As the hilly roads of Bloomington unwind to a rustic barn setting, I instantly smell the fresh apples that lurk the air, and know I have arrived at Musgrave Orchard.
Amy and Andy Hamilton, along with their children Grace, Willa and Fennimore, are the helping hands at the orchard. Together they pick the apples, press the cider and greet customers at the shop.
They use the same cider press that was purchased in 1935. They press cider on site where customers can overlook the process. Musgrave also source their apples from a farm twenty miles up the road.
Amy often looks over and smiles at her children. Their youngest children Willa and Fennimore run up to the shop showing their mother what they picked in the field. Their oldest daughter greets customers in the shop. Meanwhile, Andy and several friends do the difficult work of pressing apples into cider in the barn.
What sets Musgrave apart from other orchards is tradition. "Tradition and the relationships that are formed is the payoff," says Amy. "The stories that fly through here, that is what makes this place important."
She tells stories about customers growing up and visiting the orchard with their families. She wants to preserve that experience for future generations.
"You have to take care of what you have, or else everything would be condos or gas stations. We have a job to preserve it," she says.