Jodie Mack is an independent moving-image practitioner, curator, and historian-in-training who received her MFA in film, video, and new media from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2007 and currently teaches animation at Dartmouth College. Combining the formal techniques and structures of abstract/absolute animation with those of cinematic genres, her handmade films use collage to explore the relationship between graphic cinema and storytelling, the tension between form and meaning. Mack’s 16mm films have screened at a variety of venues including the Anthology Film Archives, Images Festival, Los Angeles Filmforum, Onion City Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Black Maria Film Festival, and the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar.
http://www.jodiemack.com/

Showing:

Blanket Statement #1: Home is Where the Heart is (2012, 16mm, 3m, color, sound)
discordant dysfunction down to the nitty griddy

Dusty Stacks of Mom (2013, 40m, 16mm>video, color, live sound)
Interweaving the forms of personal filmmaking, abstract animation, and the rock opera, this animated musical documentary examines the rise and fall of a nearly-defunct poster and postcard wholesale business; the changing role of physical objects and virtual data in commerce; and the division (or lack of) between abstraction in fine art and psychedelic kitsch. Using alternate lyrics as voice over narration, the piece adopts the form of a popular rock album reinterpreted as a cine-performance.

Devon Damonte’s Stalking The Wild Washi Machine, (2013, 15 min, 16mm & slide projections)

Greys (Toronto, ON)
Fast and fierce
https://www.facebook.com/GreysRock
http://greys.bandcamp.com/

Shahman (Ottowa, ON)
Heavy and angular
http://shahman.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shahman/283091575041364

Wet (Olympia)
https://soundcloud.com/tanar-stalker/

Doors at 8, show at 8:30 SHARP.

Santa Cruz meets Olympia! Not like the other folk music.

Blackbird Raum (Santa Cruz)
https://www.facebook.com/BlackbirdRaum
http://silversprocket.gostorego.com/blackbirdraum.html

Matador (Santa Cruz)
https://www.facebook.com/MatadorSantaCruz
http://matadorsantacruz.wordpress.com/

Gembrokers (Santa Cruz)
http://thegembrokers.com/
http://gembrokers.bandcamp.com/

Philip Irie (Olympia)
of The Chain/Hail Seizures

Richie Rich and The Lockstitch (Olympia)
Our favorite hatmaker

Show starts at 8pm sharp!

Summer is the best time to volunteer at Northern- if you know any high schoolers or college kids home for the summer, send them to this meeting! All are welcome.

Bring your kids (or your friend’s kids) and have some old fashioned fun getting silly dancing to tunes by DJ Matt Murillo!

Event:  Sun, 05/19/2013 - 12:00pm - 4:00pm

Tomorrow afternoon, go for a paddle with Olympia Confronting the Climate Crisis. There will be opportunity to organize with your fellow human beings to protect the Earth against reckless fossil fuel industry antics. When: Noon to 4pm. Where: West Bay Park, Olympia. Who: You and your friends and neighbors. What: There will be about 15 or 20 kayaks and people can cycle through them.

Sweetwater Nannauck from Seattle IdleNoMore will be doing a water ceremony.

Trip Jennings will be instructing folks on water and kayak safety.

Trip Jennings first became a kayak instructor in 1998 and since then has shared his love of water as an instructor, competitive whitewater kayaker, expedition kayaker and filmmaker. In 2008 he was recognized by National Geographic as an 'Adventurer of the Year' for a kayak expedition to Papua New Guinea and was featured in the January 2013 issue of National Geographic Magazine. But most passionately, Trip is a climate justice activist working to confront the root causes of climate change. He is a member of Portland Rising Tide, campaigning to stop the onslaught of energy export proposals in the NW and professionally Trip works with groups such as the Power Past Coal Coalition and Columbia River Keeper as a videographer. He is currently producing a documentary on the oil, gas and coal export proposals in Oregon and Washington.

More information about the event here on this facebook event page: O3C Kayak Event.

