A Taste of History at Uncle John’s Cider Mill

But the 60s and the 70s as people's attitudes on where they bought

their food changed, The apple market became a lot smaller.

tougher to work within.

And that's when we decided to go to a full retail farm operation rather

than a wholesale farm operation.

in the sixties and seventies was the advent of big grocery stores.

That's, That's what changed was the people's buying habits.

They didn't go to the farmer anymore.

They didn't go to the farmer's market.

Hello everyone.

Welcome back to Total Michigan where we interview ordinary Michiganders

doing some pretty extraordinary things.

I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois.

Well, you blinked.

You missed it.

Summer's over.

And we're now into the fall season.

And one of the things that Michigan always gears up to do this time

of the year, which is absolutely wonderful, is we get to get out and

we start enjoying apple ciders, apple orchards, caramel apples, hard ciders,

whatever, whatever you want to do.

But it's that time of year to celebrate this beautiful time of the year.

With that, we're actually at one of the top ranked cider mills

in the state of Michigan, thanks to the Pure Michigan website.

And that would be Uncle John's Cider Mill.

Located in St.

Johns, Michigan.

Today, I'm sitting with Mike Beck, one of the owners of Uncle John's Cider Mill.

Mike, how are you?

Good morning.

Very well.

Excellent.

So

so Mike, tell us a little bit.

Where are you from?

Where did you grow up?

Uh, I grew up right here in St.

John's on the farm.

Attended the local high school.

Went to school at a mid Michigan college called Ferris State.

Go Bulldogs

So you said you grew up here So did your family initially

start Uncle John's Cider Mill?

Yes, my parents started the Uncle John's Cider Mill part.

But I am fifth generation grower at this farm

What is the appeal to staying with the family business versus

going out and like, man, I've been exposed to apples all my life.

I want to be an accountant or something like that.

Oh, you get, you know, a little bit more freedom.

There's an off season for sure.

Uh, you know, where there isn't as much to do.

That's kind of nice.

And then just the ability here to just use our crops as our own, on our own.

We don't rely on anyone to, uh, What we grow or, uh, or anything like that.

So it's, it's up to us.

And if if we can do it, it's great.

And with all the things we do, we can move plenty of our own crops.

So let's take a step back here for a second.

Because you said you're fifth generation.

So talk to us about the history of Uncle John's Cider.

When did it come into your family's possession?

Who's Uncle John?

Uh, yeah, okay.

My dad is Uncle John?

He, uh, like I said, my parents started a retail part, Uncle

John's Cider Mill in 71.

Uh, And it was just as simple as doing fresh cider, uh, which was a new value

added product for us, and donuts.

And it's simply grown from there.

Cider and donuts is a great tradition in Michigan.

Just something that a lot of families do in the fall.

You know, get out there and put on your favorite sweatshirt

and go to a cider mill.

Yeah.

That's, uh, that was kind of the whole premise.

So we knew we actually had a great location right here in US-127 to

be a premier, uh, cider mill stop.

Because, because of the location and the acreage that we have to do it in.

typical farm back there, uh,

your typical farm back there you know, five generations ago, which

And they, you know, they were focused on all sorts of farming.

Yes, apples was a big part of it.

But, uh, they had, uh, you know, animals here and, and other things

just to have a, a sustainable farm back in back in those times.

But uh as as the farm matured apples and apples became more of a primary crop

for us because we uh this uh kind of elevation that we have in here in St.

John's as far as one of the few hills in St John's around the flatland.

We have an ideal grow apple growing area great soil for it.

So We became one of the larger producers way back when in the 50s

and sold apples to Eastern Market down at the Benton Harbor Terminal

Market, Lansing City Market, and grocery chains across the state.

But the 60s and the 70s as people's attitudes on where they bought

their food changed the apple market became a lot smaller.

tougher to work within.

And that's when we decided to go to a full retail farm operation rather

than a wholesale farm operation.

that, was it because people just wanted to know where their product was coming from?

People didn't care where it was coming from.

They were going to the, you know, the, well, it was the, in the fifties or

pardon me, in the sixties and seventies was the advent of big grocery stores.

That's, That's what changed was the people's buying habits.

