New York State is slated to be one of the next cannabis capitals in America, with laws passing for adult-use in Spring 2021 setting off a race for locals to get licenses to operate in the space that many love so much and projected reports expecting well over $20 billion in revenue.
While the Big Apple continues to progress forward aiming to be unlike other states where those who have been affected by impacts of unjust policing and unfair sentencing will be the first to receive some of the benefits of New York’s legalization, there is a 1,000 acre apple orchard that is making moves to continue to keep their family legacy going.
We were invited up to Syracuse, New York to meet Beak and Skiff, a 100 year old and still counting, 5th generation family run apple orchard and makers of hard cider. Amongst the beautiful mountainous region, Beak and Skiff and its 1911 brand have garnered the love and admiration from its locals within the Lafayette and Syracuse towns and with one glance of their property and you realize why.
In 1911, George Skiff and Andrew Beak founded Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards among the rolling hills and valleys of Lafayette, NY. For over 100 years, their family has put quality and innovation first, and its 1911 Established brand is no exception.
Beak and Skiff has produced a range of hard ciders, spirits and wines. From “tree to bottle,” their process and ingredients are handled in-house to ensure that they produce handcrafted, small-batch beverages that they hope would make their ancestors proud.
With over 350,000 apple trees, the 1,000-acre farm doesn’t just grow apples these days. Looking ahead at other crop options, the company has diversified with cannabis and received one of New York’s conditional growing licenses.
To take on this new business division, they created and introduced Beak and Skiff Research to handle their CBD, hemp and cannabis products and introduced a line of CBD beverages so far and currently has cannabis plants in the ground and is building a THC beverage bottling facility and will roll out flower and vape versions of their product, in addition to its CBD beverages and balm oils.
Their all-in-one processing facility allows managing their end product to be at standard that the current great-great grandchildren are happy and proud to share with its community. We received a walk-through of their grounds and saw all the magic behind the scenes that goes into producing their wide array of apple products. One of its fascinating highlights is how equipped and prepared Beak and Skiff are to take on multiple services such as full spectrum CBD crude and distillate production, private label tincture formulation and bottling and organic and non-organic bulk ethanol sales.
Beak and Skiff’s Organic CBD Sparkling Water ranges in flavors from Mango Lime, Black Cherry and Blood Orange and of course, produced from the full spectrum hemp grown and processed from their family-run apple orchard and made with simple ingredients such as filtered water, organic flavor for the 3 versions and carbonation to bring out their refreshing taste they’ve come known for.
During our time on their grounds, we got a chance to do some apple picking and took away a bunch of their Honey Crisp apples, view their beautiful cannabis farm and be in awe with their quality and size of their plants and dined with some of their special guests and locals at their annual Honey Crisp dinner where upon entry, guest were treated to their Honeycrisp Hard Apple Cider and Apple Flavored Vodka creations.
With hopes of being able to bring their THC cannabis products to market in 2024, if New York laws and regulations continue to move in their favor, Beak and Skiff can and will be one of those brands that can expand from its Central New York roots and become of the states popular cultivators of cannabis and continue their long lasting apple orchard business and merge both worlds into a entity that the Big Apple will be sure to claim as one of its own.
