In 2015, Blue Bee Cider and our distributor, Virginia Winery Distribution Company, co-hosted our first seminar about the roles of African Americans in our cider history. There are a few stories directly linking African Americans and cider, but for the most part we have to dig deeper to make the connections. Professor Sarah Meacham at VCU is a tremendous resource for this. Her book Every Home a Distillery is on our recommended reading list.
From Sarah’s research we know that alcohol production was often a side gig for enslaved people, one which paid well. Learning to make cider and spirits could become the means to earn enough money to buy one’s freedom. From Monticello’s records, we know that Jupiter Evans, one of Jefferson’s most trusted, yet still enslaved, servants was the only person Jefferson really trusted with the annual cidermaking production. One of Albemarle CiderWorks’ most treasured ciders, Jupiter’s Legacy, is named for him. By piecing together records from Appomattox Plantation, just south of Richmond, we are also able to follow the story of James Madison Ruffin. Madison, as he was known, was an emancipated slave who managed many agricultural projects before and after the Civil War, including the planting and maintenance of Appomattox Plantation’s apple orchards and its cider fruit.
These stories are our launching pad. We need more of them. As our seminar discussion opened up in 2015, we came to learn about an 80-plus year-old African American woman who has been making cider in Richmond since she was a child. She is the original urban cidermaking woman in our town, not me! I was delighted to learn more about her and her traditions.
Cider as an industry is just beginning to have these conversations about where our craft comes from and where it is going. Having conversations with a wide circle of people who love it now and have loved it in the past enriches the experience of our traditional and shared foodways. I hope that you join us in our next cider conversation!
-Courtney Mailey
Photo: The Winter White Pearmain was one of the apple varieties grown at Appomattox Plantation.
