Unfiltered Cider Chats with Marshall: Orchard Hunts, Tasty Blends, and Seattle Stories

Listen to our conversation with Marshall Petryni, one of the owners of Greenwood Cider Company. As we dive into the world of cider making, Marshall shares fascinating insights into the art of sourcing apples and crafting unique ciders that capture the essence of the Pacific Northwest.

Sourcing Apples for Cider Making

Marshall vividly describes the labor-intensive work of sourcing apples for cider making during harvest season in Seattle. From scouting for apple trees to working with small orchards on the west side of the mountains, Marshall takes us on a journey to discover the unique and perishable fruits like crab apples that contribute to their signature ciders.

CityFruit and Preventing Wastage

Marshall underscores CityFruit, a nonprofit organization’s integral role in the cider-making process. He details how CityFruit’s dedicated efforts to gather fruit from various locations in Seattle not only prevent wastage but also contribute to donations for food banks and restaurants. This partnership with CityFruit is a shining example of Greenwood Cider Company’s commitment to sustainability and community involvement.

Crafting Unique Ciders

Marshall delves into the intricate process of making cider from a blend of fruits, including dessert fruits and those not commonly used for cider. He illuminates “scrumpy,” a high-alcohol cider made from unwanted or fallen apples. He shares insights into their heirloom cider known as “Scrumpy 7.1,” made from end-of-season apples.

Barrel Aging and Innovative Processes

The discussion extends to the rising popularity of barrel aging, which adds complexity and diverse flavors to beverages. Marshall highlights their approach of utilizing bourbon and Westland whiskey barrels for aging cider and experimenting with different barrel types for oak-fermented drinks.

Challenges and Triumphs in the Cider Business

Marshall opens up about the hurdles Greenwood Cider Company had to overcome in their journey. He candidly discusses the complexities of navigating the process of permits and licensing, a challenge many small businesses face. However, their unwavering passion for cider, the support of the industry community, and their determination to succeed led to the triumph of Greenwood Cider Company, a true inspiration for budding entrepreneurs.

Engaging with the Community and Future Offerings

Marshall illuminates the company’s engagement with the community, from curated cider boxes to attending local farmer’s markets. He also provides an exclusive sneak peek into Greenwood Cider’s upcoming summer cider releases, including “Blush” with strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries and a unique cosmic crisp cider.

The Symbiosis of Cider and Music

Bringing a touch of personal insight, Marshall shares his background in music and his unexpected journey into the cider world. From his early days indulging in funk music to the camaraderie of the music and cider-making communities,

Adventures and Recommendations in Washington State

As the conversation casually turns, listeners are treated to a delightful exchange about outdoor adventures and culinary delights in Washington State. From exploring hiking spots to savoring the best-fried chicken paired with Seattle’s dry cider, Marshall infuses the episode with local charm.

Marshall Petryni Greenwood Cider Episode Transcription

Hello, friends, and welcome to the Exploring Washington State podcast. My name is Scott Cowan, and I’m the host of the show. Each episode, I have a conversation with an interesting guest who is living in or from Washington State. These are casual conversations with real and interesting people. I think you’re gonna like the show. So let’s jump right in with today’s guest. So I’m sitting down tonight with Marshall. Marshall, I’m hope I’m gonna say it right the first time.

Scott Cowan [00:00:29]:

Is it Petrine?

Marshall Petryni [00:00:31]:

It’s actually Petrine.

Scott Cowan [00:00:33]:

Petrine. Marshall Petrine. I heard it pronounced a couple of different ways.

Marshall Petryni [00:00:39]:

Mhmm. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:00:39]:

What what nationality is that? It’s it’s Polish. Polish. Okay. Alright.

Marshall Petryni [00:00:44]:

Yeah. And to be fair, we’ve been pronouncing it wrong for most of our life as well.

Scott Cowan [00:00:48]:

So Oh, okay. Well, I okay. So Marshall is one of the owners of Greenwood Cider Company. Also, little known fact, you were you are or were a drummer in a funk band?

Marshall Petryni [00:01:00]:

Yeah. Me and, my business partner partner Andy Andy Scott, he was the guitar player.

Scott Cowan [00:01:05]:

Okay. So we’re we’re gonna touch on that, but we’re gonna start with Greenwood. But so what’s your like, let’s go through your life really fast. Birth, school, CIDR. Where’d you grow up? How’d you get into cider? How’s that?

Marshall Petryni [00:01:21]:

Alright. Alright. Real fast. Born in LA

Scott Cowan [00:01:24]:

k.

Marshall Petryni [00:01:25]:

Like most Washingtonians, Bellingham, in Billingham. You know, did my primary school education, worked a number of odd jobs, including in a couple farms outside of Bellingham, Cloud Mountain Farm. So I started getting a little bit inundated in the Apple world.

Scott Cowan [00:01:50]:

Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:01:51]:

There. And then went to school, did music, did English, kinda floundered around a bit as you do at a school like University of Oregon?

Scott Cowan [00:02:02]:

Oh, you’re teeing me up. I’ll pass.

Marshall Petryni [00:02:07]:

And then, yeah, and then found my way to Seattle where I’ve been working in food for the last 15 years. And along the way, Cowan got kinda fell on the side, and, it, you know, started as like a home project and sort of got out of out of hand. So

Scott Cowan [00:02:27]:

Okay. So I think as of this time recording, you are the first guest who was told he had to be on the show by his mother, your mom’s past guest. And when we were talking before, before recording, she’s like, oh, you did have my son on. He does Greenwood cider. And like, well, let’s let’s talk. She also and then I reach out to you. And then next thing I know, you know, she’s like, oh, did you reach out? It was I’m teasing. But

Marshall Petryni [00:02:54]:

She is our best salesperson. So

Scott Cowan [00:02:56]:

Yeah. And I but but that’s kinda also how I found out you were in a band. She wrote a big I saw a big article she wrote about about you your band performing in Bellingham, where she took a bunch of photos and it was just and we’ll go there later, but

Marshall Petryni [00:03:09]:

Alright. Alright.

Scott Cowan [00:03:10]:

So now we’re gonna drag you into the music thing. So why why cider? What if you were in the food biz, what why did you gravitate into the cider space?

Marshall Petryni [00:03:23]:

Well, so I was living with Andy, at the time. We’re, you know, mid to late twenties and, just kind of a a few broke musicians. So, you know, I will I will go ahead and walk back into the music thing.

Scott Cowan [00:03:39]:

Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:03:39]:

A few few broke musicians, trying to figure out how to make booze on the cheap. So, I was working for a a very small, at the time, very small, like, home delivery produce delivery company, and I was their only employee. And so any kind of leftover stuff, I would take home.

Scott Cowan [00:04:02]:

Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:04:02]:

And we we press it and see how it turned out. Started doing a little trial batches with whatever we could find, other fruits, berry wines, things like that. So that’s kinda how I how I fell into it, and then it just, like, yeah, it was one of those things. Like, next thing you next thing you look up and you’re ship inside or all around the Scott. And it’s like, oh, great.

Scott Cowan [00:04:25]:

Did you ever have any as a kid, did you were you did you were you ever gonna be entrepreneurial? I mean, did this

Marshall Petryni [00:04:33]:

No. It was never something I wanted to do Okay. Or or saw myself doing. I’m very much like a a worker bee type person. Just like, you know, put my head down, do the work. And, no, it was, it was a little bit, you know, definitely a lot of luck. A little bit kind of kind of, just being kind of forced into it, I suppose, as well. Because the other I got a little bit of experience, like, before the we started our our side of the Cowan.

Marshall Petryni [00:05:06]:

I was part of a a food business that had a we transitioned into a worker cooperative

Scott Cowan [00:05:15]:

Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:05:16]:

While I was there. So while I was, you know, just kinda beginning there. So I kinda got to learn some of the business aspect of that pretty early on and, sort of applies, to to Greenwood Cider, but also just kinda, like, I think, made me feel a little more comfortable with the idea of, like, doing everything.

Scott Cowan [00:05:35]:

Okay. How did you I mean, other than trial and error and and broke musicians making cheap booze, which by the way, that is a common thread amongst cider makers I’ve I’ve learned. It’s it’s you are not the first one that I’ve talked to. It’s pretty funny. And it’s like, I was in college. I couldn’t afford alcohol. I made my own. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:05:56]:

So, okay. There’s a reoccurring theme here, but what training, I mean, was it just completely, you know, flying by the seat of your pants or did you, did somebody go and get cider making for dummies? Or, I mean or what was it?

Marshall Petryni [00:06:13]:

It it was a lot of a lot of trial and error. Yeah. It’s still a lot of trial and error. You know, we when we when we started getting into it, we went and got all the books. You know?

