How often do you see your Buddies?

We have some wonderful news to report about Kristof Farms. But first, a question: Do you have a close friend group? How do you sustain those friendships?

The US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, is a friend whose important work on loneliness has been in the news. He argues that social isolation is a public health crisis and cites evidence that loneliness can be as hazardous to your health as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.

We agree with Vivek about the perils of social isolation and loneliness, and it’s something that we wrote about in our books and that Nick has written about in his column. So go socialize more this summer! In our small way, we’re creating groups at Kristof Farms to offer opportunities to knit people together.

Jamie leads a discussion of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo earlier this month in Portland.

That’s the thinking behind the Recommended Books Club we launched this year, with a list of terrific books to read throughout the year. We had informal book club discussions, but now we are broadening it to launch our first public in-person Kristof Farms Book Club at Kells Irish Pub in Portland on Aug. 14 at 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm.

We also see the excitement around books with Nick’s recent book tour and the wonderful gatherings he’s inspiring with Chasing Hope, his memoir.

Nick signing books at a Chasing Hope book talk hosted by Ken Wright at his winery in Carton, OR earlier this month.

Similar thinking is behind the online gatherings we offer twice a year for our wine and cider club members. With wine and cider club members across the country and occasionally around the world, we can bridge distance with “close” encounters. We just had our virtual Club Conversation for our Clubs earlier this month, and we relish the chance to build a community engaging with ideas as well as cider or wine.

One member thanked us for the event, saying: “I loved being part of the conversation last night. It does feel like building community…and I don’t want to miss any of it.” Another said:  “You should turn it into a series, wine takes the edge off a lot of challenging topics. I bet you could build up a following!”

We hope in the future to do some wine club and cider club events here on the farm in Yamhill. But in any case, please do spread the word about our wine and cider clubs; we think the appeal is not only amazingly good wine or cider, but also the chance to join a community that cares about the world and goes online to share ideas.

Sheryl and Jamie at the Northwest Cider Association awards dinner, after receiving the honor of Best Small Cidery of the Year recently.

Now for some great news:  Kristof Farms won Small Cidery of the Year honors at the Northwest Cider Cup, sponsored by the Northwest Cider Association.  We were also thrilled that our newly introduced Whisper, a flavorful and refreshing low-alcohol cider, received a gold medal, beating out other very impressive low-alcohol ciders by the region’s largest companies. We are getting it into stores soon (if you have a restaurant or store and would like some, just let us know at info@kristoffarms.com).

Our Orchard cider, a blend from a dozen varieties of heirloom cider apples, won a silver medal in the Northwest Cider Cup.  In May, our Reserve cider won a Best in Class award at GlintCap, the biggest cider competition in the world. And our Kingston Black won a gold medal for single varietals in the recent CiderCraft Magazine awards. 

Sheryl at the Northwest Cider Association Awards, accepting the Silver Medal for Orchard Cider, a blend of a dozen varieties of cider apples

We also owe you all a thanks. A year ago we were wondering about whether to make a low-alcohol cider, and we asked on social media what people thought. The response was enthusiastic, so we decided to try it – but we hadn’t expected to win a gold medal for our first effort! Thanks for encouraging the effort, and remember that if you have suggestions, we’re all ears. You can always reach us at info@kristoffarms.com.

We are still mostly selling our wine and cider online to consumers through KristofFarms.com, and we’ve been encouraged by the demand across America. But we are looking for fine restaurants and bottle shops to carry our products as well. So reach out if you’re interested, and do consider joining our wine club and cider club as a way of building communities and bringing people together.

Warm wishes to all of you, thanks for reading the newsletter and check out our wine club – or our cider offerings.