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The Lacey Spring Fun Fair again fulfilled its objective to bring Thurston County together for a day of celebrating the area’s businesses, youth programs along with educational establishments, and of course,local cuisine. The early rain did not slow the spirit nor hinder the size of the crowd on the campus of Saint Martin’s University, as visitors took in a sample of what the community is all about.  A wide variety of musical performances, contests, and children’s activities took place over the course of the day, all of which culminated in the commencement parade in the evening

 

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ThurstonTalk

 

Five dollars (if you’re lucky) will get you one bowl of delicious clam chowder from a restaurant.  For those in attendance at the Port of Olympia Boatswap & Chowder Challenge at Swantown Marina on Saturday, $5 bought you a mug full of chowder from 12 competing local restaurants.  Along with live music, an elevated/on land fishing pond and a bounce house for children, visitors had a chance to look, trade or buy for maritime equipment and boats in a swap sale setting.

The following restaurants competed in the event:Fatso’s Bar & Grill, Firecreek Grill, Fish Tale Brewpub, Hawk’s Prairie Casino, Lucky Eagle Casino, Nisqually Red Wind Casino, Paprika Café & Catering, Red Lion Hotel – West Water Restaurant, South Bay Pub & Eatery, The Sidewalk Café, Tug Boat Annie’s and Vern’s Foods & Farm.

In the process of looking for some older archaeology, I recently came across a carved and inscribed hunk of sandstone that appears to have been a fountain before it was dumped on the Olympia waterfront decades ago. It's probably from the Hercules quarry in Tenino, and may have traveled to Portland before ending up here, perhaps serving up our famous water at the Olympia Brewing Company pavilion at the Lewis and Clark expo, or maybe just a gift to a then-new city park...but I speculate.

If you want to know more, or you do know more, and would be willing to set me straight, head over to Mojourner Truth and check out the more detailed post and photos there. I'd sure like to learn more.

 

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The front of a font, maybe.

Last Fall, I came across something that other people have probably seen for years, and others have forgotten about for even longer, but it was new and mysteriouis to me. Embedded in an old road berm on the Eastbay shore was a big piece of carved sandstone. Recently, I was around as a city crew pulled it free as they prepare for an environmental restoration project. In decades of archaeologizing, this stands out as one of the biggest and most interesting artifacts I've seen. It also holds a few mysteries.

Now that I've had the chance to look at it a few times, see the dirt it came out of, and talk it over with a few other archaeologists as we examined it, a few things are not so mysterious. Like, it was pretty obviously just dumped here along with concrete, asphalt, and brick rubble, part of the berm that blocked the mouth of a creek; a neighbor thinks the Salmon Club may have been involved, but it is also in a City park, at the bottom of an old road, and may have been deposited by them. I'll get to why I think that may be the case in a bit.

The stone is sandstone, and a partially obliterated inscription on one end is enough to convince me that it came from the Hercules Quarry in Tenino. The top features a square flanked by two octagonal basins, and a tunnel runs through it. There is rust surrounding one side of the opening, indicating that there was a metal attachment there, and along with pipes running from bottom to top, it suggests that this may have been a decorative fountain. The base, beginning immediately below the tunnel through the stone, at first appeared to be sandstones as well, but turns out to be stucco over concrete. The very bottom is unadorned concrete that contains glacial pebbles and bits of shell, more what you'd expect of a locally-mixed batch than what comes from commercial suppliers. More specifically, what you'd expect from a shoreline local batch than Tenino. (Ironically, the development of commercial concrete businesses is what did in the Hercules and other quarries in Tenino.)
The top.And that's about it for what I know. A once fancy piece of stonework, stripped of metalwork and dumped on the Olympia shoreline. Maybe a fountain, and if my interpretation of the inscription (shown below, after considerable computer enhancement) is correct, it was a presentation piece. It just so happens that the abandoned road heading uphill from this spot leads to the former location of the "Swiss Chalet" that stood in Priest Point Park from not long after it's 1905 founding until the 1950s. Before that, the Chalet had been part of Olympia Brewing Company's pavilion at the Lewis and Clark Expo in Portland. A nicely carved fountain proclaiming a presentation and naming the quarry seems like just the sort of thing that may have appeared in that sort of setting, especially since Olympia Brewing even in those days was stating, "It's the Water."