Scott Cowan [00:06:22]:

Mhmm.

Marshall Petryni [00:06:24]:

Got got all the mainstays there where we can, like, kinda read. There was a lot of, so this is, you know, almost 10 years ago now. There was a Google there still is a Google group where a lot of, people kinda share side of things from really around around the whole world. But really got a shout out to RevNat, and Abraham from at the time. He’s now over in Norway making stuff. But, couple of Oregon guys, who were sharing just everything that they knew about making cider and making cider, like, relatively cheaply, in our region. So

Scott Cowan [00:07:06]:

Mhmm.

Marshall Petryni [00:07:07]:

Really learned a lot from them and just trying to try to soak up as much of that stuff as we could, as much people are willing to tell us. And then, yeah, just trying a lot of things and drinking a lot of things. And

Scott Cowan [00:07:20]:

So when did you hard work. When did you realize that, hey, maybe we can sell this stuff? I mean, once again, we go back to the 2 broke musicians. When you started sharing it with your your friends and, you know, people you ran into, when did when did you guys all of a sudden realize that there was going to be a a demand for what you were doing?

Marshall Petryni [00:07:47]:

I mean, I I remember one specific instance where we were making we were making it at home still. We weren’t we’re in a business. We were still making it at home, obviously. And, you know, we had I think I was work rehearsing with a a group of musicians and, someone I didn’t know super well, and they I remember we, you know, had a few balls of cider afterwards, and and they were like, oh, no. This is really good. I would I would I would pay for this. K. And it was kinda like that was, like, the first time I was like, like, that’s the first time anyone said anything like that to me.

Marshall Petryni [00:08:18]:

And I was like, interesting. Okay. Maybe there’s something there. And then, yeah. And, also, that time cider was really coming up as, like, a 3rd beverage. It was like a it was coming up as, like, more of a a thing that people were figuring out and leaning towards. So, I think we Scott into it at the right time, but we’ve been very slow inorganic with our growth, that we’re still very small and kind of relatively unknown.

Scott Cowan [00:08:47]:

Mhmm. Well, you’re you you might be relatively unknown to the, to the general public, but you have a really your brand has a really good reputation within the industry.

Marshall Petryni [00:08:58]:

Oh, well, that’s great to hear.

Scott Cowan [00:08:59]:

Yeah. I was, I was in Leavenworth the other day. I think when you and I talked on the phone, I had told you that I had never been to Buschill and B in Leavenworth.

Marshall Petryni [00:09:08]:

Mhmm. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:09:09]:

And we ended up there. And not none of your ciders were on tap at that time.

Marshall Petryni [00:09:16]:

Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:09:16]:

But they carried some of your bottles. And so I was talking to the woman at the counter, and we’re and she was exceptionally complimentary. And there’s been other there’s been other cider people in the industry that have also they hold your your your products in in high regard. So you’ve got the the endorsement of your peer group. How’s that?

Marshall Petryni [00:09:39]:

That’s yeah. I I will I’ll take it.

Scott Cowan [00:09:42]:

You’ll take that. So what I got I got to imagine. I I got this this this romanticized vision in my head that you and your business partners were sitting around probably a few bottles into cider, and you’re like, you know, I think we should open a business. What the hell? Somehow, I kinda think that’s a might how this this might have just happened.

Marshall Petryni [00:10:06]:

Yeah. It it kind of is.

Scott Cowan [00:10:09]:

Okay. Alright. So when you came to and you realized that you agreed to be a business owner, it’s been super simple. Right? Everything’s gone easy. Everything’s I mean, there’s no complexity to it. You know, getting permits, getting licensing, selling alcohol. It’s just, everybody should do it. Right?

Marshall Petryni [00:10:30]:

Oh, it’s it’s a breeze. Like Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:10:32]:

I mean, I don’t know why. No. I got to imagine, getting set up was annoying at the best and horrible at the worst, but you obviously persevered because we’re talking to you about it. What was some of the what were some of your early takeaways? Like, why am I doing this type moments?

Marshall Petryni [00:10:55]:

Oh, boy. I wonder that every day. You know, I think I think there’s 2 things we really appreciate about, doing this, you know, despite all the the struggles as well. 881 is the is the beverage. We just really appreciate cider and where where cider has come in the, you know, last couple decades and where I think it still can go, I think is really exciting. You’re, you know, you’re kind of it’s an old it’s an old beverage. You know? It’s an old drink, but it’s it’s having a bit of a Renaissance? Yeah. Renaissance here, and and there’s still a lot more room to for it to be discovered and for people to kinda discover it.

Marshall Petryni [00:11:45]:

So that’s one thing. It’s definitely like you know, we wanna kinda see that through a little bit more. And another thing is the community. Like, the community is is fantastic. It’s you know, some of our good friends are part of the community. Some are closest friends, and, like, it’s just so welcoming. It seems like it brings in a lot of different people from all walks of life. It’s not you know, I don’t know, if it’s as snooty as the wine crowd, or as, maybe as bro y as the as the beer crowd, but, it seems to

Scott Cowan [00:12:24]:

walk a line between those 2.

Marshall Petryni [00:12:27]:

It certainly does. And it it seems to be it seems to be on, how to put this? It seems to be it doesn’t take itself super seriously. Like, it seems like it, like, it it’s not going to like, you know, there’s a lot of room for discussion still in the cider world. There’s not a lot of hard, fast rules.

Scott Cowan [00:12:49]:

Right. Right. Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:12:51]:

And so I think when people are trying new things, people are willing to to try them. They’re willing to, you know, give it a shot before writing it off and, like, you know, calling it this or that. And

Scott Cowan [00:13:04]:

But I also think that the industry, at least in my limited periphery to it, holds itself to a standard of growth in the sense that it’s like, we want to improve what we’re doing. We wanna improve the craft. We wanna improve, you know, we made, we made this. I see a little room for improvement. Let’s tweak it. It’s not complacent by any means, but it’s also, it is I think very open to experimentation. Like you wanted to put pine needles in it. I’ll try it.

Scott Cowan [00:13:42]:

Okay. Alright. You know, whatever. Yeah. That doesn’t work for me. Oh, hey. I wish I would have thought of that. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:13:49]:

I think that that overall, it’s still there’s a but I like the fact that it’s taking itself with a sense of, we want to improve.

Marshall Petryni [00:14:00]:

Yes. For sure. It’s it’s it’s it definitely is I you know, like, you can see that in just, like, what the ciders that were popular 10 years ago are versus what they are now. Right? Or, like, even the the range of things you find in stores and places that, like, Bush and Beyond things. It’s like you see a huge range and people are always constantly improving on on stuff. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:14:22]:

I know. They you know, having never been in there, and it’s just up the road for me in the grand scheme of things. So it was a nice selection of, of ciders and beers. Yeah. Very cool. But I’m gonna come back to that. I got I wanna ask you more salad specific stuff Okay. In a bit.

Scott Cowan [00:14:38]:

Where did you sell your first products? How’d you how’d you bring this to market?

Marshall Petryni [00:14:42]:

Oh, man. That’s a funny story. So we had you know, we didn’t really know what we were selling in the beginning. So we had some cider that was probably far too good than it should have been because, you know, we were we were of the mindset, the homebrewer mindset. We’re like, well, we’re just gonna make this as good as we can. You know? Who cares how long it takes? You know, who cares about the process? We’re just gonna make this cider the way we wanna make it. And so we have this we had this kind of, like, heritage sort of apple blend Okay. That we were we were selling on draft, putting in kegs for the first time and doing that whole figuring that whole thing out.

Scott Cowan [00:15:27]:

And then You started you didn’t start selling bottles. You started selling kegs?

Marshall Petryni [00:15:32]:

We did kegs for the first, like, two and a half, three years, I think. Just kegs, like, you know, and bars and breweries and some bottle shops that also do kegs stuff.

Scott Cowan [00:15:42]:

Mhmm.

Marshall Petryni [00:15:43]:

So, yeah, we with the bottles, we’re not an initial part of the offering. We were we were really just doing it on the weekends, figuring it out. Like Okay. Just just trying to figure out how how to do this, how to make a site, how to make ciders, how to sell ciders, how to how to make a business. So the first I was deemed the salesperson by the other business partners and that I was, the least awkward.

Scott Cowan [00:16:09]:

You were not at the meeting? Is that because you weren’t there? They gave you the job? Or is that

Marshall Petryni [00:16:13]:

I missed the memo that day.

Scott Cowan [00:16:15]:

But Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:16:16]:

There was a form and,

Scott Cowan [00:16:18]:

you were sales. Okay. Alright.

