first effort at cider making
was really captivating.
There was something going on
that really got our attention.
And so, very shortly there
after, we moved back here
to Sonoma County because
we knew that Sebastopol
was a premier apple growing region
and we thought that it could be a premier
cider making region at the same time.
- So, in 2011, that's when
Tilted Shed got started
and you started making
cider professionally, right?
- That's right.
So, what we did is, we were
a really small operation
at the time.
We just had some really
just home built equipment
and we contacted a few local growers
and so we brought in
some apples to our cidery
and started pressing and
putting into fermentation tanks
and we got to 330 gallons and
Scott wanted to make more.
I'm like, no, like put on the brakes, man.
I've gotta be able to sell this stuff.
And I figured at 330
gallons, at least we could
like, drink it all in case
of the zombie apocalypse.
So, we put on the brakes,
but we were really surprised
by how well it was received
and actually we sold out really quickly.
It took off and it sort
of redoubled our efforts
to exploring cider here in Sonoma County.
So, if you look over here, I
brought a few from our farm,
which is where you're at.
And so, there's some like,
there's some cider apples
from France or England or old America.
And so these were apple varieties selected
through the centuries
specifically for cider.
And by that I mean hard cider.
You don't cook with them.
You don't eat them.
Trust me.
But you ferment them
and they transform into
something really beautiful,
really nuanced, really elegant.
- Can you tell me a little
bit about the process
for making cider?
- It's really basic.
We are growers ourselves.
We'll go out and harvest some apples
or our growers will bring in the bins.
Load them up to our cidery.
We have a bin dumper
and we put in the bins.
We take it to our sorting
area and we dump the apples,
sort of carefully out there
onto a nice long sorting table
and then it'll go through
this little washing process.
So, it's on a recirculating
filtration system
and it looks like a car wash for apples.
So, they go on this little conveyor belt
and they get washed and they go down
into a big tub of secondary rinse.
And then things are
still pretty old school.
We haven't automated
everything so this is where
I build up my muscles and
I'll get the milk crates
and I'll lift up the apples
from the secondary rinse
and then we have a grinder.
And what it does, is it shreds the apples,
skin and flesh and all, but not the seeds,
interestingly enough,
into a really fine pumice
that goes into a bucket below.
Then Scott has a modified shop press,
so we're still pretty do it yourself.
Basically you take some cloth.
You dump in some pumice.
You fold it up really nice
into a little envelope
and that's called the cheese.
You put a rack on top, build another one.
Do so about eight stacks high.
Then we have a 20 ton hydraulic jack
that we set up there, run by compressor
and that squeezes the juice.
The juice comes out into a bucket
and then we pump that into
the fermentation vessels.
- So, you have a lot
of property around here
and you have a lot of trees planted
that you grow and you harvest and you make
your cider off of your estate apples.
Do you also purchase
apples from other growers?
- Well, actually, we
purchase most of our apples.
So, our orchard here,
this is about 600 trees
that we've planted over
the past four years
and it's really young and
it doesn't yield a lot yet.
So, we do buy, I would
say 99% of our apples.
And there are a lot of growers still here.
Now, the apple industry has been hard hit
over the past 30 years.
We had about 3,000 acres
of commercial orchard
30 years ago and now
it's down to about 500.
However, there are people
starting to plant more orchards.
And the apples that do grow
here, a lot of our heirlooms,
like the Gravenstein,
the Jonathan, the Rome,
the Newtown Pippin,
they're beautiful apples
and they add a lot to cider.
And in fact, we should go visit
one of our apple orchards.
We have a great grower,
who's been doing about
five different varieties for us.
She's all organic.
And I'm actually doing a
tasting there tomorrow.
You should come along.
It'll be fun.
- Yeah, let's do it.
- Okay.
- Great.
Today we're here in
Sebastopol at an orchard
where Ellen sources some of
her apples for her cider.
- Hey, Garrett, welcome.
- Hey, look at this.
- So, yeah, this is Laura's orchard.