They, they didn't go to the farmer anymore.

They didn't go to the farmer's market.

There was these new places that had refrigeration.

And they had milk next to the produce and they had, you know, so

people's buying habits changed with the advent of large grocery stores.

Where did your, where did your parents, because you said your parents

started the retail store and selling the apple cider to, you know, just

the public to get them to come here.

Where did that idea come from?

Uh, well, you know,

Well, you know, there was a nice push for the local MSU extension agent at the time.

Had seen this being, happening around the Detroit cider mills

because there was, uh, around Detroit was a great apple growing region.

But it lost out to the suburbs.

A lot of those places went full of retail, uh, years before.

And, uh, he noticed that could work at a, well here, just because for

one, we have a great highway location.

Yeah.

It is very easy to get here because it's a 127.

That's just right over there.

And people

Call for

and they're here.

Yes.

And at what point did, cause I know this is an experiment, right?

Let's try something new.

Let's see if we can get people through the door.

I, the question for you is like, at what point in time was it, you know, the

family said, Holy cow, this is working.

People are coming here.

I'd say by the late 70s.

It was really starting to to make a big difference, you know, we were

having to take out orchard at that point to make room just for parking.

Trees take up a lot of space and so do cars.

So and when you start getting as many as we do on a weekend now It

really takes up a lot of space.

So, a lot of our good growing ground has been devoted to just parking area.

And we can probably fit three Walmarts in our parking lot.

Three Walmart parking

It's

Yeah.

And now when you talk about the season, typically when, when did

you, when do you see the big spike?

When does it happen?

So people, you know, we're open Memorial Day to, uh, uh, Christmas Eve.

But, the real brunt of the business comes from Labor Day to Halloween.

yeah, because that's when most people are thinking apple cider and, and, and the

apple, apple cider donuts and things like that is when it gets to be time for fall.

Yeah.

Now, the next question I got is, your place is huge.

Okay.

Okay, and I was looking at the map earlier and I was just blown away at

just everything that you got here.

This is kind of like an amusement park So to speak.

So talk to us about you know, cuz first you said it started off with

cider right bringing the people here.

But all sudden now there's like a playground for the kids.

You've got this you got the corn maze You've got we haven't

talked about the hard cider yet.

So so talk to us about expanding this and making it more of

an like an amusement park

Right.

Well, yeah, uh, we figured that if there was more entertainment for

them to do, there might, you know, more keep, keep people here longer.

So yeah, we have, uh, all the time, uh, a jumping pill right behind

you that's open all year round, uh, that, or at least when we're open.

We have wagon rides and a train.

Uh, We have, uh, you pick pumpkins, you pick flowers, corn maze, which

this year is the, uh, 75th anniversary of The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

And that's kind of unique.

Uh, We're the only one in Michigan with a, I think that, uh, with that

corn maze, cause that was a license, something we had to get licensed.

A big nature walk and farm walk that you can do.

We have the gemstone mining, we have a big gift shop, a big bakery.

The hard cider for the adults.

Uh, And we also do spirits too and wine.

So there's, uh, Something for everyone here.

Uh, whether if you just want to get out and connect with nature or if you

want to Take a tour and do a ride.

Uh, or just play on the on the playground equipment.

There's just something for fun for everyone to do.

just something for fun for everyone to do.

apple cider.

Now you have all these facilities here, but you said you got

like three Walmart parking

Yeah, Yeah, yeah,

there, there are certain days that we're expecting 11, 12, 13, maybe

even 14, 000 people here in a, in a

one day.

day.

That is amazing.

Yeah, I absolutely love that.

So as you're doing this adventure, you're expanding the park, you're

bringing in more of these activities.

And I do want to go back to the corn maze here.

But at some point in time, you took a look at hard ciders.

Because it seems like over the past few years, the popularity

for hard ciders has just exploded.

So talk to us about making the decision to go that route.

Well, yeah, I was visiting all these wineries in Northwest

and Southwest Michigan.

And they were doing some great things with grape wines.

And I just thought to myself, why is no one doing this with apples and hard cider?

Creating this wonderful experience at the, at the winery.

That the wine regions were doing and bringing that here to my farm.