Marshall Petryni [00:16:20]:

I I got I got pushed into the sales role, which, you know, I’ve never, you know, sold a thing in my life, really. Maybe, like, a magazine subscription in elementary school for a fun run or something. But

Scott Cowan [00:16:32]:

Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:16:34]:

So I took a few samples up to Capital Cider, which is now called a stir, which was a new newish cider specific bar and restaurant on Capitol Hill

Scott Cowan [00:16:50]:

Right.

Marshall Petryni [00:16:50]:

Here in Seattle. And I walk in there. I’m sweating bullets. You know? I’m like, I don’t know what I’m doing here. Hopefully, I just talked to the person and pour some samples. And it’s, like, a Thursday night. Like, I don’t know what to expect. And I walk in, and there’s, like, a bunch of people, and I have to, like, get the person I need to talk to over to the table and, like, you know, meet with him and crack the ball.

Marshall Petryni [00:17:14]:

They’re like, oh, let’s crack some balls. I’m like, alright. Yeah. We’re just gonna do this now. Like, that’s fine. And, it turned out to be, a Seattle cider tap takeover night.

Scott Cowan [00:17:25]:

Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:17:26]:

So there were all these people from Seattle cider, hanging about. And Seattle cider this time when they were, like you know, they’re a few years in, an already established company. And so they’re coming over and trying the cider. And I’m just like, oh, this is, like, you know, our 1st batch, like, 1st professional batch. And, I don’t know what I’m doing, and all these pros are coming over and, like, tasting it. Yeah. It was I I don’t know. I probably probably sweat through a couple clothes couple pairs of clothes.

Scott Cowan [00:17:59]:

It’s all good. You survived.

Marshall Petryni [00:18:02]:

Yep. But, that was the first sales call. Yep.

Scott Cowan [00:18:06]:

And and they ordered?

Marshall Petryni [00:18:09]:

Continue to order this day. So, I’ve I’ve had a very long relationship with them. And a lot of it was, you know, kinda going after the low hanging fruit first. People who I knew from, like, you know, my hometown or, from the music industry or whoever working in bars and stuff.

Scott Cowan [00:18:25]:

Right.

Marshall Petryni [00:18:27]:

And just trying to just trying to pitch pitch them on, have them try it. And, yeah, a lot of them, you know, over the years, like, put a lot of faith in us. And, we, you know, slowly figure things out and, you know, just continue to try to do do something better every time. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:18:47]:

What you said it was a heritage. Do you think the first was that a heritage kind of blend that you took over?

Marshall Petryni [00:18:55]:

Yeah. It was, it’s actually the majority of that blend was from one tree that we now release a special, like, single varietal. It’s called, we’re we’re 90% sure it’s called, Hollandbury Admirable. It’s we we haven’t had it haven’t been able to identify it. We’ve taken it to several experts. The grower the the owner of the tree has taken it to several experts. And it’s Wait.

Scott Cowan [00:19:22]:

Wait. Are you talking are you are you saying it’s coming from one tree?

Marshall Petryni [00:19:27]:

Yeah. It’s 1 one, 100 year old 100 plus year old tree.

Scott Cowan [00:19:31]:

One tree. Not Wenatchee or or No. But one one tree.

Marshall Petryni [00:19:38]:

One single one single tree. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:19:40]:

I’ve heard of, you know, single varietals before. I’ve never thought of them as coming from a single tree. Yeah. Well That’s that’s amazing. This appears to be a loss to loss variety as far as

Marshall Petryni [00:19:50]:

we can tell. It was and the only reason we are anywhere close to certain that it’s this variety is because it was documented in the tomological study at the turn of the century when this orchard was put in place, when this was homestead was was built.

Scott Cowan [00:20:10]:

Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:20:11]:

And so it’s very and and the way it looks in the watercolor and the way it looks, you know, in real life. K. And, the differences from all the other varieties that look and taste similar to it is just like this seems like it’s this apple. And, you know, maybe it’s it’s gone on another name now, and it might just be the same as some other russet But Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:20:35]:

Well Okay. Okay. Welcome to the rabbit hole.

Marshall Petryni [00:20:39]:

Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:20:40]:

So this is your first your first commercial release. It’s coming from at that well, it was blended with some other stuff, but you, how on earth did you guys source from one particular tree as as a brand new business Mhmm. I would have thought you would have been using a pretty common cider fruit, and we’re gonna we’re gonna talk about how you go around the sale of neighborhoods stealing apples from the neighbors so that I’m kidding. But but how did you guys come across this? How how did that happen? I that feels like that’s a cool story that needs to be shared.

Marshall Petryni [00:21:21]:

I mean, yeah. I we were always just scrounging for fruit. Like, we were uh-huh. Yeah. But but

Scott Cowan [00:21:28]:

still scrounging for fruit and finding Wenatchee, Cowan. That’s like the needle in the haystack type thing. So there’s gotta be another. Meat. Come on.

Marshall Petryni [00:21:33]:

Spell the beans. It’s it’s one of those it’s one of those just lucky things where, like, you know, I had a friend who who had a friend who bought this property out outside of Bellingham, and had all these apple trees on it. And Uh-huh. It was just like and pretty and he was like, you know, he’d been there for a year or something by then, and he, like, knew which ones he liked, and he knew knew which ones he didn’t like. And the one he didn’t like was the one he didn’t know what to do with, which was this weird kind of funky, russeted apple that didn’t have a lot of, you know, didn’t have a lot of juice to it. It was kinda had, like, a little bit of bitterness to it. It was like, you know, it’s not something that you would necessarily just, like, eat or turn into sauce or something. Or Right.

Marshall Petryni [00:22:16]:

So he was kinda like, I don’t know what to do with this. Like, it’s a it’s a big tree. It’s, you know, and sometimes some years it has, like, close to a £1,000 on it. And so we were like, yeah. We’ll come up and get it. And and literally every year since, it’s we we go up there and and pick and you know, he’s done some extensive pruning to it to kinda cut it Cowan. And some years, there’s, like, you know, £500 on it, but, it’s, you know, one of those old standard, you know, 20 to 30 foot tall trees. And The

Scott Cowan [00:22:48]:

old school apple tree, not the trussed up things that we see over here in Central Washington.

Marshall Petryni [00:22:53]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:22:54]:

Well, let me ask you. So you said this tree, one tree, 500 to a £1,000. How much cider does that translate to?

Marshall Petryni [00:23:04]:

That one that one can be between, like that’s only probably 30 to, like, 60 gallons.

Scott Cowan [00:23:14]:

So it’s a real limited run that you’re doing with that?

Marshall Petryni [00:23:16]:

Yeah. That’s a very limited run we do. And we’ve done things with that one where we have, you know, we save a little bit from the year before. We’ll have, like, a slightly larger we’ll age 1 for, like, you know, 18 months and age the other for only 6 months and then blend the 2.

Scott Cowan [00:23:32]:

Blend them. Got it. Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:23:34]:

But yeah, and it’s a very it’s a very limited run that we do all these things that are very limited, and it’s probably a dumb idea. No.

Scott Cowan [00:23:42]:

No. I don’t know. It’s just

Marshall Petryni [00:23:44]:

a lot of work, but it’s a

Scott Cowan [00:23:46]:

What’s your tagline? Making Sutter the hard way or something like that?

Marshall Petryni [00:23:51]:

Sutter the hard way. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:23:52]:

Sutter the hard way. Well, sounds now you’ve given us good reason. I mean, that’s okay. So you so it was just kind of connections that you had. A friend of a friend happened to be in in in washing the trees happened to be kinda local. You could go get the fruit, bring it back, dress it, look, age it, make make your magic. Okay. And one thing you didn’t say, you started the story.

Scott Cowan [00:24:19]:

Seattle Cider Cowan was there. They were trying your ciders. What did those people say? It was their tap takeover night, and you’re and you’re there you didn’t know. You were there pitching your your you’re pitching a brand that under tap Yeah. Yeah. But but what did they say?

Marshall Petryni [00:24:36]:

They all liked it. You know, they were all very nice. They all really liked it. And, yeah, I mean, that none of them were like

Scott Cowan [00:24:44]:

You didn’t find your tire slashed in the in the parking lot? No. I heard none

Marshall Petryni [00:24:48]:

of that. You know? I wasn’t

Scott Cowan [00:24:50]:

I wasn’t, you know, getting threatened in any way. Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:24:56]:

Yeah. I I don’t know. I I to be to be fair, it was a bit of a blur the whole night.

Scott Cowan [00:25:00]:

That’s fair. It’s okay. And I’ll It’s so nice. A good story. Yeah. It was. It was. It was, yeah, it

Marshall Petryni [00:25:05]:

was not what I was expecting my first, you know, it was a cold call, cold sales call.

