Lansing’s hard cidery ‘Molley Chomper’ is writing a new chapter in the centuries-long history of Appalachian cider making. This beloved cidery has become just as much about stewarding resources to help a community flourish as running a successful family business.
Fleur Robinson / Contributor | Photography by Ken Robinson
Cidery owners Kate and Tim Arscott have not only carved out a niche in small-scale agriculture but have found themselves at the center of a revival of the region’s ancient cider-making heritage. Now in the 10th year since their first apple cider pressing, the Arscotts are glad they made the move from Atlanta, Georgia, to Lansing, North Carolina, seeking a quieter life with their young family. Initially buying a 5-acre farm with a 1900s red farmhouse, the couple studied up on how to make small scale farming profitably sustainable and settled on cider-making.
A Family’s Journey: From City Life to Apple Farming in the Blue Ridge
“We came to cider and fruit wine as a way to make a small-scale farm work,” Kate says. She was already a cider drinker, and Tim was born on a citrus, coffee and cattle farm in Jamaica. Having worked in business consulting and fundraising, their strengths and experience synced perfectly for the many challenges the new business would face.
After planting hundreds of apple trees on their newly acquired property (named Bent Apple Farm) in 2011, the couple were excited for their first official apple pressing in 2015. They had taken cider-making classes and done lots of research. However, they soon realized that in order to be sustainable, they would need a lot more apples than they could grow on their property.
From Forgotten Orchards to Award-Winning Cider: The Story of Molley Chomper
Enter the Lansing community’s centuries-old legacy of cider making and apple growing.
“We basically gathered apples from the back hills and the hollers that are around us because there’s a gazillion apple trees out here,” Kate says. “We made our first batch of cider, and called it ‘Mountain Maelstrom’. We took it to a huge gathering, had people try it and people liked it.”
Cider-making has a long history in the early years of the United States, being the first and most popular alcoholic drink in both 17th and 18th centuries, before being overtaken by whiskey, bourbon, varieties of (sometimes deadly) moonshines, and eventually beer. Tim points out that Johnny Appleseed was not just a spreader of apple seeds but also a hard cider-maker.
PLAN YOUR VISIT to MOLLEY CHOMPER | molleychomper.com
Unbeknown to the Arscotts, the area they had moved to was not only dotted with apple trees of cider variety, but was also home to a couple of agricultural scientists – Ron and Suzanne Joyner – who have spent most of their lives dedicated to saving, propagating and distributing ancient Appalachian apple varieties at their home, Big Horse Creek Apple Farm.
How Molley Chomper Supports Small Orchards and Heirloom Apple Preservation
It was as if the ingredients of the business were all preassembled, just waiting for someone with Kate and Tim’s commitment, passion and dedication to combine them and start a whole new chapter of Appalachian cider-making.
“The cidery began as an extension of our farm and a desire to make a new way of life that kept us closer to our home, family and food,” Kate explains. “It has grown into a community of orchards and small farms. We believe cider and fruit wines should be a force for good in small-scale agriculture.”
At just the right time, a former winery became available at Lansing’s historic school site, so the couple established the Molley Chomper cidery there.
Kate says the Joyners have been a great resource, as well as the local landowners who gladly provide apples to the Molley Chomper. Many cider apples are different to culinary apples, and many of the old trees here in the hills are cider varieties. Despite beer being cheaper to produce, cider-making is seeing a comeback in the US, and the Molley Chomper is now one of 35 cideries in the state of North Carolina.
The Art and Science Behind Molley Chomper’s Unique Cider Blends
Although they now have over 1200 of their own apple trees at Bent Tree Farm, Kate and Tim’s business model has been a boon for owners of land with neglected or abandoned apple trees growing on them. However, their ideal growers are run by enthusiasts or apple preservationists with heirloom varieties who are willing to care for their trees. A great example is Emmaus Orchard in Glendale Springs, as well as friends in Avery County who focus on old time mountain varieties.
“We’ve become an outlet for some of the small orchards. A lot of the orchards that we use are very tiny because we like to have a relationship with them in how they grow their apples. So hopefully we’re providing a little income for some of those. And hopefully we’re also promoting some of the apple varieties that maybe would have died out or remained unknown too.
“When you go to the grocery store, there’s like six or seven varieties of apples. But when you really start growing apples and talking to everyone, there are thousands of varieties of apples out there and they are all different. This year we pressed over 100 apple varieties and they’re all different. They taste different and they feel different. We are wanting certain levels of sweetness, bitterness, and acidity. Some apples even have smoky qualities to them and others are very fruity. So we’re basing what we want to go into the cider because we know we want a certain level of acid in the cider at the end. So we’re buying apples in that same way, because we’re always trying to find a certain balance.”
When the Arscotts buy the apples, they don’t have to be ‘picture perfect’ like culinary apples.
“We want them as ripe as possible, with all those starches converted to sugars, and all those flavor compounds fully developed. And so when we work with orchards, that’s what we’re always asking: ‘Please, please leave them on the tree. We know they’re going to start to drop. We know that you’re going to have to do pickups and pick more often, but we are willing to pay a good price for cider apples that are fully, fully ripe’.”
Once the apples are juiced, the fermentation process starts and can take anywhere from three months to a year. Once fermentation reaches the desired flavor profile, blending trials start. The final product can also include other local fruits, like blueberries.
Lansing’s Molley Chomper Cidery: A Beacon After Hurricane Helene
When Hurricane Helene carved her way through the territory in September 2024, wreaking havoc with excessive rains and wind, the Arscott’s farm was largely spared, but many neighbors in their close knit community were devastated. The Molley Chomper lost power for 36 hours but once it was back on, a cadre of volunteers initially led by Tim’s mom and their employee Emma, banded together to use the cidery as a hub for providing hot soup and supplies for those hardest hit. The Arscotts themselves helped replant numerous neighbors’ apple trees that had been toppled or displaced in landslides, as well as mudding out shops damaged by flooding in Lansing’s main street.
Disasters aside, the whole business is very fulfilling.
“Selecting the apple tree, digging in the dirt, watching that tree grow, nurturing it, getting so excited when you’re harvesting your first apples off this tree you’ve been raising, all the way through to making the cider is so satisfying. We bottle it here, we label it here. We have the blending room, the tasting room and I drive down to Raleigh to do the deliveries. We’re seeing people’s reactions to the cider that we’re making because we get that whole process view. I think if we were only doing the tail end of the production, [like many cideries] it wouldn’t have the same satisfaction.”
Plan Your Visit to Molley Chomper’s Cidery and Tasting Room
As tourists trickle back into the region that is putting itself back together after Helene, the Molley Chomper is a place they can literally taste the history of the Appalachian mountains thanks to people like the Arscotts who are continuing its rich heritage and making its legacy accessible.
The cidery hosts events, has a bar serving hard cider and local wines, and a tasting room that is open Wednesday through Sundays. Visit molleychomper.com for more details.