Our Blog

This week’s “Brother” is Mark Ray, the owner, head-cidermaker, and CEO of Stowe Cider. We connected with Mark and his team through the mutual love of our delicious berries.  Several of Stowe Cider’s Vermont Grown series of ciders incorporate our berries!

Mark did not always want to be involved in the fermentation game…it was more of a “hobby turned job”. He moved from Hamilton, NY to Colorado after high school to “find himself”, which he did many times. He went to college in Colorado obtaining a Spanish degree with a business sidetrack.  This is where he began to help some breweries. Fortunately for the cider world, he was not good at brewing beer, but did have a knack for ciders, which he began to make in his garage. When he moved to Vermont with his family, he recognized the value of using local and sustainable ingredients in his ciders.

Mark encourages everyone he meets to try Stowe Cider. With 24 drafts and a never ending rotating list, has has a cider for everyone. The ciders span the gamut from fruity to hoppy to akin with barrel-aged like spirits.

Mark also loves ice cream and favors Sisters of Anarchy’s Bronx Cheer, especially because it pairs well with chocolate. His favorite Stowe cider with Fisher Brothers Farm berries is the raspberry cider (we do have some outstanding raspberries!)

As a side note, Mark just may be an actual brother (or some sort of cousin of Farmer Bob’s). Both are from the same area of Central NY and Bob’s maternal grandmother shares the surname Ray. This is not where the coincidences stop, both Mark’s and Bob’s families had camps on the same lake. Could Mark actually be Sisters of Anarchy’s real “Brother from Another Mother”?