Scott Cowan [00:25:10]:

Like Oh, it was a cold call too.

Marshall Petryni [00:25:11]:

Yeah. Wow. I just I just walked in with a couple of bottles to see if I could talk to the right person, and then the whole thing happened. And

Scott Cowan [00:25:18]:

Those are the best stories, though, if we if we’re being if we’re being honest. Those those are the best stories if you can. Alright. So you start there. That’s they become your first account. Let’s let’s rapidly fast forward to to April of 2024. Approximately how many places are you guys on tap at any given moment?

Marshall Petryni [00:25:41]:

Any given moment is probably probably around 80 places. Not a lot not a lot, but, like, you know, we’re mostly in the Seattle area. We do a little bit to Bellingham, a little bit to Tacoma, a little bit to Leavenworth

Scott Cowan [00:26:01]:

Mhmm.

Marshall Petryni [00:26:02]:

Wenatchee. So and, you know, a lot of it’s rotational stuff and

Scott Cowan [00:26:07]:

Right.

Marshall Petryni [00:26:08]:

But but, you know, I mean, you I’m usually reaching out to 150 to 200 people every week or so just to, you know some people work, some people don’t. You know? Some people are just bottle people grocery store accounts, you know, that sort of thing.

Scott Cowan [00:26:22]:

So And then bottles, and we’ll reverse engineer it as of April 2024. How many places are you on on for sale approximately with bottles?

Marshall Petryni [00:26:34]:

Oh, probably probably more. Yeah. Probably, like, a 100, a 120 to k. 100, 150 ish. I don’t know. We’re at Total Wine. We’re at PCC

Scott Cowan [00:26:49]:

K.

Marshall Petryni [00:26:50]:

In the Seattle area. We’re at Town and Country Markets. So we got a number of grocery stores we work with as well as, like, pretty much every bottle shop

Scott Cowan [00:26:58]:

in the area. Right. Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:27:00]:

Yeah. I have not even touched on the farmer’s

Scott Cowan [00:27:02]:

market yet.

Marshall Petryni [00:27:03]:

Right. But

Scott Cowan [00:27:04]:

Alright. So let’s let’s go back, though. You started with kegs. When did you start adding bottles into the equation, and what was the motivation for bottling? And I’m I’ve heard a rumor that your pro bottle, maybe not pro can. But you you guys made the choice to bottle. What was the motivation to go into bottles?

Marshall Petryni [00:27:36]:

That was I think that was 20 17. So we had been in the business for a couple years selling cider, in kegs. And then the motivation was, so my other business was a a farmer’s market food stand.

Scott Cowan [00:27:54]:

K.

Marshall Petryni [00:27:56]:

And so I already had kind of a in with the farmer’s market community here in Seattle. And I think they were, or certain markets at least were looking for, another alcohol vendor, another, you know, cider vendor. So that was kind of the motivation. Like, look. If we can bottle, we can start attending farmers markets, you know, or or selling kegs wholesale right now, and it’d be it’d be great to, and we’ve, you know, no plans for a tasting room, even to this day. So it’s it’s a nice way to interact with the community and and sell bottles directly to customers.

Scott Cowan [00:28:36]:

To gain a

Marshall Petryni [00:28:37]:

little bit more of that profit. Right?

Scott Cowan [00:28:39]:

So Inspiration was the farmers to to get into the farmers market arena.

Marshall Petryni [00:28:44]:

Yes. Okay. Yes. What was the first

Scott Cowan [00:28:48]:

what was the first farmer’s market?

Marshall Petryni [00:28:50]:

Oh, I don’t remember. It would have been we did I think that 1st year, we probably did, like, Lake Forest Park and maybe Columbia City. There’s, I think, a couple organizations that we were working with. But it was probably no more than, like, 4 maybe in the week,

Scott Cowan [00:29:20]:

maybe less than that even. I don’t remember. I’d have

Marshall Petryni [00:29:22]:

to go back and look. But

Scott Cowan [00:29:24]:

So those from my understanding of the farmers markets in the Greater Seattle area, those those 2 that you mentioned are they’re not like the Ballard, you know, the Ballard, you know, they’re not I mean, that that one’s massive, but they’re really good community farmers markets.

Marshall Petryni [00:29:40]:

They are. They’re like they’re, you know, your your Sunday in the summer market that Yeah. People cook for fresh produce and

Scott Cowan [00:29:46]:

Exactly. So

Marshall Petryni [00:29:47]:

it’s, yeah. They’re not they’re not big, but they’re they’re important to to the community. So

Scott Cowan [00:29:53]:

Right. And how how was the cider received at the farmer’s market? Good. Okay. Well, I mean, you know, it’s see, a a good friend of mine used to sell spice rubs at various markets around the Seattle area, and he struggled with how to sample the product. Like, how do you sample a spice rub?

Marshall Petryni [00:30:19]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:30:21]:

So he worked through various iterations of how to do that. Some successful, some not, but he did real well at Edmunds and at Ballard. Those were 2 that he ultimately got into that did did well for him. Mhmm. Were you able to sample? Are you I I I don’t remember. Can you sample alcohol at a farmer’s market?

Marshall Petryni [00:30:41]:

You can. You have to get a special endorsement from the liquor control board, which isn’t hard to get. But, yeah, you can sample. You got any of those rules with, like, how much you can sample

Scott Cowan [00:30:53]:

Right.

Marshall Petryni [00:30:55]:

And all that. But, yeah, it’s it’s not super hard, but it is a bit of an education, you know, both for the customer and for the people who are sampling.

Scott Cowan [00:31:07]:

Mhmm.

Marshall Petryni [00:31:07]:

We gotta know what they’re sampling, why they’re sampling it.

Scott Cowan [00:31:11]:

Right.

Marshall Petryni [00:31:11]:

And and also, you know, telling the story and and giving the customer kind of a lowdown on on what’s going on. So that’s a little bit of a thing, I suppose.

Scott Cowan [00:31:21]:

But Well, yeah, you’ve Scott a you’ve got a yeah. Absolutely. So Yeah. Are you guys currently doing farmer’s markets?

Marshall Petryni [00:31:29]:

Yeah. Yeah. We’re we’re I think we’re gonna be at 9 a week this summer.

Scott Cowan [00:31:35]:

Really? And so now now I’m gonna put you on the spot. Which ones?

Marshall Petryni [00:31:40]:

Okay. I have to know this. Wallingford, Lake City, Snohomish, Oregon, a little for the north. Mhmm. We’re gonna do a few days at Queen Anne, which is a new one for us. Finney

Scott Cowan [00:31:56]:

K.

Marshall Petryni [00:31:57]:

Edmonds, Shoreline, Magnolia, Ballard, Lake Forest Park, Capitol Hill. That seems like more than 9.

Scott Cowan [00:32:06]:

So more than 9. Yeah. But but that’s that’s good representation. I’m teasing I’m teasing you. Why aren’t you going south? Why aren’t you going down to, say, Tacoma or Puyallup?

Marshall Petryni [00:32:15]:

I would love so here’s the problem. I would love to go to Tacoma. The problem is I would probably personally have to do it to make make it work, and I promised my partner not to work every day of the week, as as is. So I’m leaving Saturdays off for you know, I’ll I’ll get the Tacoma eventually. I love Tacoma. I love you know, you can see that I’m wearing a Tacoma

Scott Cowan [00:32:43]:

I know.

Marshall Petryni [00:32:43]:

Right now.

Scott Cowan [00:32:44]:

I grew up there. I get it. Yeah. I grew I grew up yeah. It’s a cool town in its own way.

Marshall Petryni [00:32:50]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:32:51]:

How about Bellingham, though? I mean, because that’s another big farmers. I once again, probably the same thing. You you’d probably have to be the one doing it, time off, etcetera.

Marshall Petryni [00:32:59]:

Well, I think, you know, I had a lot of friends up there who who did the farmer’s market. And when we were looking to into a recent or, like, previously, I think they have Bellingham’s a little more specific with their rules. You kinda have to be either from the Whatcom County or Okay. Or maybe they expanded to Skagit too now. But

Scott Cowan [00:33:21]:

Right.

Marshall Petryni [00:33:21]:

You kinda have to be located up there, which is fine. Like No.

Scott Cowan [00:33:24]:

It’s a it’s kind of a I I forgot about that aspect of it, to be honest with you. Yeah. Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:33:28]:

It’s a gray market.

Scott Cowan [00:33:29]:

But Alright. So we started the bottles to get into kind of the farmers market. I’m on your website right now. Mhmm. And I gonna have to count on my hands to see how many varieties you guys are currently selling. You guys carry, at least on your website, a lot of varieties. Mhmm. You’re chuckling.

