Bardos Cider - Gleaning Fruit From Abandoned Orchards

Colin Blackshear and Aaron Brown of Bardos Cider are my guests for this episode. This is their first podcast, and I’m honored to be able to spread the word about what the remarkable work they are doing. They have built Bardos Cider since 2019 to a significant production, of over 150 barrels, by gleaning fruit from abandoned, forgotten, and derelict old orchards from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

These trees have learned to survive only on the winter rains and despite human neglect, and this has made their fruit all the more exciting with age. Working with them has connected Aaron and Colin to the history of this land in some very meaningful and even spiritual ways. They clearly have a humility and respect for the wisdom of these elder beings, and through cider they have begun to realize a larger responsibility they have to protect and preserve these orchards.

So often wine and cider are produced from an egotistical standpoint. I decided I wanted to make a certain kind of wine or cider, so I found or planted vineyards or orchards to meet my specifications and invested my will and desires and resources into bringing my ego-vision to reality. When this is my approach, is the wine or cider that I end up with really a reflection of the terroir, or just my ego? Colin and Aaron of Bardos Cider remind me that there is another approach. I could instead look to work in service of what already is thriving without my ego, despite that it may not be what I thought I wanted or intended. I could work to highlight and preserve the beautiful work that was already being done before me, and that will continue on once I’m gone. Could this lead to a truer reflection of place? And if I applied this approach to my life more broadly, is this the kind of perspective that could lead to abundance?

https://www.bardoscider.com/

Sponsor:

https://www.centralaswine.com/

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