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TAKE ONE
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Gardener News
October, 2014
Serving the Agricultural, Gardening and Landscaping Communities GARDENERNEWS.COM
TAKE ONE No. 138
Think of cider as drinking your apple! By Tom Castronovo Executive Editor
Tom Castronovo/Photo
George Melick, Jr. gets ready to apply apple mash onto his family farm’s apple press.
His name is George Melick, Jr. and he’s a Hunterdon County farmer. His farm is Melick’s Town Farm. His family’s farming roots date back to the 1730s. He is also the father to Gardener News featured columnist Peter Melick. His wife is Norma and he has two other children, John and Rebecca. An entire ninth and 10th generation of family farmers. Early settlers brought apple seeds to the continent and started the first apple orchards. In 1938, George’s father George Melick, Sr. (1905-1954) planted apple trees on his New Jersey farm. In 1964, Melick, Jr. thought it was great idea to add a cider mill to the farm. The more he learned about cider and cider making, the more he fell in love with it. Fifty years ago, Melick, Jr., saw an opportunity to expand his orchard’s offerings and converted an unused barn on his property to an apple cider mill. Melick, Jr. said that the family recipe does not include using any preservatives or added sugar, and uses cold pasteurization (using UV light) to maintain the highest quality cider and retain the flavor. They produce an allnatural cider (Cont. on pg. 17)