Scott Cowan [00:33:52]:

There’s gotta be stories. Why why are you guys just the mad scientist? You’ve gotta you gotta tinker and or what’s what’s the backstory for all the varieties?

Marshall Petryni [00:34:04]:

Yeah. I it’s it’s a little bit of that where we always we always wanna be experimenting. We always wanna be doing new stuff. We always wanna kinda be trying to do new styles. So it’s a little bit of that. You know, that that’s more fun for us. And, also, you know, like I said, I was I was kinda forced into the sales position. So if if we had just one product and I had to go out there and and sell that one thing, I would I would probably be no good at it.

Marshall Petryni [00:34:40]:

I would probably be, you know be bored. I would be bored. I would probably get fired.

Scott Cowan [00:34:46]:

From your own company. Well, that happens. It does happen.

Marshall Petryni [00:34:50]:

So it’s it’s more work to put all these things together, but it but it saves us, I guess, leg work on the sales side where we can we can present all these different things, and there’s something for somebody. And if there’s not, there’ll be something new next week.

Scott Cowan [00:35:08]:

So Okay. As as we look, I’m gonna just start rattling. We’ve got your dry, we’ve got hops, fire roasted pepper, huckleberry, lingonberry, blackcurrant, Asian pear, Seattle scrumpy, which we’ll talk about, community crab apple, which I wanna talk about, palms and palms, hips and tips, red flesh, Holland Berry admirable. Okay. I gotta take a break. Jersey, Glen, Kingston, Blackberry, scrumpy, black barrel aged Seattle, scrumpy, barrel aged heirloom and Kingston black. Okay. So of all those that I just rattled off, I’m gonna guess that maybe your dry is your best seller?

Marshall Petryni [00:35:44]:

Our dry by by volume, our dry is our best seller. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:35:47]:

Okay. Now I’m gonna ask you a very hard question. What’s your favorite? As of tonight, if you were to pop a open if you were to pop a bottle open right now, what would it be tonight?

Marshall Petryni [00:36:06]:

On that list, I would probably I would probably pop open a scrumpy.

Scott Cowan [00:36:14]:

Okay. So the way you said it on that list, it makes me sound like there’s a secret menu, like, if we’re going to, In N Out Burger or something. Is there Well, I mean, the thing that yes.

Marshall Petryni [00:36:26]:

Kind of. There’s you know, we’re a small company, and I I’m in charge of updating the website. So there are a couple of things that aren’t aren’t posted yet

Scott Cowan [00:36:34]:

Oh, okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:36:36]:

Which are very good, and I’m liking because they’re new. But and then we also do you know, in addition to all those bottles, we also do, like, 1 or 2 new draft flavors every week.

Scott Cowan [00:36:49]:

Every week?

Marshall Petryni [00:36:50]:

Usually. Yeah. Yeah. And these are these are small very small batches. You know, usually usually test batches. Sometimes they get bigger, and sometimes they develop into, you know, full blown bottle offerings.

Scott Cowan [00:37:06]:

Right.

Marshall Petryni [00:37:08]:

So, yeah, it’s it’s you know, some of that stuff, like, you know, obviously isn’t making the list on the website, but, but the scrumpy the scrumpy is magic, and and I would drink that any day of the week. So

Scott Cowan [00:37:20]:

Okay. Before we go down exploring Scrumpy, I’m gonna put you on the spot with another question, but I’d love this question, and I like to ask it of guests. And your partners are sitting around. You’re like, we should put a little of this with that and, you know, and it sounded good on paper. Care to share a failure? Like, was there has there been, I mean, I Scott believe if we’re being honest that there’s been something that sounded better than it really was, but you learned something from the process too. Yes.

Marshall Petryni [00:38:01]:

Yes. Pairs, in particular, are a real pain, at least for us. We always struggle with pairs. Last year, we did a a pair a just pair, Dianna, I think just Dianna, you pair, bottle bottle and draft release because it was the first pair that was suitable for consumption by itself. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:38:30]:

Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:38:32]:

So, you know, you know, we have other pair things that like, the Asian pairs are fine. They’re completely different beast. You know, we do a lot of Asian pair stuff. But, like, every time we try to do a pair thing, it’s usually we gotta kinda blend it in with little bit something because it’s just it’s just not good enough by itself. It’s just like there’s something a little off.

Scott Cowan [00:38:47]:

Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:38:49]:

So pairs. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:38:52]:

Okay. Pairs. Right. Good enough.

Marshall Petryni [00:38:54]:

Some of that’s, you know, we’re we’re we’re, you know, doing the same thing and expecting a different result every time we do it. But, you know, I’ve we’ve talked with with people who do, like, independent out in your neck of the woods. I’ve heard that they spent many years perfecting their pear recipe before it ever hit the market. So

Scott Cowan [00:39:16]:

Yeah. Over here in Wenatchee well, they’re in east Wenatchee with Snowdrift Cider in their parries

Marshall Petryni [00:39:22]:

Yes.

Scott Cowan [00:39:23]:

Are, you know, kind of well well known or

Marshall Petryni [00:39:26]:

They’ve they’ve got them dialed in for sure.

Scott Cowan [00:39:28]:

Well and they literally I mean, they’re rotating the you know, when it’s in the bottle, they’re rotating the bottles to keep the you know, like champagne, you know, for the fermentation thing. And they’re very that’s that’s something that they take great pride in is their their pears and all that. Okay. Let’s okay. Seattle cider. Not a lot of trees in Seattle, so you’re sourcing your apples from various places. And I’m reading off the website. Founded in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle in 2015, we turn waste into resource by making cider from forgotten and foraged fruits picked from around the city and deep within the Pacific Northwest forest.

Scott Cowan [00:40:14]:

Cool. That approach continues today. In addition to the more standard Washington apples, we use apples from local farms, small homesteads, and abandoned orchards. We press and produce everything right in the city, keeping our hands in the process from start to finish and the cider as local as possible. It’s an uncompromising blend of modern taste and traditional cider making. Alright. Yeah. Trespassing, man.

Scott Cowan [00:40:39]:

Abandoned orchards. That’s called trespassing.

Marshall Petryni [00:40:42]:

And we’ve had the cough called on us. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:40:44]:

Have you really? Oh my gosh. Okay. No. So walk me through harvest season for you guys. It’s not like you’re going down to Town and Country Market and buying a bin of Granny Smith apples and pressing them. It’s not like there’s a lot of trees in Seattle for you, and we’re gonna come to that a little bit. But there’s not, you know, it’s not like you got an orchard in your backyard. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:41:09]:

What’s it take for you guys to source all this on an annual basis?

Marshall Petryni [00:41:13]:

It’s it’s a lot of it’s a lot of work. I say that I, you know, tell people that driving with me during harvest season is very dangerous time because I’m I’m often rubbernecking for every apple tree I see.

Scott Cowan [00:41:29]:

K.

Marshall Petryni [00:41:31]:

And I usually gotta pull over and, you know, grab it, see if it’s right, you know, see how it tastes. K. Label it, you know, for later if I wanna come back to it or whatever. But,

Scott Cowan [00:41:43]:

yeah, it’s it’s, there’s a lot

Marshall Petryni [00:41:46]:

of that. There’s a lot of working with small, orchards, on the west side of the mountains. We tend to there’s a few people who work on the east side, but we tend to, you know, just leave that for, like, the more traditional fruit, more, standard table fruit stuff. Mhmm. So it’s kind of like getting the perishable stuff while we can, getting as most as much unique stuff as we can. Right. Crab apples, you know, whatever. You know, we can go into the the stuff around the city too whenever you’re ready for that.

Scott Cowan [00:42:22]:

Yeah. We’re gonna get there.

Marshall Petryni [00:42:24]:

So it is it is a lot of coordination. It does a lot of, like, you know, having a grower call us on a Tuesday, being like, can you come get these apples tomorrow? Taking the taking the truck out there and get getting however many they have. So it’s it’s it’s a a bit of running around. It’s a bit of being, like, kinda all hands on deck for a few months. Right. And and it’s, you know, it’s a bit of trying to remind ourselves why we do this.

Scott Cowan [00:43:00]:

So I’m drawing a connection between, City for the nonprofit and Scrumpy. Maybe I’m wrong. But

Marshall Petryni [00:43:11]:

Yeah. The the the Seattle scrumpy and the community crabapple, and and the plums and plums and the hips and tips

Scott Cowan [00:43:18]:

Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:43:19]:

Are all are all city city fruit related, city fruit.

