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Kingfield couple brings cider to local taps

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Marie Daigle and Daniele Gassett of Orchard Girls Cidery.

KINGFIELD – What started as a love for cider has developed into a blossoming business for a couple in Kingfield, and is only picking up speed as it heads into its third year.

“I was just sitting on my porch looking at the apple trees by the playground, they had never been pruned or anything so they were technically organic, and I just thought: I need to make some cider,” Marie Daigle said. “I put out an APB to my friends and 36 hours later I had a press.”

Daigle and her partner Daniele Gassett got to work starting Orchard Girls Cidery. For Daigle, it was a learning process from the start, but Gassett had worked for years at a vineyard in Virginia where he had formal trainings on the process of making alcoholic beverages.

The couple continued hand cranking the apples on the porch of their a-frame in Carrabassett Valley, even through snowstorms. Since that back porch operation two years ago the couple have gone from making three-gallon batches to 200 gallons.

“After that first batch we decided to stick with it and make it a thing,” Daigle said. “We knew we were making a good thing, but how do you take something you make and get it out to the people?”

There are only a handful of local cider brewers, which was part of the driving force behind the couple’s idea. They couldn’t get their hands on any good cider to drink at home- one of their favorite past times. So they started driving to the local orchard and filling L.L.Bean bags with as many apples as they could.

“It was always just the two of us,” Gassett said, although the couple also said they couldn’t have gotten to this point without the community’s support.

Kegs of Orchard Girls are now in nine different locations throughout Maine, and Daigle and Gassett are working on refurbishing an old farmhouse on Main Street into a tasting room. The location will also include a commercial kitchen for them to operate out of. The couple is constantly working on streamlining the process, with the hopes of eventually hiring more employees.

“It’s not entirely about us. We’re doing it in Kingfield for a reason. We want to see the economy grow here,” Gassett said.

Orchard Girls now offers three regular kinds of their English-style cider: Idunn, Amoreena and LaDame Rouge. Idunn is a lemon ginger cider, Amoreena a basic apple cider with local honey and LaDame Rouge uses cranberries in the mix, straight from a bog in Maine. They use real fruits that are fermented directly in the barrels with the apples. They also plan to offer some seasonal recipes, such as blackberry, blueberry and raspberry.

Find Orchard Girls Cidery on Facebook here.

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7 Comments

  1. It would be nice to see ice cider made. I buy it in Quebec, and it is delicious.

  2. Is this available anywhere local? It would be wonderful to know where we could try some!

  3. The cider is offered in 9 different locations in Maine? The LaDame Rouge sounds great. Where can I pick some up?

  4. We have made some ice cider! It was delicious! We have not gone to a mass production level… yet:)

  5. Local places where you can try it include Uno Mas in Farmington, Sugarbowl and 45 North in Carrabassett Balley, Cushnoc in Augusta, The Harbor Room in New Harbor, Alisson’s in Kennebunkport, and Mason’s in Brewer.

  6. Very interesting. We have made cider from pears or a mix of apples and pears or apples and grapes.

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