Averill Farm

I’ll Aver
Averill Farm, Washington
October 2026

Washington, Connecticut is impossible. Yes, we know that the town served as the inspiration for whatever fictional town “The Gilmore Girls” took place in (Stars Hollow, I just looked it up… which is when I noticed I had to change my spelling from “Gilmour” to “Gilmore”) but to drive through its “downtown” and then out to Averill Farm on a picture perfect October day is pure storybook stuff.

Like, it just doesn’t seem real. People actually live and transact business here!

And one business in particular has been transacting here since 1746, thirty years before the United States was the United States! That business would be Averill Farm, perched atop a hill on an absolutely stunning patch of land in Washington.

The land was purchased over 275 years ago from the Native American Chief Waramaug of the Wyantenock tribe and has been family run ever since. I don’t know what the purchase price was, but it was probably something like a pinecone and a handshake. Today, the 260-acre property is primarily a fruit orchard that specializes in growing apples and pears. The farm plants over a hundred different varieties of apples and pears throughout the year and about twenty of those are available for customers to buy as well as to pick.

Now managed by 10th generation farmer Tyson Averill, alongside his parents Susan and Sam, Averill Farm is among the oldest continuously operated farms in the country. Once a longstanding dairy farm, Tyson’s grandfather paved the way for a fruit-laden future when he planted a small pick-your-own orchard that was decades ahead of its time. His son Sam, a ninth generation Averill, adopted organic and IPM (integrated pest management) methods and expanded the orchard year after year to today’s 30 acres—or enough trees to fill 4,000 bushels of apples in a good year.

All super impressive. But here’s the thing: I don’t visit and write about orchards and farms unless they offer something I do write about. Lines must be drawn. And the thing I came all the way out here for is hard cider.

I had made an effort to come here once before but wasn’t very diligent in my pre-trip efforts and only went to the historic barns right along Calhoun Street. If you’re familiar with the area and the barns I’m talking about, you know their condition. They are beat down to say the least – and certainly not a commercial enterprise. But! They are historic:

Consisting of 476 acres, the Calhoun Street-Ives Road Historic District runs alongside Calhoun Street and Ives Road which are both characterized by their narrow stone walls as well as 19th-century frame farmhouses. These roads display the farming history and architecture styles of a rural community settled in the 18th-century using land purchased from the Native Americans and then early residents began to farm the area. The numerous farmhouses and outbuildings in this district still maintain their original conditions and are perfectly set in the preserved agricultural landscape.

So I kept driving and left Averill alone for years. And, as it turns out, that was to my detriment. From what I gather, Averill has, in the past, sold several different varieties of hard cider. To be fair, they may still at different times of the year. But when I visited in October 2026, there was only one kind available in their cute little farmstand.

An undefined, undescribed, very pale wine-like hard cider.

I grabbed it along with some other goodies: apple cider donuts, pear cider, and, of course, apples.

The donuts here are made with fresh-pressed cider from the farm’s own apples. They were wonderful – and somehow stayed fresh for a few days. The pear cider was exactly that. I like pears but I’ve learned that I do not like pear cider. As for the apples, Averill is great in that you can mix and match varieties to your heart’s content – which is exactly what I did. These were picked pretty much that day and are just galaxies better than grocery store apples.

Beyond my purchases, Averill Farm sells local maple syrup, honey, Vermont cheddar cheese, knick-knacks, and old-fashioned jams and jellies, among other things like pumpkins, gourds, Indian corn, mums, garlic, potatoes, tomatoes, and gifts.

They also sell pies, made from their apples (baked by High Five Pies in Kent) that sell-out almost immediately. You can pick your own apples and pears in season, and there’s also a corn maze for the kids. But forget the kids for a moment and let’s get to the hard cider.

It… was not good. I have no clue what the ABV on it was, as the label didn’t bother telling me. It’s pale color was matched by its tastelessness. There was no body and no bite. My wife described it as yeasty (Brettanomyces?) watered down cheap store-brand low sugar apple juice. She nailed it.

And that stinks. At least it was only 16 bucks.

Especially since everything else about this place is so perfect.

I found some pictures online of the hard cider lineup from several years prior to my visit, and they all just look better. Darker, surely more flavorful options. Maybe George Washington is on the label not just because he’s the town’s namesake, but because this was cider like it was in his time.

Independent family-owned farms like this produce what they can from what they have. There may be a million valid reasons why my selection was so limited. Heck, they may have had 5 different kinds of hard cider available the day before my visit. I have no idea.

According to a CTMQ Group Facebook commenter who knows far more than I do:

Their hard cider is literally pressed apples left to ferment on wild yeast. The end result is usually a tasteless shadow of a cider. More skilled hard cider makers will age the finished product on oak and/or back sweeten to give it some character.

That makes sense.

There are lots of reasons to visit Averill – the drive alone is worth it – and I’m sure I’ll stop in again someday down the dusty gravel orchard road. Here’s to hoping that when I do, the hard cider is closer to the donuts in quality of taste than to that gravel dust.

Averill Farm
CTMQ’s Wineries, Meaderies, and Wine-like Hard Cideries