Scott Cowan [00:43:24]:

So let’s talk about city fruit. I interviewed, with Seattle Cider Company, and they were doing a a CityFruit collaboration. Yep. And you’re doing a CityFruit collaboration?

Marshall Petryni [00:43:36]:

Yep.

Scott Cowan [00:43:37]:

For somebody who hasn’t listened to that episode who’s maybe not in the Seattle area, what what is CityFruit, and why is it so important?

Marshall Petryni [00:43:46]:

So CityFruit is a nonprofit that gathers up fruit from all over the city. They work with parks and, private entities and, you know, people just people in their houses. They, you know, have a whole team of volunteers. They get a lot of, like, you know, people come in and help them pick for, you know, whatever events. They’ve got, you know, staff on hand as well. So they do a lot of just running around, getting this stuff, trying to essentially make all this food not go to waste. You know, they they do a lot of giving to food banks. They do a lot of free food giveaways in various neighborhoods around Seattle.

Marshall Petryni [00:44:33]:

I think they still sell the restaurants and stuff, like the pretty stuff that they can get. I’m not entirely sure about that, so don’t quote me on that. And then they also give fruit to people like us in Seattle Cider.

Scott Cowan [00:44:48]:

And you take it. And thinking back to my college days, thinking Spodie, we just dump it all in and something’s found attached. There’s a little more science here. I I get it. But you you don’t you don’t get to go. Can we have, you know, £500 of this and a £100 of that? You kind of get this here. Mhmm. You blend it together into something drinkable.

Scott Cowan [00:45:17]:

Mhmm. And I if I remember correctly reading this, they get a pros a a a proceeds from each sale.

Marshall Petryni [00:45:27]:

Yeah. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:45:30]:

So it’s a product that helps raise funds for a nonprofit that’s trying to reduce food waste in the Greater Seattle area. But how do you how do you go from a how do you make cider? How do you make something, you know, delicious out of random, primarily, probably, you know, dessert fruit. Right? Mhmm.

Marshall Petryni [00:45:53]:

Yeah. There’s definitely a lot of dessert fruit and things you probably don’t usually wanna be making cider with, that make it into the mix. But, there’s also stuff that that that you do Wenatchee excited with, fallen in there. So it’s it’s kind of I don’t know. We say that it’s it’s almost always the case that a blend is better. K. There’s there’s few single varietals that really stand alone, enough to kinda be, you know, drinkable. And you can make a single varietal of anything, but a single varietal Red Delicious is not the same as a single varietal Kings and Black.

Marshall Petryni [00:46:32]:

So, and in this in in most cases, a blend is always better. Okay. So yeah. And if you think of it that way, it’s just one big blend.

Scott Cowan [00:46:42]:

Okay. Alright. For the audience that we’ve we’ve mentioned the word scrumpy a half dozen times so far, what is your definition of a scrumpy?

Marshall Petryni [00:46:54]:

Our definition is is kind of is like forging these these forgotten things. Stealing might be another term for it. A lot of the times, what we say is just it’s indiscriminate. It’s it’s, we’ll take what you Scott. We’ll take what we can get sort of thing. So, I don’t I’m sure there’s a different definition in in the, you know, the motherland and England, where the term comes from.

Scott Cowan [00:47:25]:

Well, so Google says the term scrumpy is defined as cider made from unwanted, undesirable, or fallen apples, and it typically has a high alcohol content.

Marshall Petryni [00:47:39]:

Yeah. I mean, ours, you know, varies, in alcohol content, but I think I think a lot of that is, like, leftover stuff that tends to be kind of you’re tired from the season. All this fruit is still falling, and that’s the stuff that is is usually has concentrated sugars, and tends to be higher in alcohol. We kinda use, yeah, Sketchoffer everything. So

Scott Cowan [00:48:04]:

I actually prefer your description of scrumpy here on your website. Your scrump you’re scrumpy 7.1. This is the marketing folks that sells us. We simply forgot what apples went into this batch. A true scrumpy. End of the season apples picked from an orchard in the cascade foothills. This heirloom cider is robust and earthy with a strong apple aroma. We simply forgot what apples went into this batch.

Scott Cowan [00:48:31]:

That’s true. Truth in advertising. Finally. I love it. I have been I have been chuckling at that this entire episode when I when I see it on my screen. I I’ve been waiting to figure out how I’m gonna bring that up.

Marshall Petryni [00:48:45]:

I think I think this is what I mean when I say the cider world doesn’t take themselves too seriously. It’s like, you know, we just forgot, like, and it’s But it doesn’t

Scott Cowan [00:48:53]:

but but here’s the difference. You just forgot, but it still tastes good. It’s not like we forgot and we don’t care.

Marshall Petryni [00:48:58]:

Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Scott Cowan [00:48:59]:

You know, it it’s still you know? Now we could go on and on and on about your center process, but I mean, the last probably technical, you know, please explain your reasoning question is barrel aged. You’ve got the the heirloom, the scrumpy. I think those are the only 2 I’m seeing right now. What type of barrels? Cause I don’t have that open. What type of barrels are you aging in and why do you think barrel aging is becoming so popular?

Marshall Petryni [00:49:33]:

I’ll answer the second question first. I think it’s popular because it’s good. It it adds complexity. It adds a different flavor to it. From a business standpoint, you typically can charge more for barrel aged things. You tend to get some residual alcohol from the wood leaching out.

Scott Cowan [00:49:58]:

Mhmm.

Marshall Petryni [00:49:59]:

So for ABVs get to be a little bit higher. You know, it just becomes a more complex drink.

Scott Cowan [00:50:05]:

Right.

Marshall Petryni [00:50:06]:

So that’s one one reason. And what we the barrels we typically use, we love bourbon

Scott Cowan [00:50:15]:

barrels k.

Marshall Petryni [00:50:15]:

When we can get them. But we also work with Westland here in Seattle. They make a fantastic, well, they make several fantastic whiskeys. Mhmm. But they do we’ve used, I think, a couple of their single malt whiskey barrels. We’ve used their peated whiskey barrels. So they do, like Cowan typically with that one, we’ll do a peach cider in in the peach whiskey barrels, and that’s got a serious cult cult favorite going

Scott Cowan [00:50:51]:

on there. That sounds that sounds yeah. When does that come out?

Marshall Petryni [00:50:58]:

Well, we don’t have any in the tanks right now or in the barrels. So So that’s a barrel exchange program that they do. So it’s kind of up to them what they have available, and I’m not sure how much they’re doing it anymore. So on the flip side, presumably, they will be coming out with a Greenwood Cider focused whiskey release, which probably will be in the next year or 2. I don’t know what they’re what or maybe they won’t. Maybe they’re like, oh, this is garbage. We’re gonna we’re just gonna eat this one. But, so yeah.

Marshall Petryni [00:51:31]:

But the peat the peat we call it we call it peach with a t in the middle.

Scott Cowan [00:51:38]:

Because

Marshall Petryni [00:51:38]:

some people some people pronounce p p h. So but it’s it’s there’s some serious serious lovers of that cider. And, yeah, it’s it’s like it’s like what you’re saying. People are like, when is it coming back?

Scott Cowan [00:51:53]:

Right.

Marshall Petryni [00:51:55]:

But yeah. And then we do, like, some we did a this winter, we did a cherry cider in I don’t know how to pronounce it. It’s ginger ginger barrels. It’s it’s a Portuguese liqueur that woodenville whiskey aged, a bourbon in. So it had bourbon in it, and it had this cherry Portuguese liqueur that we didn’t barrel aged a cherry cider in, which was fantastic. So it’s kind of, you know, like we said before, whatever we get our hands on, we’re we’re willing to try and throw it in. And and sometimes we’ll also do after the barrels have been used once and gotten all that flavor out, we usually will try to do, like, a, an oak fermented thing in those second use kind of closer to neutral oak barrels. But

Scott Cowan [00:52:48]:

Alright. So you’ve got some curated cider boxes, 3, 6, and 12 bottles. People can we’re gonna put a link in the show notes. They can go to your website, find find it, and all that. Also, if you’ll you know, I’ll put a link to a couple of the places that I know your stuff’s at on the west side and on the east side so that, you know, if you’re in the area, I should should check it out. But I wanna we’re gonna I think we’ve I think we squeezed all the juice out of that. Sorry. It’s really it’s really that was bad.

Scott Cowan [00:53:22]:

But I I do I wanna talk because I wasn’t prepared for this. A funk band? I was listening to some of this stuff. Where where no. And how did you you started this, okay, from your mom’s article. You you started this in middle school. Right? And Yeah. Okay. Are you are you playing now? Are you are you are you playing publicly now?