So, 21 years ago, we got licensed uh, to start making hard cider and spirits.

And, uh, it's been a great way to use up all the apple crop that we make.

And, uh, it also gives us, uh, the ability to have some income outside of the

season of our, of when people are here.

So, uh, it was, uh, it's a great way to, make the farm more sustainable.

And when you talk about, you know, having it more accessible, is this

stuff that you can sell online?

Do you've got, like, a membership?

Because I, and I say this because a lot of the wineries in Traverse

City have, like, memberships.

So, I mean, is this something that you're able to do online?

Yeah.

well, we, it is available online through, uh, not our website I forget

what the name of the website is, but mostly it's available through, uh,

all the stores throughout, you know, Michigan, uh, we're, uh, in, in all

your uh, typical grocery stores.

Or, well, not the big box ones, but so we're sold on the, on the

wholesale market as well as you can buy it here, and we do have a link

online for the seller that sells it

Sure.

that wants to get it out of state.

Sure.

And so, with your, you know, You're seizing and you're talking

about here about 14, 000 people.

Let's talk about the employees.

How do you manage 14, 000 people coming through here in a day?

Uh, It takes a lot of work.

But there's certain, on those days, we'll have at least

90 people on the clock helping us manage it.

We'll have at least 24 different cash register stations where, you know,

so we try to make it easy for you.

And, uh, and even though the line might look long, it goes really fast.

Because we were really, we really learned how to handle those busy times,

Certainly.

Stress

test moments, as they say.

Is there any, because I know you get so many people through here and

you've seen so much over the years.

Is there like maybe one or two instances that kind of stand out

to you where like a family had like a really special moment here?

uh we you know, plenty of family members have, uh, maybe tied the

knot here as far as that goes or, or, no, we do not do weddings at all.

It's just, You know, personal things.

Uh, but we actually, we've seen just a lot of people propose

here and things like that.

We've done lots of, we've helped with lots of proposals and things like

there's lots of

lots of people that fell in love here and that's kind of fun.

and neat.

Awesome.

For our audience we're going to take a quick break and thank our sponsors.

When we come back, we're going to talk to Mike

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communit

Hello everyone and welcome back to tonal michigan where we interview

ordinary michiganders doing some pretty extraordinary things I'm

your host cliff duvenois today.

We're at uncle john's cider mill in st John's michigan talking to mike back one

of the owners here and mike for the break.

We were talking about Really how your family just took?

You an apple orchard and kind of turned it into a major attraction that brings

according to what you were sharing with us, 14, 000 people in one day,

which is still absolutely amazing.

What I would like to do is I would like to talk about, because your

parents were the owners once and now it's, it's passed on to this new

generation coming in your generation.

If you would talk to us about maybe some of the, some of the

challenges or some of the growth opportunities that you had stepping

into the role of becoming an owner.

well yeah, there's there's always challenges.

I mean, you know, the first one's always financial.

You gotta buy what you're doing.

So I mean, there's always a financial part of it.

But also probably the one of the biggest challenges is just new regulations.

They get tougher and tougher for farmers.

And there's, you know, not a great amount of profit for what farmers do.

So it's as the regulations get tougher.

The margins go down.

of stresses the importance of making sure that your retail side of your business,

the selling of the iters and the caramel apples and the maize and stuff like

that is a hit and gets people out here.

Yeah.

Okay.

And when it comes to the regulations, is it always just something where

it's like, You just kind of like shake your head and go, Oh, I can't

believe we have to do that now.

now.

Yeah, that's typically the case.

I mean, it's, yeah, uh, so.

and and, you know, a lot of them are, are sometimes laws that are meant to do good.

But they inadvertently, inadvertently, uh, put, uh, more stress on, uh, the

letter of the law ends up being more stressful than the intent of the law.

one of the things that I would like to also do Mike is I want to explore

because I can imagine there's a lot of people that maybe hadn't been here Right.

They're looking for some cider places to go and they're like, you know what?

I'd like to check out Uncle John.

So first off, where did the name uncle John's come from?

Uh, well, uh, my dad is named John.

And when, uh, uh, they were cleaning out the big barn, there were, uh,

my, uh, cousins were, uh, asking my, uh, my dad, well, what are you gonna

call your cider mill, Uncle John?