Or, maybe the Hercules folks presented it to the park. Or, something else. Some sort of Park connection makes sense, though, given the proximity (seems like an awful big stretch to say that some Tenino resident hauled it all the way up here to dump it), and the fact that you need heavy machinery just to move the thing.

"PRESENTED BY HERCULES QUARRY, TENINO WASH" (Guesswork in grey).Odds are, this modestly monumental stonework, dumped and forgotten for years, is likely to be recycled by the City of Olympia. Maybe placed in the park, or maybe elsewhere, but people once again see it as something interesting, worth using for some better purpose than shoreline armoring. Maybe it could be fixed up and one of Olympia's artesian wells could bubble forth from it.

In the meantime, if anyone out there knows about this, or has photos of the chalet in Portland or in our park, leave a comment and let me know. If I find out anything, I'll write an update. 

Event:  Sun, 05/19/2013 - 9:00pm - Mon, 05/20/2013 - 12:00am

Full Moon Radio
www.FullMoonRadio.com
www.FullMoonRadio.bandcamp.com

Silvero (sludgy garage rock from Bend, OR)
http://silvero.bandcamp.com/album/spiritual-vamp

Shadows
http://shadows1.bandcamp.com/

AT CRYPTATROPA (421 4TH AVE. E OLY)  BRING BUCKS FOR TOURING BAND...

21+

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This SATURDAY, from 7 – 9pm, please join us at Northern Gallery for the opening reception of THE SHAPE MAKERS featuring a collection of sculpture, furniture, installation art and sustainable design from students in the program SOS 3D at The Evergreen State College! Don’t miss out!

This story has totally inspired me and I feel it is most certainly worth sharing. Follow the link and learn a little bit about Kim Langston's journey and her efforts to bring community together to take part in creating something positive out of a tragedy.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tiny-house-big-heart

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By Tom Rohrer

In collegiate sports, it’s all about combining talent with mental toughness.

Competing against high level athletes requires an appropriate mixture.  A lapse in focus can quickly lead to a devastating mistake and a loss.

At the beginning of the season, the Saint Martin’s University softball team was 3-4 following a quick tour of the Hawaiian Islands for some early non-conference matchups.

However, the Saint’s  would eventually turn it around in a huge way, winning 38 of their next 50 games en route to a number 17 national ranking, an appearance in the NCAA Division II Tournament, and the school’s first NCAA tournament victory, a 2-1 victory over Grand Canyon on Friday, May 10.

The reigning GNAC freshman of the year, Samantha Munger was one of the top offensive threats for Saint Martin’s University softball, along with winning GNAC pitcher of the year for her efforts on the mound in 2013.

Though Saint Martin’s would eventually lose to Humboldt State 5-3 two days after their historic victory, the season could justifiably be called the best in school history, and with only four seniors graduating and a host of high caliber players returning, the future is certainly bright for the program.

“I think every team believes that they will go on to the next stage but when the season starts reality hits you,” said fourth year head coach Rick Noren, a Tumwater High School graduate. “We had expectations of doing well, but after the Hawaii trip, I tried to lower those expectations.  We responded in a big way, worked really hard and everything just sort of came together.”

“When your season ends and you can’t play anymore, emotions hit you, the seniors leaving hits you,” Noren continued. “But just from the conversations we’ve had with the girls, if the season started tomorrow, they would say let’s go play. They’re looking forward next year.”

The Saints were led in large part by a potent offensive attack (.308 team batting average) that saw ten players combine for 44 home runs and 102 doubles split across 13 position players.

Leading this offensive charge was the sophomore/junior duo of Sam Munger and Lacey McGladrey, both of whom earned First Team All-GNAC  honors.  McGladrey, a second baseman from Bothell High School, led the team in total bases (120), homeruns (8), slugging percentage (.619), runs (65), doubles (17, stolen bases (18), on base percentage (.459) and walks (22).  Not to be outdone, Munger (Cascade High), who was also the GNAC pitcher of the year, posted offensive team highs in two hits (84), batting average (.426), and pitching highs in strike outs (111), wins (24) and innings pitched (214.1) among many other categories.

The two players are foundational athletes for the program, and will be a huge key to the Saints success in 2014.