We're outside Sebastopol and
this is one of the historic
certified organic orchards
that we source our apples from.
What I just handed you is a Gravenstein.
- Great.
- And then, the other
apples you'll see here,
some are just dropped and
they're in really great shape.
Peak ripeness.
Those are going to go to our cider.
So, she's going to harvest those for us
and we'll bring it to our
cidery and press it really soon.
- And Ellen, you had mentioned a cider
and food pairing today.
- Oh, heck yes.
- Yeah.
- I have something
special planned for you.
- Alright.
- Picked some great local producers
to showcase some of their great products
made from local ingredients.
We're gonna pair that with the ciders
and it's gonna blow your mind.
- Sounds awesome.
- [Together] Let's do it.
- Alright, cool.
(upbeat music)
This looks great.
- Yeah, I know.
Isn't it beautiful?
Hey, guys, how're you doing?
So glad to see you.
I hope you really enjoy what
we have prepared for you today.
So, I brought a really special cider
to start off with.
And what's so special
about it is a lot of it
came from this very orchard.
It features 50% organic Gravenstein
and a blend of other
heirloom and traditional
tannic cider apples and
it's called Graviva.
And this is the party cider.
It's like viva la grav.
So, I thought it would be a great one
to get started with.
And while I'm starting the pour,
Garrett, maybe you can share a little bit
from your experience of principles
for pairing wine and food and see
if they relate to cider a little bit.
- Sure, sure, so with
wine and food, I mean,
sometimes you want
complimentary flavors, right.
So, something buttery going
with a buttery Chardonnay,
for instance.
Sometimes you want to highlight contrasts,
so you'll pick something with
a contrasting flavor profile.
And all of that is
great, but you know what
I think the most important thing about
pairing wine with food is?
Is enjoying what you're drinking.
Enjoying who it's with.
And enjoying the food you're eating
along with it altogether.
So, I think that's the most important part
of wine and food pairing.
How does that relate to cider?
- Absolutely the same.
I mean, what it is about, is pleasure
and sharing it with other people
and seeing what they think.
And there are some really
guiding principles,
but for the most part, this is subjective
and it's something to be explored
rather than, you know, instructed.
And so, what I want to
do today, is just sort of
explore some of my favorite pairings
and then see what you all think about it.
So, what I just poured for
you here, again, is Graviva.
And this is
a really pretty, lightly
sharp, acidic cider
with a good earthiness, has
some good effervescence.
And because of that, it
has a lot of versatility.
And what I particularly love to do
is pair it with some smoked local salmon.
So, really, you can't beat it.
It's a great combination.
And something very special that I wanted
to bring today are cheeses from
the Weirauch Farm and
Creamery in Petaluma.
So, these are friends of ours.
And the reason we know them
is because they have a flock
of about 150 dairy sheep
and what do sheep like to eat?
- [Voiceover] Apples.
- You got it, they love apples.
And so, what we do, is we save
all of the pressed apple
pumice from, you know,
that once it gets squeezed it's dried out,
but the sheep love it.
There's some really good sugars in there
and so the Weirauchs come
and they bring it back home
to their farm, they feed their dairy sheep
and in return we get some
beautiful sheep milk cheeses.
So, it's full circle.
So, what I would love for you to do,
is just give it a try
and see what you think
about the interplay of
flavors and textures.
Sometimes like and like attract
and sometimes opposites attract as well.
- Exactly, great, alright, well, cheers.
- [Group] Cheers.
(cool jazz music)
- It is so amazing to experience
the magical transformation
when foods are fermented.
Ellen and Scott of Tilted Shed Ciderworks
have a great reason to be evangelical
about their ciders.
They are, in Ellen's words, sublime.
I hope you'll join us next time
as we continue to experience
the magical transformation
when foods become Spoiled to Perfection.
- [Voiceover] Spoiled to
Perfection is brought to you by
Bubbies, see us online at bubbies.com
and remember to eat my
pickles, wear clean underwear
and marry a doctor.
