LOUISBURG – A group of pre-schoolers from Raymore, Missouri, gathered under a bright red and white tent, waiting to take a tour of the Louisburg Cider Mill in northeast Kansas.
At 10 a.m., it was still cool, and the 4-and 5-year-olds were sitting relatively quietly as they waited for the tour and, perhaps more importantly, the cider and apple donuts that waited at the end.
“I want to welcome you to the Lewisburg Cider Mill,” tour guide Amy Boehm said. “My name is Amy. It begins with the letter A. Can you think of something else that we might be talking about today that begins with the letter A?”
The kids were ready.
“Apples!”
Apple season is in full swing at the mill, which started 50 years ago. The next few months is when the cider is made and when most of the tours come through.
“Did you guys see any semi trucks when you came in?” Boehm said. “We have great big semi trucks coming in and out all day long, and they bring all the apples in the back of their trailer, and the trailers pull up in here, and they carry a lot of apples — many, many thousands (of) pounds of apples.”
It takes 14 pounds of apples to make a gallon of cider. Louisburg Cider Mill blends the apples, which include Braeburn, Gala and Honeycrisp — eight varieties in all.
“How about a quick tour so we can see what happens to these apples when they come here?” Boehm said. “If you guys will follow me, we'll go looking.”looking
Forklifts work throughout the day to bring boxes of apples and dump them into a tank of water. The apples are sprayed down and dunked, and then a conveyer belt takes them into a building where workers look them over by hand. After that, they’re loaded into the chopper. Then chopped apples move to a presser, which extracts the juice.
“Did you smell apples?” Boehm said. “Does that smell good and fresh?”
The kids agreed. The scent of apples was everywhere.
The next stop was out to another building to see where the cider is pasteurized. Each bottle is topped with a white cap that signals they’re shelf-stable.
“You can see they're bottling here,”Boehm said, motioning to women taking bottles from the conveyor belt. “They've got their big gloves on because the cider is very, very hot when it comes out.”
As the tour wrapped up, the kids raced toward waiting wagons that would take them to the next area — the family farm — as well as those donuts with cider.
The mill has three main areas: the cider works; a country store, where they sell cider and apple donuts as well as kitchen utensils, souvenirs, and lots of spices; and the family farm, with a 10-acre corn maze, pumpkin patch, hay mountain, fire pits, playground equipment and more, depending on the time of year.
The store and farm are open year-round, but autumn is the busiest season. There are live bands and food trucks around the store on weekends.
Louisburg Cider Mill’s annual Cider Fest begins this weekend, with music, food, craft vendors, pony rides, face painting and other family-oriented activities. It’s 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and the next weekend, Oct. 3 and 4.