Marshall Petryni [00:53:53]:

I am not. I’d I had a group before the pandemic that was starting to play, and then the pandemic happened. Had kids and people moved away, so that group kinda split up. And drums are a little bit harder to, kinda make work Cowan, like, you know, I’m just gonna just gonna practice these in my apartment sort of situation. Yeah. So but I don’t I don’t play, publicly really anymore. Andy still does. He he’s a guitar player, and he he still plays quite a bit.

Marshall Petryni [00:54:33]:

He’s got some friends who still, utilizes his services and

Scott Cowan [00:54:38]:

Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:54:38]:

People around town. So

Scott Cowan [00:54:40]:

But how did you go the funk genre?

Marshall Petryni [00:54:45]:

The funk genre. So, yeah, when when, you know, as a young, very young person in middle school and, early high school, yeah, just really got into to funk music.

Scott Cowan [00:55:00]:

But this is in Bellingham. Right?

Marshall Petryni [00:55:01]:

Yeah. This is in Bellingham.

Scott Cowan [00:55:03]:

Scott exactly the funk capital of the Pacific Northwest. No. It’s Scott, you know

Marshall Petryni [00:55:10]:

Yeah. It’s it’s Scott. I mean, it’s like a town full of, you know, mostly white people. It’s like, you know, it’s like a college, and they have some, like, eclectic people there. Yeah. But it’s like it’s not, you know, it’s not it’s and it’s not necessarily a music mecca either. They do a lot of music stuff. You know? Oh, they they do a handful of music stuff now.

Marshall Petryni [00:55:28]:

But Yeah. It’s a small town. But there were, you know, a few people that were, like, you know, kinda doing it. Like, we’re, like I think they were college age when we were in high school or a few years old in this. They were kinda doing some some cool stuff. And, my buddy who lives down the street from me, one of my one of my great friends from however long I lived in Bellingham, he was you know, got really into music. He kinda he kinda I don’t know if you Cowan think back to the middle school days when you’re in, like you know, you’re getting put into orchestra or band or whatever, and and they’re just kinda giving you an instrument to play. Mhmm.

Marshall Petryni [00:56:14]:

You know, you know, public schools being what they are, you don’t exactly have a choice. So it’s like, he got handed a tuba.

Scott Cowan [00:56:21]:

I got handed a baritone. So Yeah. Stuff. Mhmm.

Marshall Petryni [00:56:24]:

Yeah. But he ended up he ended up taking that thing all the way to, to getting his doctorate. Really? Yep. So

Scott Cowan [00:56:32]:

I gave it up as quick as I could. Like, oh,

Marshall Petryni [00:56:36]:

one of those is the smarter move. I’m not sure which. But Well,

Scott Cowan [00:56:39]:

you know, to his credit, he he stuck with it. I mean, that’s awesome.

Marshall Petryni [00:56:43]:

Yeah. Yeah. He’s yeah. And he, so he grew up down the street from me. We were we were best friends for a long time and played music. He’s he’s lives in Switzerland now, and he’s playing playing gigs in castles and stuff. But,

Scott Cowan [00:56:56]:

Okay. So

Marshall Petryni [00:56:58]:

but he he was very into fungal music too. We were all you know, had our little kinda dorky funk niche that we were doing. And

Scott Cowan [00:57:07]:

See, what I like about that is, like, it’s just not mainstream in the sense it’s in the sense that it’s great music, like Mm-mm. But is a middle school kid in Bellingham if I were to ask the question of the audience, what style music did Marshall play in middle school? Funk would not have been the popular choice answer. So I like that it’s kind of different. Yeah. I like that it’s kind of creative. Mhmm. I and I I so I’m I’m not making fun of you. I’m actually thinking this is pretty damn cool.

Scott Cowan [00:57:54]:

Alright. So maybe you should, you know, practice the drums again and get back. I don’t know.

Marshall Petryni [00:58:00]:

Yeah. I should. I should.

Scott Cowan [00:58:02]:

I mean, you got plenty of time. You get one day off. Right? You can just Yeah.

Marshall Petryni [00:58:05]:

Yeah. Exactly. Come on.

Scott Cowan [00:58:07]:

Alright. So when you’re not running a cider company, when you’re not ninja fruit picking, when you’re not, you know, driving around, you know, sales calls, delivering kegs and bottles, What do you like to do for fun?

Marshall Petryni [00:58:29]:

I like to get outdoors. You know, it’s kind of a cliche answer, but hiking is great. Camping is great. I do I do like to be active. I got a soccer team here that I really appreciate. It’s a good weekly weekly event. Gets a little heated. I know it’s a week.

Marshall Petryni [00:58:51]:

Yeah. Okay. And I like to garden. I got a got a little garden going, little vegetable garden going, and, you know, back go back to kinda, like, rather just pick my own food Cowan buy it.

Scott Cowan [00:59:06]:

Fair enough. So where’s a great hike you like to go on? What’s a what’s a little known hike that’s now you’re gonna share it, and it’s gonna become popular. But, you know, what’s a little known off the beaten path hike you like to go on? Off the beaten path. Yeah.

Marshall Petryni [00:59:25]:

Well, this one’s not so off the beaten path, but it’s it’s, it it takes it takes some convincing to do, let’s just say. It’s, it’s out in your neck. It was actually it’s Minotaur, Minotaur Lake, I think, is the name of it. It’s it’s off of Highway 2, down south of Leavenworth.

Scott Cowan [00:59:48]:

Okay.

Marshall Petryni [00:59:49]:

Yep. And it’s it’s a it’s a short one. It’s probably, like, 4 or 5 miles round trip, but it’s straight up. It’s it is the stair climber sort of thing. But when you get up there, there’s this beautiful pristine lake.

Scott Cowan [01:00:04]:

K.

Marshall Petryni [01:00:05]:

And and it’s just gorgeous. It’s a lot it’s it’s a quick a quick one, a hard one, but a very a big payoff in my mind. Alright. Quite nice. So

Scott Cowan [01:00:14]:

See, my idea of a hike is going up the stairs from my office to the my upstairs until but so last weekend, I went over the North Cascades Highway for the first time. Lived here all my life. Never been over the North Cascades Highway before. Mhmm. So opening day was on Friday, drove east to west, and then on Saturday, turnaround came west to east. And that’s amazing. I’m I’m sure you’ve been up there if you like to camp and all that. Have you been up there? If you have, you need

Marshall Petryni [01:00:46]:

to go. It’s I haven’t gone the whole distance. Now I’ve gone to Ross Lake. Oh, that’s beautiful.

Scott Cowan [01:00:51]:

The whole area up there is beautiful. But did you coming from the west side, did you ever have you ever been to Northern State Hospital?

Marshall Petryni [01:01:00]:

I’ve I’ve heard of it.

Scott Cowan [01:01:02]:

Okay.

Marshall Petryni [01:01:03]:

I don’t have ever been. No.

Scott Cowan [01:01:05]:

So I stopped there about 8 o’clock in the morning on Saturday morning. Beautiful morning. Blue blue skies. Right? This is the important part is blue skies. Yeah. And there’s this all these old decrepit, farm buildings.

Marshall Petryni [01:01:21]:

This is a is this outside of Cedro Woolley? Yes. Yes. I have been there.

Scott Cowan [01:01:25]:

And what I got a kick out of was these things falling down. They’re graffiti. I think the only thing holding them up is the paint on the graffiti. And there’s just these polite signs on outside the buildings. These buildings are unsafe, please don’t enter, but they don’t board them up. You can walk right through them. Yeah. I was amazed, and then there’s this one I was walking around.

Scott Cowan [01:01:45]:

They’re great trails out there. You know? Oh, yeah. I’m not in particularly great shape, so I was getting a little, you know, like, okay. How am I gonna get back? I hope somebody can come and carry me. But they’ve got a disc golf course out there. Yeah. Okay. But there’s this one building.

Scott Cowan [01:02:00]:

It looks like an old 2 story farmhouse that’s falling Cowan, and it’s just I mean, it’s bad looking. But right next to it, they’ve mowed the grass because it’s the fairway for the golf course. And it was just like this. I’m not concerned. It’s not a golf course maintained, but it’s, you know, somebody with a riding tractor has gone through and knocked everything Cowan, and it was freshly cut. And yet 6 inches to the left is just this shack that’s caved in on itself.

Marshall Petryni [01:02:30]:

Yeah. It could fall down any moment.

Scott Cowan [01:02:31]:

And I was freaked out, and it was a blue sky out there. I don’t know that I’d ever wanna be there with great cloudy weather because this guy showed up, I I swear, out of nowhere, and he’s wearing all black, and he was jogging, and it freaks me out. Like, what? That’s a cool and it’s beautiful out there. It’s Yeah. Absolutely beautiful. And so that’s not too bad of a jaunt for you

Marshall Petryni [01:02:54]:

No. No. To get

Scott Cowan [01:02:55]:

out there.

