New this year, tickets to our annual cider tasting are available for purchase online! There is a limited supply of souvenir tasting glasses, and ordering your ticket online guarantees you a glass. This year’s glass design celebrates Cider Mill Friends’ 15th anniversary and also features the Kimlin family crest.
To purchase tasting tickets online, go to cidermillfriends.eventbrite.com.
Hope to see you there!
Wishing you and your family all of the best this holiday season!
What an amazing event yesterday! It was a great turnout of folks, all excited to taste the ciders, listen to good music, taste the various food items, and explore the Mill. We heard some great stories from peoples’ memories of the Mill.
A huge thank you to all of our volunteers, without which this would not have been possible! Of course a big thank you to the various local cider donors and the Hudson Valley Laboratory for the use of their apples in our Kimlin Cider. And another great thanks to The Roundabout Ramblers for their wonderful music and entertainment throughout the event! Also thank you to The Chocolate Mousse Catering for the tasty appetizers. And last but not at all least, thank you to the sponsors of this great event!
Thank you to all!!!
Our cider tasting event is coming up in just one month! Mark your calendars for this great event including our special-made Kimlin Cider, numerous local ciders, Mill tours, cook-out, music, and entertainment!
If you are interested in volunteering during the event – as a cider pourer or other tasks – please let us know! Volunteers get in completely free.
We are delighted to have The Roundabout Ramblers joining us again this year at the event to regale us with their musical talents!
We are extremely pleased to announce that we were one of seven groups awarded a Technical Assistance Grant from the Preservation League of New York! The grant funds an assessment of the many roofs on the Mill. A big thank you to our roof assessment team as well: Stephen Tilly Architects, Russel Watsky, and Robert Silman Associates.
See the list of recipients here: http://www.preservenys.org/tag-2015.html
The TAG Program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
Thank you to everyone that came out to our Walk to the Mill event yesterday afternoon! We couldn’t have asked for better early spring weather nor a better group of people to enjoy it with!
You can view photos from the event on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.521878294632239.1073741843.234222766731128&type=1&hc_location=ufi.
One of our volunteers recently shared his college essay with us which got him into all of the schools to which he applied. It was about his work at the Kimlin Cider Mill around 2008/2009. He has now graduated and still volunteers. Enjoy!
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I remember that when I was younger, I used to ride past an old red building almost every day. It was horrible and rundown, and had a sign on it that said “DANGER! KEEP OUT!”. Now, however, thanks to a group of volunteers including me, the building is currently being cleaned up and restored. This change is truly impressive, and is something I feel very proud of.
All of this started in the summer of 2008, I attended the Summer Institute for the Gifted at Vassar College. Unfortunately, the program was cancelled after a week due to a stomach virus outbreak. Little did I know at the time that this would result in me working on restoring the historic Kimlin Cider Mill on Cedar Avenue in Poughkeepsie. The structure was built by the Kimlin Family when they moved from Ireland to America in the 1850s. In the 1930s, Ralph Kimlin, a descendant of the original builders, turned the building into a cider mill and popular public attraction. Unfortunately, after Mr. Kimlin’s death, the building shut down and fell into a state of disarray. This is where my story and this historical story meet. As my program did not go as planned, I was sitting at home with nothing to do, and decided to look for volunteer work. I went on a website which lists local volunteer opportunities, and after searching for a few minutes, I came across the listing for Cider Mill Friends. I found out that they were a not-for-profit organization that sought to restore the mill and ground into a public museum. This seemed interesting to me. So, I called the listed phone number, and found out that they were having a grounds cleanup the upcoming Saturday. I told them I would definitely be there. It was the start of an inspiring experience.
I arrived at the mill that Saturday at 9:30 AM as I had stated. Immediately, some of the more experienced volunteers gave me a tour of the mill. It was not until this point that I realized just how much history this building held, and how important it was to restore it. That day, we cleaned up a substantial amount of weeds off the side of the building. Later, we would work inside cleaning up items, some historical relics, others plain trash. One item I vividly remember was an article about Austria buying war bonds. However, no matter what I was doing on the grounds, it was important.
About a month later, I was talking with one of the other volunteers, and I mentioned that the Cider Mill Friends’ website had not been updated in several months. It still listed the next work date as being in June, despite the fact that it was August at the time. Therefore, I took the initiative and volunteered my services to become the volunteer webmaster. They happily agreed, and I now update the website as needed, typically several times a month. This is also important, because if people are not aware of our mission, they cannot possibly volunteer and assist us. It is necessary for us to recruit more people, and a well-maintained website is an important need in order to do so. Therefore, I feel that I have taken on an important responsibility, and as such, I feel that I am important.
Being a volunteer for the Cider Mill makes me feel proud to be part of something bigger. The building is over 150 years old, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Thanks to our group of volunteers, the building is no longer ugly or rundown. This vast improvement is due to the passion and hard-working attitude that the other volunteers and I have. It is important to know that I am a part of this, and this will remain with me for years to come.
It can be exciting to be part of change, and one does not have to be in a position of power to do so. I myself have been part of a great change in the Kimlin Cider Mill. Someday, it will be turned into a museum with information about the history of the mill as well as historical relics that were found there. Someday, during or after college, when the building is restored, I will drive past it on a return visit to Poughkeepsie. I will look at it and think to myself that I was part of the effort to restore it, and inside, I will feel proud of myself for my accomplishments.
For those that missed our recent Volunteer Open House, we are sharing the presentation which provides a good summary of the volunteers and activities with Cider Mill Friends.
Check out the presentation by clicking here.
The earliest picture of a Kimlin Cider Mill is a watercolor of the original horse-powered mill which was located on the opposite side of the road from the current Mill. This watercolor was painted by Henry Van Ingen, the first art professor of Vassar College, and was reproduced on the Kimlin Cider labels and postcards. In our attempt to find better versions of the watercolor (or even the original), we recently found the watercolor featured in a writeup of an 1881 exhibition of watercolors. The printed version in the writeup is a little clearer than the other versions we have, plus it has the added benefit of helping pin down the date it was drawn. We now know it was drawn some time between 1865 (when Vassar was founded) and 1881 (when it was in this exhibition). It is dated next to the signature, but we are not exactly sure what it says.
We have reached out to the Vassar College Special Archives and the Vassar College Art Center, but neither of them have any copies of the watercolor. If you have any information, please let us know!
Cider Mill Friends 