“I think when you have two players like that, and we have a roster full of other talented players, that gives the entire team confidence,” said Noren, whose wife Leanne is an assistant coach. “The fact that they both will be back next year is huge for our team.  Their experience, talent and leadership will be relied upon.”

Munger, who played select team ball with McGladrey in high school, says she looks up to her teammate as a role model.

“She is such a great player and I kind of look up to her and follow in her footsteps,” Munger said of McGladrey.  “I want to work to be more like her and it’s just really nice to have her be there for me and the team.”

Lacey McGladrey (center #4) is congratulated by her teammates during a 2013 game, a season that will go down as the best in Saint Martin’s University softball history. For her tremendous efforts at the plate and in the field, McGladrey was named GNAC player of the year.

The high praise was returned from McGladrey to her talented teammate.

“She is such a strong player in every aspect of the game,” McGladrey said of Munger.  “She’s accomplished so much already but isn’t satisfied, and seeing her grow has been a great experience.”

Both McGladrey and Munger are quick to cite their coach’s influence as a reason for both personal and team success.

“I think the mental toughness he always speaks about really changed this team and I know it did for me individually,” said Munger, the 2012 GNAC freshman of the year.  “When we faced that adversity early in the year, we just kept working and kept following his influence.”

“He allows us to have a really aggressive approach, whether it’s hitting or just your attitude about the game,” said McGladrey, who was named the 2013 GNAC player of the year and earned NFCA First Team All-West Region and Darktronics First Team All-West Region. “We don’t go out there second guessing ourselves and thinking about what happened before.”

Noren was impressed that his team, comprised mostly of underclassman, was able to battle through adversity towards success.

“Those four seniors were great and did great things for this program, but I was just so impressed by that sophomore class in particular,” said Noren, who led the Saints to the GNAC regular season and conference tournament championships. “We needed them to perform at regionals and they did, and that kind of leadership will be huge for us the next two years.”

Joining the team next year will be the biggest and most acclaimed recruiting class in the school’s history, which Noren credits to the success and exposure obtained by this year’s team.

“It’s nice to see if you’re successful, that you get more interest, particularly from out of state,” Noren said. “They will fit in nicely, and we will expect a lot from them.”

Until the start of the 2014 season, both players and coach can reflect on a job well done.

“It’s been a lot of fun, and we got tons of support from the university and community,” Noren said. “People noticed and it’s been fun for my wife and I to come back where we grew up and turn the program around.”

“It was a great season.  I love my team, love what we did, and am looking forward to next year,” Munger said.  Unlike all of Saint Martin’s opponents, who may be part of yet another special season for SMU in 2014.

For more information on Saint Martin’s University softball team, click here.

ThurstonTalk

 

Submitted by Bron’s Automotive

I have been asked many times what I look for when buying a used car.  What might you look for to decide if the vehicle you’re considering buying is worth taking to a mechanic and paying for a used car evaluation? (Which I always recommend, by the way.)  Here is my usual routine to qualify it for a trip to the shop for a more serious inspection.

First, walk around it and get a feel for it.  Is the paint the same color all the way around?  Body panels with a slightly different tint indicate that it may have been in an accident.  Are there dings and scratches all over it or does it look like someone cared about it?  This is important because folks who don’t want to spend money fixing something like a broken mirror often can’t afford to change oil or do other maintenance.  You are looking for a car that was owned by someone who could afford to do the preventative maintenance that keeps major failures from happening.

Open the hood and take off the oil fill cap.  Is there a lot of crud and crust in there?  Cars that have had regular oil changes do not have much buildup in there. Feel the big hose going to the top of the radiator.  If it is cold, take off the radiator cap and look at the level and condition of the coolant. It should be right to the top if there are no coolant leaks.  There are a lot of varieties of coolant of different colors, but none of the approved coolants looks rusty.   If the upper hose and engine are warm, ask why.  I prefer to be able to watch a motor start up cold, as worn engines sometimes smoke or run rough for the first minute or so before they get warmed up.  You may want to tell the owner you want to come back when the engine is cold. Look over the engine as much as possible to see if you can spot any fluid leaks.  Get on your hands and knees with a flashlight and look for drips forming under the motor or anywhere else.  While you’re down there, look at the tires and see how the wear pattern is.  I won’t get technical here, but basically they should all look the same and the wear bars should not be showing.