Marshall Petryni [01:02:56]:

Lots of stuff. Yeah. A lot of trails around there. It’s it’s very funny. It’s a very weird place. Scott Yeah.

Scott Cowan [01:03:01]:

Yeah. Like like

Marshall Petryni [01:03:02]:

you mentioned, there’s, like, people just there’s a people out there, but then they just kinda, like, you know, show up out of nowhere because they’re hiding in a building or come around a bit. Yeah. And it has a very ominous Scott of deal with that.

Scott Cowan [01:03:14]:

So some standard questions. You’re living in the Seattle area. I love coffee. Where’s a great place for me to go to get coffee?

Marshall Petryni [01:03:25]:

Oh, well, so I don’t really do caffeine too much more. It doesn’t doesn’t sit well with me. But when I did when I did Okay. I was living on her I was living on Phinney Ridge, and I go to Herkimer.

Scott Cowan [01:03:40]:

Okay. Solid. Solid. Okay. Yep.

Marshall Petryni [01:03:43]:

That was a good spot, and I would I would love to go back there any day. So

Scott Cowan [01:03:47]:

Alright. Okay.

Marshall Petryni [01:03:51]:

But, you know you know the city. There’s good spots anywhere.

Scott Cowan [01:03:53]:

There’s yeah. So I mean, you you yeah. You can’t turn around. Alright. But I also like to eat. It’s around lunchtime. Where’s a great place for lunch? Oh, boy. That’s a that’s a little harder.

Scott Cowan [01:04:10]:

Great spot for lunch.

Marshall Petryni [01:04:13]:

I’m you know, went down to Marco Polo in So to. They’ve got a fantastic fried chicken.

Scott Cowan [01:04:24]:

Okay.

Marshall Petryni [01:04:24]:

That was that was good. We were you know, we we had we’d always kinda lived in and around the Greenwood neighborhood, and, there’s a cafe up there called, or, the pub called Duck Island Ale House, and they did a pressure fried chicken.

Scott Cowan [01:04:41]:

K.

Marshall Petryni [01:04:41]:

And so they closed during the pandemic, and we were kinda looking for something ever since. And Marco Polo was it’s a good it’s a good Scott, Marco Polo, for fried chicken.

Scott Cowan [01:04:50]:

Alright. So now let’s pair that fried chicken with one of your ciders. What would be a good cider to complement that?

Marshall Petryni [01:04:59]:

I would probably go with the the dry or or the Seattle’s grumpy, probably. Just a couple easy drinking, relatively light ciders. Okay. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [01:05:13]:

Alright. Two last questions. K. I’m gonna go in my reverse order. K. So you have to answer this question. You you can’t you can’t dodge it. You can’t say no.

Scott Cowan [01:05:23]:

Thank you. It’s and you have to explain your reasoning. K. Alright. Cake or pie, and why?

Marshall Petryni [01:05:34]:

Oh, I’m going

Scott Cowan [01:05:36]:

cake. K. Why?

Marshall Petryni [01:05:39]:

Cake. Frosting? Hey.

Scott Cowan [01:05:48]:

You know, the truth of the sisters maybe. I don’t know. There’s no wrong answer here, by the way. I mean, you’re not, you know, you’re not being judged. You’re not, you know okay. So what type of cake?

Marshall Petryni [01:05:59]:

I’m a big fan of lemon cake.

Scott Cowan [01:06:01]:

Okay.

Marshall Petryni [01:06:02]:

Solid. I like I like something with the sit some acidity to cut that cut that sweetness. But Okay.

Scott Cowan [01:06:07]:

Yeah. Alright. So last question is kind of 2 part. What didn’t we talk about that we should have? And while you’re answering that, tell the audience where where they should find more about Greenwood Cider online.

Marshall Petryni [01:06:24]:

Okay. Well, we didn’t talk about, we talked about a lot.

Scott Cowan [01:06:34]:

Well, I just don’t I would just wanna make sure we didn’t, you know, we didn’t skip something that’s super oh, actually, here’s a question. I’ll put you on

Marshall Petryni [01:06:40]:

the spot.

Scott Cowan [01:06:40]:

Yeah. Yeah. We’re recording this in April. It’ll come out in May, sometime of 2024. Mhmm. What seasonal release is coming out? What what do you guys what do you guys bring into market late spring, early summer?

Marshall Petryni [01:06:55]:

Oh, yeah. I’m glad you asked this question. So we’ll have our summer cider or summer seasonal, which is called blush. It’s strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries. That comes out usually comes out on Memorial Day as soon as we push it to, like, Mother’s Day when a lot of the farmers’ markets are starting. So it comes out mid May.

Scott Cowan [01:07:17]:

K.

Marshall Petryni [01:07:18]:

And it’s just a it’s just a big ol’ berry cider. Very, very tasty. Always does very well in the summer, but we’re also, and you might be getting the scoop here, Scott, coming out with a cosmic crisp in bottles.

Scott Cowan [01:07:37]:

You do cosmic crisp,

Marshall Petryni [01:07:39]:

We mess with everything. So Alright. So we’re trying a cosmic Crisp. We’ve done it before. It’s a very easy drinking cider. Yeah. You know, not super complicated, not super fussy, and we we’ve got we’ve got the label all made up, and and, yeah, that should be coming out mid mid May as well. So

Scott Cowan [01:07:59]:

So that that apple was grown here down the street from me. Mhmm. We’ve had them on to talk about the whole process of bringing an Apple to market. It’s pretty pretty amazing.

Marshall Petryni [01:08:13]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [01:08:14]:

And and and WSU’s cranking I got they got another one ready for market now that they’re coming. They’re name they’re trying to name it. Okay. So you’re doing okay. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Scott Cowan [01:08:26]:

That I tried that. I’ve been wondering if if somebody was really gonna, you know

Marshall Petryni [01:08:32]:

Well, it’ll be it’ll the the funny thing about the licensing since, you know, the trademark, it’s Yeah. The oh, I’m sure you win with over within the whole marketing campaign and, all that side of coming out with a new Apple. So the funny thing about about that is it will be just us in 2 towns out of Oregon, which I know I know you love Oregon. We’ll be

Scott Cowan [01:08:59]:

the only better. We’ll be the

Marshall Petryni [01:09:00]:

only Cowan.

Scott Cowan [01:09:01]:

People making yeah. Right.

Marshall Petryni [01:09:02]:

We’ll be the only people making Cosmic Crisp Ciders in in, in package format.

Scott Cowan [01:09:08]:

Okay.

Marshall Petryni [01:09:08]:

Yeah. So

Scott Cowan [01:09:09]:

Alright. Well, that’s cool. And, approximately, when that when will that be hitting on top of May?

Marshall Petryni [01:09:16]:

It’ll be mid May. Yeah. It’ll probably be the second or 3rd week of May. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [01:09:20]:

That’s very cool. That’s exciting. And so where’s a great place for people to find you online?

Marshall Petryni [01:09:25]:

Online, you can find us at our website, greenwoodciderdot com. Another another great resource is prestonpress.com. They are like a they’re a Seattle online retailer, so they get a lot of stuff from really all over the world now, but a lot of stuff from our region, Canada, the rest of America, and they ship it all over. Most mostly all over America, you know, all of the the United States. So they’ve got a lot of our stuff. And, yeah, if you’re in the Seattle area, farmers markets, any of those 9 to 20 farmers markets I listed, or, you know, your local bottle shop in this area or

Scott Cowan [01:10:08]:

Awesome.

Marshall Petryni [01:10:09]:

Yeah. Out in your neck of the woods, Bushel and B, Leavenworth Cider House.

Scott Cowan [01:10:12]:

Mhmm.

Marshall Petryni [01:10:13]:

Sometimes on tap at Micklands.

Scott Cowan [01:10:15]:

Yeah. Yeah. All solid places. Well, Marshall, thank you so much for sitting down with me tonight. Normally, I record these during the day, so it’s it’s interesting to do a a it early evening for me. Yeah. It’s a good time for actually, for me. I’m like, maybe I should do more of these.

Scott Cowan [01:10:31]:

But, thanks a lot and continued success, and, we’ll tell your mom you were on the show, and, then she’ll she’ll

Marshall Petryni [01:10:40]:

She’ll be proud.

Scott Cowan [01:10:41]:

Yeah. She’ll be proud. Alright, man. Thanks so much.

Marshall Petryni [01:10:43]:

Yeah. Thanks, Scott.