Today was the last full day of Cider Con. In the morning I attended an excellent session on making champagne-style cider. Three ciders were served and discussed. All three were quite delicious.

Yesterday I was on a second panel with Jamie Hanson of Seed Savers’ Exchange and Todd Little-Siebold of College of the Atlantic. Our topic was apple genetics in the 21st century. It’s impossible to overstate the value of genetic profiling in apple identification, cleaning up our collections and coordinating preservation efforts around the world. What an amazing tool to use in combination with historical literature and good old-fashioned observation. I particularly enjoyed having the opportunity to talk about several cider apple cultivars that have been majorly mixed up over the past 100 years and the role of genetics in sorting them out. Those include Foxwhelp, Tremlett’s Bitter, Michelin, Hughes/Hewe’s and Bedan.

In the afternoon I headed back to Maine. It was great to catch up with many apple friends and make some new ones as well. Don’t get confused by the name CIDER CON. It may sound rather corporate, but it’s chockablock filled with apple and cider geeks, just like you and me.