Raising Cane Ranch

We wanted to let everyone know Riverview Road Cidery (at Raising Cane Ranch) will be opening Friday, June 19th for the 2026 season. The tasting room will run weekends through most of October. We're thinking our hours will be: Friday 4-8 pm, Saturday 12-8 pm, and Sunday 12-5 pm. Stay tuned for monthly Trucks-n-Tunes and other fun events!

The 2026 Trucks-n-Tunes schedule is out! This season, we will be accepting donations for the Snohomish Food Bank again. Come on out for a great evening for a great cause. Riverview Road Cidery opens Friday, June 19th!!!

'Tis the season when blooms are everywhere and so are the bees! We called Snohomish Bee Co. over the weekend to come capture a swarm we found huddled in one of our Black Locust trees in the silvopasture. Walking under the Golden Chain trees, you can feel the air vibrate with buzzing bumbles. One evening last week, around dusk, a huge furry moth was bouncing from flower to flower of a Western Azalea in the yard. It's wonderful and a little daunting.....there are so many apple blossoms, and when they're pollinated, they turn into baby apples that will need to be thinned. It's a huge Spring task for any apple orchard.

We've been happy to share our Rhubarb cider with Obsidian Beer Hall in Everett. They featured it at their 2nd year anniversary event and are true fans of our cider. Cheers Craig! This punchy cider will also be presented at an upcoming Farm To Table event at Pine Creek Nursery in Monroe on May 3rd. These dinners will be also held in July and October and are a sweet collaboration highlighting those of us who farm and ferment in the great PNW! RCR will be the venue for their October dinner (more to come on that)...

Just last week, RCR partnered with Agroforestry Northwest and welcomed local tribal community members to harvest dandelions. This event was part of a Biocultural Restoration Initiative to reconnect people with plants that nourish both ecosystems and communities. Dandelion is food and medicine. Check out their fact sheet.

It's been so wet for us! And then to spark a little PTSD from the Dec 2025 flood, we flooded again last weekend, though not as badly. On the positive side, many trees and plants that spent 4 weeks covered in water look like they're alive! There is some death, but not as bad as it could have been. And the hay fields are vibrant green from all the flood sediment and nutrients.

Another surprise is that we experimented with using Salal berries and Evergreen Huckleberries in cider last year, and we tasted it yesterday. The color was a rich, ruby red like the Aronia cider, and the flavor was fantastic. We'll definitely be making a native berry cider this season (to be ready for 2027)! We also sampled the Kingston Black, and we may experiment with bottling it this year. It's amazing....! Stay dry, everyone.

(Keywords: flood, cider, farm)

It's still winter, but we're longing for the warm, sunny weather that's perfect for sitting with friends and drinking cold, refreshing cider. This is the time when we book our musicians and food trucks for another round of Trucks-n-Tunes, plus several art and agroforestry events. We're even considering a Tolkien Trivia night, as we hope to connect with a fanbase of Tolkien enthusiasts who will visit a special maze Farmer Nick has planted (something about 9 rings with quests...). This cider season should be a fun one!

It's been over a month since the BIG flood. Nick and I can travel the trail around our property without a canoe or waders. We walk and see grass, high up in the branches of the trees, at least 8 ft. We see a slimy, brown sludge covering everything. Dead worms and voles, melted pumpkins, debris, all scattered everywhere. We see signs of beavers tasing our apple trees. The smell is powerful! People ask us if we flooded, and we say, yes, what a crazy time that was! They ask if we sustained any damage, and we say, we don't know. And we don't. The trees and shrubs in the back of the farm were underwater for almost exactly a month. Some of the apple trees were underwater for 3 weeks. I guess we'll wait and see? Meanwhile, the winter blooms are bursting - Witch-hazel and Hellabores brighten the landscape and waft their pleasant scent on the breeze.