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2005: Robert Swanson, the owner of The Hard-Pressed Cider Company, LLC, first started experimenting in college with his friends using his uncle's old cider press. 2011: Rob drew up a business plan, signed his life away to the bank, bought and designed a cider trailer, and started pressing cider at different local orchards each weekend in the fall. 2014: The Hard-Pressed Cider Company, LLC decided to be stationary at Windmist Farm, pressing and selling cider on Saturdays. 2015: Introduced cider doughnuts - HUGE hit! 2016: Open on Sundays, too! Rhode Island Monthly published an article on their website about us! Check it out here. Edible Rhody published an article in their December issue on us and also featured a video of us on their website. See it here. 2017: We have gotten so many amazing mentions this year from our friends at Rhode Island Monthly. We made their Fall Bucket List and their 5 Places To Get Cider Doughnuts. Only in Rhode Island featured us for a Perfect Fall Day Trip and they also published a great little write up on the farm and our Charming Cider Mill! SO Rhode Island gave our "Serious Cider Doughnuts" a mention in their November issue. 2018: Our best season yet despite some tough weather on weekends! Hey Rhody wrote a great article How About Them Apples? We were nominated as one of the 6 Places in Rhode Island to Get Your Cider Donut Fix This Fall and we scored a page in RI Monthly's November magazine issue. Check out the article Making Cider Doughnuts with Hard-Pressed Cider Co. We also made it into the RI Donut Trail! 2019: In April we bought a farm in West Greenwich!! We are working on cleaning it up and hope to soon start planting our own apple trees and work towards building a cidery (long-term plans). 2020: The year of COVID... things looked a bit different this year. No live pressings or tables to sit at, but there was still fresh cider and doughnuts with 6ft distancing! We also planted 330 cider apple trees at our farm in West Greenwich and welcomed our baby girl in April! 2021: COVID continues but this year we are opening on Fridays (at Windmist Farm only) for the first time! We planted around 300 trees again this year at our farm in West Greenwich and will have a small harvest from the trees we planted last year! 2022: Another great year! We had to set up at The Farmer's Daughter garden center in 2022 due to their closing of the cut your own farm but we will be back to the cut your own farm for 2023! 2023: We welcomed our second kiddo in March! Excited for another great season. We will be back at the cut your own tree farm after Thanksgiving this year. We also had a huge loss to our community. Gil Barden of Barden Family Orchard passed away unexpectedly in May. He was our biggest mentor and he is dearly missed. Please consider supporting Sandy Barden if you are looking for some PYO apples. 2024: Another amazing cider season in the books, looking forward to some potential growth opportunities! 2025: We were awarded a USDA Agricultural Infrastructure grant through the RIDEM and we are so excited! This will partially fund a cidery on our property in West Greenwich. We will still be operating as usual for now, but stay tuned for updates as we move forward on this endeavor! |
Labor Day - Thanksgiving:
Friday 8/29/2025 through Sunday 11/23/2025 Location: Windmist Farm 71 Weeden Lane Jamestown, RI 02835 Hours: Friday 10am-4pm Saturday 10am-4pm Sunday 10am-4pm (Also open Labor Day & Columbus Day Mondays 10-4) Thanksgiving - Christmas: Friday 11/28/2025 through Sunday 12/21/2025 Location: The Farmer's Daughter Christmas Tree Farm 1650 Broad Rock Road South Kingstown, RI 02879 Located on Broad Rock Rd just off of Route 138 between Rt 1 and URI Hours: Friday 10am-4pm Saturday 10am-4pm Sunday 10am-4pm CONTACT INFORMATION |