What are you gonna, what are you gonna call your cider mill?

And so, they settled on Uncle John's Cider Mill.

simple enough.

And now when people do come here, what can they expect?

Um, well, it depends on the season.

Uh, uh, there's times a year where you can drive up right almost to the front

door and go, go inside and purchase the things that you might want.

And then there's times where it's a absolute zoo here.

It's, uh, uh, kind of like going to a football game.

There's, you know, big parking lot.

And hopefully you can find this place to park and, uh, and then

you start, you know, playing.

looking around and trying to find the entrance and where you're supposed to go.

So, uh, uh, but yeah, the, the busy times are, you know, typically limited

to September and October and on weekends.

So, uh, uh, but it's, uh, there's just a lot going on.

It's like when you get here, it's like a, a festival almost,

uh, at least in the fall.

And, uh, uh, there's wagons running one way and trains running the other.

And, uh, People out in the pumpkin patch or corn maze and we're just

in line to get cider and doughnuts

And because there's so many, I mean, I, when I walk around here and I see

so many different activities, there's literally something for everybody here.

yeah, yeah, so yeah, we have nice playground for the kids.

And the gemstone mining.

And Uh, there's a, another, uh, playground where they can go climb on tractors.

And there's pedal tractors to play with.

So there's several different amusement areas.

We also have a nice nature walk.

Um, uh, you can pick pumpkins, you can pick flowers.

So there's just a lot of great family activities to do.

And talk to us about some of the events that are coming

Sure, sure.

I know next weekend, uh, is our, uh, one of our craft shows.

Uh, and then also, uh, we do several 5K runs through the year.

And, uh, high school cross country events.

So, uh, uh, kind of a, you know, it lets people use our farm in a different way.

through the apple

Yes.

when you said, about the

Yeah, we have around 300 acres, which makes plenty of

room to make a 5K within that.

And, or a cross country route, uh, for the high school.

And, uh, so yeah, we, uh, we host quite a few of those events, uh, uh,

for, you know, and it gets, you know, it's a safe place for people to do it.

They're not on the road.

And, uh, uh, they get to see a lot of, you know, unique agriculture as a run

through the orchard and pumpkin patch.

Oh, I bet.

And going back to, 'cause you said it was like a lot of the high

schools do cross country here.

How important is that to be involved with the community?

It's great, yeah, the local coaches love it.

Because they they can host an event here locally.

There's plenty of parking for everyone.

And there's even you know For the people that are, uh, not as interested in maybe

the event, they can go up and get their cider and donuts while they're here.

So it's, uh, it's a great way to, for the local coaches to, uh, host some

unique, uh, cross country events.

And, uh, puts, uh, Mid Michigan on the map as a great place for cross country.

One of the things you brought up earlier and I do want to make sure

that we go back and talk about it is you licensed the Peanuts so you can

make that corn maize which according to that map over there is intricate it is

detailed and it is huge talk to us about

Yeah, our corn maker, our corn maze is over 10 acres in size.

And, uh, yeah, uh, you can easily, there's different routes you can take.

You can take the long route or there's a short route.

But, uh, yeah, you can spend at least an hour in there trying to find your

way in and back out of the maze.

And it is licensed, uh, uh, as the, uh, only Peanuts, uh, corn maze in and I

think in this state anyway, uh, where we could do The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.

And we have some, uh, in our gift shop, we have some accompanying gifts that

kind of match up with this year, uh, of The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.

This is the 75th anniversary of that.

Where did the idea come from to do that?

Well, it was actually, it was proposed to us, we, we hire a company to

do the actual design in the corn.

And so, uh, they, uh, I was such a thing.

Oh yeah, there's actually, uh, probably a half dozen of them across the

country, of companies that, uh, That, that, that cut corn mazes for people.

So, uh, uh, yeah, the, the company that, that cuts our corn maze regularly,

uh, was able to team up with, uh, with the Peanuts gang and, uh, and

offer this to, uh, certain corn mazes.

And, uh, since we're one of the more busier ones, they,

that was an ideal situation.

So.

Perfect.