Now take it for a test drive.  Look for smoke when you start it up and make sure the engine feels smooth.  I recommend getting on the freeway so you can test cruise control, watch all the gauges, see how the transmission feels when it shifts, make sure the engine runs smoothly, etc.  If the steering wheel is off center or the car pulls to one side, it is likely to be in need of front end work. I also like to charge up a hill in high gear and watch the temperature gauge.  I have found a few cars with bad head gaskets on this hill.  Listen and feel the brakes when you come off the freeway.  They should be quiet and smooth.  Turn on the A/C no matter what time of year it is.  You should get 45 degree air from the vents.  Test all the power windows and locks from every switch, as well as the power mirrors if equipped.

The last thing I always do is feel under the floor mats and in the trunk to try to find any water leaks.  Water leaks are very hard on a car’s electronics and can be difficult to fix.  Look for stains that indicate past leakage.

The absolute last thing to ask the owner, (you can also do this first), is to ask “Why are you selling this vehicle?”  Then look directly in their eyes and don’t look away.  Trust your instincts next.  I just look for an answer that sounds reasonable, but mostly I am looking to see if they seem uncomfortable.

Please understand that if you are looking at a car and find some minor issues, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not a good buy.  You might offer a lesser amount, however before you make an offer, ask if you can take the vehicle to your mechanic to have it inspected. If they say no, WALK AWAY.  Everyone understands the need to have a mechanic check over a vehicle, after all it’s usually the second most expensive thing most of us will ever buy, after a house.

At Bron’s Automotive we do a very thorough used car evaluation.  We will also print out for you the estimated value according to the National Auto Dealers Association.  (This is what dealers use to figure out trade in value)  Most of the cars I buy or sell go for “average value” if they test out OK.  If you want to look yourself, the website is www.nadaguides.com.

ThurstonTalk

 

Submitted by SCJ Alliance

The Olympia office team pauses from their busy schedules to commemorate SCJ Alliances 7 Year Anniversary.

As SCJ Alliance crosses the plate for their seventh anniversary, looking back it’s been a homerun year. A name change from Shea Carr Jewell, rebranding, expansion to Southwest Washington and added services have produced impressive numbers.

“We’ve gone from five Costco tables as desks to offices in five communities across three states,” shares co-founder Perry Shea, PE, reflecting on the firm’s beginnings in 2006. “We’re always on the lookout for new opportunities to serve our clients better, as well as provide our talented staff with opportunities for growth.”

Headquartered in Olympia, WA, SCJ Alliance also has offices in Wenatchee and Vancouver, WA; Boise, ID; and Westminster, CO. A consulting and professional services firm, SCJ has provided the engineering and planning expertise behind many projects in the region. Examples include Port Townsend’s recent downtown streetscape improvements, Olympia’s master planned Briggs Village, WinCo Foods stores in Sumner and Bremerton, and Bonney Lake’s many intersection improvements along SR 410.

“We changed our name to reflect our expanded offerings and growth beyond the Puget Sound region,” said co-founder Jean Carr, LEED AP BD+C. “Our rebranding also reflects our broader range of services including environmental, website, information technology, communication and public relations. These complement our previously existing services like civil engineering, transportation planning and design, and land use planning to name a few,” Bob said.

Co-founder Bob Jewell, PE reflects on the role diversification has played in the firm’s success. “Diversification in market sectors, project types and firm services has provided stability and opportunity. This allows us to be creative, move quickly and weather the tough economic times.”

SCJ starts their next “inning” at a sprint with new, high visibility projects. “We are very excited to be involved with both the world’s largest Ferris Wheel in Las Vegas and improvements planned on I-5 adjacent to JBLM spanning five miles and four interchanges,” said Perry.

SCJ also remains focused on continuing to serve existing and traditional clients like municipal and private developers. “We have been working on planning and engineering for Briggs Village since the 1990s. It’s rewarding to see that project coming to life,” said Jean. SCJ also has long term involvement with planning and design for Saint Martin’s University (SMU). SMU is the alma mater for a number of SCJ’s engineers including Perry and Bob.

