It’s a Family Tradition
Apple Cider Making with the McCrackens
Bronwyen McCracken and husband Nick, along with two kids, Brenna, 12, and John Cole, 6, have been residents in the Fox Run neighborhood for four years, but Bronwyen grew up in the North Carolina mountains. In 1973 her parents, Dennis and Marilene Cole found the cider press on the front porch of a cabin that was going to be torn down. Bronwyen’s dad purchased it for $8, and a tradition was born.
The first time Bronwyen and her parents made apple cider with the (circa 1866) press was around 1980. Bronwyen’s mom got a bunch of apples from a cousin who ran an apple orchard in Hendersonville, N.C., and they cleaned and cored apples and laboriously cranked the first batch of cider into jugs they’d saved and cleaned.
Over the years, neighbors, friends, and family joined in on the cider-making with the Cole family, and it turned into a tradition with quite the following from the community. Once, they even pressed 50 gallons of apple cider! After Bronwyen grew up, she continued the tradition with her own family, always spending the day at her parents’ home near Asheville, NC, to make the cider. One year, Bronwyen’s daughter, Brenna, was in kindergarten and talked about making cider so much at school, three kindergarten classes came to the Cole house to see how to make it!
The first year the McCracken family moved to Kingsport, they traveled back to N.C. to make the cider. In 2019, Bronwyen and her family traveled back to N.C. to get the cider press and bring it to Kingsport. Bronwyen’s parents, Dennis and Marilene, now come to the McCracken house to help with the cider press. This past October, many neighbors, including the Lively and the Schmitz families, helped, along with Dennis and Marilene.
The day started early and with 10 boxes of various types of apples, all from the family orchard in N.C. The crew washed the apples twice, quartered the fruit, then took it to the 5-foot-long press. Someone poured the apples into the hopper at the top, and someone else started cranking. The cranking is where the most help is needed — what a workout! After that, the apples end up in a wooden basket with a cover that presses the juice out through a filter and into the jugs. The final product is just juice — no preservatives, no pasteurization. It is definitely an all-natural product and meant to be shared — 20 gallons were made this year!
Over the past three years, the word has gotten out about the cider-making tradition in Fox Run. Bronwyen’s mom always makes warm chicken tortilla soup to feed everyone. “She uses it as bait!” quipped Bronwyen. Mostly, fun and fellowship are what keep people coming back. Bronwyen is proud to carry on the family tradition.