Now when we talk about building out a corn maze, is it something

where you just Plant a bunch of corn over 10 acres and then have them

come in and carve a maze or is it?

You

know, That is

together and construct walls.

Yes, that is exactly How it's done.

They, uh, uh, over that maze area, and they do this when the corn is only,

you know, less than three inches tall.

They set up a grid, uh, a wire grid on the whole field.

And, uh, they do it just like you would in art class.

Uh, go from a little grid to a big grid.

And, uh, cut the maze that way.

Uh, so it's, it's really, uh, it's really interesting.

But, uh, yeah.

And it only takes 'em, uh, maybe six hours at best.

Right, yeah, cuz they just have to come in here and then set it up.

And then because the corn does not grow six feet

Yeah when, well, yes, because they basically remove the corn that's in

the spot where the, uh, design is.

And, uh, the rest of the corn grows up in the, in the walkways.

Uh, we just have to mow them maybe once or twice a summer just to

keep the weeds down or something like that within the walkways.

Sure.

Now, if somebody is coming here for the first time, what would

be some recommendations for you?

And I know everything here is super good.

I was drooling when I was walking through that bake

Yeah.

everything just just looks good.

It just smells good.

But what would be some things that you would say?

You know what?

Try this.

Um, well, we're well known for our fresh cider.

We've won both national and state championships, uh, with it.

Um, uh, Our donuts are, uh, some of the best cider mill type donuts you can find.

Uh, we, we use our own unique special blend that you can't find anywhere else.

And, uh, so cider and donuts being the big one.

Uh, But I also, our hard cider has won.

major awards uh, uh, across the country and, uh, and in other countries.

Um, So, and we, you know, we have institutional knowledge.

When, when I first started hard cider, there was a half a dozen

cider use in the whole country.

So, uh, we just, we found out what, what it needed to take good site,

make good hard cider, and, uh, we've been following that recipe ever since.

And, uh, it's some of the best you can find.

So that's gotta be a real source of pride knowing that your cider is winning awards

and your hard cider is winning awards.

Oh yes, and you know it's, it's really no secret.

It's, uh, it's just high quality fruit.

Some people are not willing to spend the money to put the best

fruit into those processed products.

They tend to put them into bags and put them on, uh, the store shelf where we

will actually take the highest quality fruit to make cider and hard cider.

just Uncle John's hard cider?

Do you've got different flavors of it?

Because I know you've got a lot of cans in there.

Yes, we have lots of different flavors where we've, uh, you know,

you've got your standard ciders that just have apples in it.

Then we've got fruit ciders.

And then we have some specialty ciders where you've got spices and,

and uh, other unique ingredients.

So, uh, Uh, And we also have spirits to mead and wine.

But, uh, yeah, so lots of different cider flavors that you can try.

And then for this, for the ciders and the stuff that you do come up

with, do you have like a brewmaster on the payroll that takes care of

Uh, well, that's my job.

Uh, But, uh, but, you know, it's, uh, like I said, it's just a matter

of knowing fruit and we just have great institutional knowledge.

I'm knowing what great fruit is

Yeah, And you've had 21 years of experience.

Yeah, nice.

And so now, Mike, if somebody is listening to this, they

want to come and check you out.

Uh, stop by, see what this is all about.

Maybe sample some of that award winning cider or hard cider.

What's, what's the best way for them to find you, check you out, find you online?

Uh, so our website, www.

ujcidermill.

com, uh, you can pretty much find everything on there.

Uh, but if you're driving around and don't want to get online, uh, we are

located right on 127, almost halfway between Mount Pleasant and Lansing.

And, uh, so, uh, easy to find.

Our driveway is right on the highway.

You don't even have to take an exit.

And before you know it, you're right up in our parking lot.

So, uh, uh, Yeah, real easy to find and, uh, and find us on the web too.

And we also have a social media presence.

I know we have at least a Facebook and Instagram page and things like that.

Mike, thank you so much for taking time to chat with us today.

Really appreciate it.

For our audience, you can always roll on over to TotalMichigan.

com and click on Mike's interview and get all the links that he mentioned above.

We'll see you next time when we talk to another Michigander doing

some pretty extraordinary things.

We'll see you then.