For SCJ, it’s a good time to be in business. “Developers are dusting off projects that have been sitting for five or six years,” says SCJ Principal Eric Johnston, PE. Eric is assisting the rural town of Wilkeson in corridor planning, creating a Town Center that will be a part of the Foothills Trail visioned to span from Tacoma to Mt. Rainier.

“SCJ is committed to being an active community member,” says Principal Amy Head, PE, LEED AP BD+C. “It gives me great pleasure to work on projects of community significance like the new Boys & Girls Club, and East Bay Plaza,” shared Amy. SCJ also actively supports the missions of Rebuilding Together, Thurston EDC, multiple Chambers of Commerce, the South Sound Reading Foundation, Leadership Thurston County, cancer prevention groups and little league teams, to name a few.

SCJ Alliance has been widely recognized since its founding, including the following awards:

• 2012 Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber’s Spotlight on Business Award
• 2012 Zweig Letter Hot Firm List as one of the fastest growing firms in the nation
• 2011 Zweig Letter Hot Firm List
• 2010 Best Firms to Work For by Civil Engineering News
• 2010 Zweig Letter Hot Firm List
• 2009 Small Business of the Year by the Thurston EDC
• 2009 Best Firms to Work For by Civil Engineering News

 

The weather was incredible today. There was a downpour, and the Sun came out, so there were rainbows in the sky for the peace vigil at Percival Landing. Those clouds were intense, if you saw them, maybe you would agree.

Here are some photos and video and a little more commentary:

Signs for peace at the peace vigil at Percival Landing, the vigil happens every Friday, and you're welcome to join.

Bang what you got! Whether it's pots and pans, or if you're a marching band, your instrument of choice. Saxophone? Sauzaphone? Trumpet? Trombone? Glockenspiel? Banjo? Drums? Symbals? Cowbell? Bang it! for peace! Great tunes, thanks to the Artesian Rumble Arkestra

A little of what the sky looked like with dark clouds contrasting with bright sunlight... at Percival Landing.

What a day, what weather!

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Three bands with many many members! Wild ride guaranteed this evening.

And And And (Portland)
Six members! Your dad will like it.
http://andandand.bandcamp.com/

Sun Angle (Portland)
This is some good shit.
http://www.newmossrecords.com/artist/sun-angle/

Camp Wisdom (Olympia)
Seven members! Nice loud folky jams.
http://campwisdom.bandcamp.com/

ThurstonTalk

 

By Jennifer Crain

Dave White, a longtime blogger and craft cider judge and co-owner of Whitewood Cider, presses Olympia-area apples in the fall. Photo courtesy of Whitewood Cider Company.

In the fall, Dave White and Heather Ringwood loaded the layers of their rack-and-cloth cider press with apples and squeezed out 1,100 gallons of juice, five gallons at a time.

The result wasn’t the kind of cider you’d buy at a harvest festival or warm over a stove and sprinkle with cinnamon. White and Ringwood collect the juice to produce hard cider, known elsewhere in the world and in the thriving U.S. craft cider industry, as simply “cider.”

This month they debut their cidery, Whitewood Cider Company, with the release of their first blends. Whitewood is Washington’s newest craft cidery and the only one between Portland and Seattle.

Like many cideries around the country, Whitewood is a small operation. White and Ringwood aim to create a fine craft cider from regional and local cider apples for South Sound consumers. Or, as they like to say, to “grow local, ferment local, drink local.”

Because the flavors of the fruit mellow during the fermentation process, cider is best made from bittersweet and bittersharp apple varieties that have been propagated for several hundred years specifically for cider making.

Varietal names of cider apples have the ring of vintage china patterns: Yarlington Mill, Golden Russet, Ashmead’s Kernel, Dabinett. But these are no lace-and-feathers fruits. The fanciful names of the English and French varieties White and Ringwood use (they grow well in our maritime climate) belie the acidic and highly tannic concentrations common in good cider apples. White says if you pick one and take a bite “it’s like sucking on an aspirin or something.”

Heather Ringwood says cider’s popularity and limits on the availability of cider apples is an opportunity for local growers. Photo credit: Whitewood Cider.

That doesn’t keep him from sampling apples from old trees in friends’ backyards, however. In fact, White, who’s been making cider since 2000, says he can taste in one or two bitter bites how an apple’s juice will mellow into the finished product.

“My brother and I picked a lot of apples from around here – a lot of apples that generally go to waste,” White says. “We have a lot of heirlooms. These old trees are probably from before the mass plantings of [popular varieties like] Red Delicious and Pink Lady.”

They gleaned about 4,000 pounds of unidentified apples from trees around Olympia, enough to press into roughly 300 gallons of juice. The result is a blend made exclusively from Olympia apples.

The remaining three blends are crafted from apples they purchased, including ten bins of cider apples from Eastern Washington and some familiar heirloom varieties such as Gravenstein, Jonathan and McIntosh.

Craft cider is enjoying a domestic renaissance that was starting to blink awake about thirteen years ago, when White first tried a San Juan Island cider blend and started making the beverage himself. In 2007 he started one of the first cider blogs in the nation, Old Time Cider, and took a course in cider making at the Mt. Vernon Agricultural Extension the following year. The blog led to interviews and to invitations to judge cider competitions around the country. White was also one of the founding members of the Northwest Cider Association. All of this has landed him in the center of a geyser of enthusiasm for the drink.

Bitter cider apples, propagated over generations, mellow into a drink that can be spicy, light, sweet or heavy. The process for fermenting and blending cider mirrors the complexity of wine production. Photo credit: Whitewood Cider.

Asked why it’s the new darling of the alcoholic beverage industry – cider is said to be its fastest growing segment – White rattles off a handful of reasons. Cider is riding the tails of the public’s interest in winemaking and artisanal beers that has led to a growing curiosity about new alcoholic drinks. Small batch fermentation dovetails with the locavore movement, with more people searching for consumable products produced close to home (a fact which makes the apple-rich Northwest a bright spot in the drink’s future). Cider has a complexity that mirrors wine but with a lower alcohol content (wine averages 12%; cider and beer, 6-8%). Not only do fans of the drink say it’s light and refreshing but cider is also gluten free, a serendipity White says he couldn’t have anticipated.

Cider’s popularity is, in fact, outgrowing apple production. Producers don’t tend to have their own orchards, so the demand for cider apples is stretching local availability. The situation is creating an apple crisis of sorts but one White and Ringwood say the industry will – literally – outgrow.

“There’s a real opportunity for local growers to set aside two or three acres and grow cider apples,” Ringwood says.

Even with limits on apples, the industry as a whole is communal and supportive of their own. One of White’s recent blog posts chronicles his trip to another regional cidery where he joined a number of friends to help transplant an orchard, relocating it after a Mount Vernon cidery shuttered its operations last year.

Asked if he’ll reveal his ingredients, White says, “I’m totally transparent on that because you can take the same apples and a different cider maker would make something completely different. It’s a lot about each person’s process and how they blend.”

White and his brother gleaned about 4,000 pounds of unidentified apples from trees around Olympia, enough for a dedicated blend, South Sounder, made exclusively from Olympia apples. Photo credit: Whitewood Cider.

Though cider isn’t meant to be cellared, the process of producing it is more akin to the subtleties of winemaking than beer production, says Ringwood. Like wine blends, ciders can be spicy, light, sweet, heavy – it all depends on the character of the fruit. These wide-ranging flavor profiles chip away at the notion that hard cider is the syrupy cousin of beer, down on the bottom shelf of the cooler.

Experienced cider makers choose their fruits for specific qualities and blend them to achieve a balanced flavor. They experiment with yeasts and make judgment calls on whether to filter their ciders or not (Whitewood’s are unfiltered) and whether and how much to carbonate (White and Ringwood both prefer a little sparkle).

After that, the choice is up to consumers.

Those interested in trying Whitewood Cider Company’s limited blends, who aren’t already CSA subscribers, will be able to throw back a few samples at the public kick-off party at the Eastside Club Tavern. Watch the Whitewood Facebook page and Twitter feed for details.