Rachel and David Barnard were tired of being “cogs in the machine,” so they quit their corporate jobs, sold their house, and moved to Leelanau County with loose plans of opening a cidery. That all happened in 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Five years later, it’s finally dream-come-true time for the Barnards, who are eyeing a May grand opening for their new business, Heartwood Ciders.

Located at 13775 South Lautner Road, Heartwood Ciders boasts 10 acres of orchard land where Rachel and David – along with Rachel’s parents, Ed and Cathy Nyberg – planted 2,000 apple trees two years ago. The orchards abut a newly-built tasting room, which is tentatively slated to open its doors in May.

“We still have to do a few things in terms of the Michigan Liquor Control Commission and the Health Department, but we've got all the other permits and we are mostly ready to go,” Rachel tells The Ticker.

Whenever opening day does arrive, it will be a major milestone for the Barnards and the Nybergs alike. Ed grew up in Leelanau County and says his family is “probably four or five generations” deep in the area. Ed and his wife Cathy long dreamed of opening a meadery in Leelanau County, but were so busy running their own online marketing business that they never got around to it. When Rachel and David decided to quit their jobs in 2021, Ed says he saw the opportunity to finally make good on his dream – and to do it as a full-fledged family affair.

In the intervening years, the dream evolved from mead to cider, largely out of necessity.

“My wife and I had been doing some homebrewing [of mead] but that was during the time when bee colonies were collapsing and honey was getting scarce and pretty expensive,” Ed explains. “So, we switched over from mead to cysers, which are essentially a mix of cider and mead. I saw a big opportunity in the cider industry, because a lot of the local cherry farmers started taking out their cherry orchards and planting a lot of apples, which seemed to do very well here.”

Unlike the Nybergs, the Barnards -- who both quit corporate jobs with Target to move north -- had zero experience with farming or cidermaking. The couple plunged themselves into research mode to learn all about heirloom apple varieties and best practices for planting and growing orchards. After arriving in Leelanau, they even started their own cider and wine tour business, NoMi Tours, to get to know the local industry.

“That business was our way to get our foot in the door and meet people,” Rachel says. “We knew we weren't going to immediately find property [for our farm], so we wanted to connect with the other growers in the area. And all the places have been so helpful to us, the cideries especially.”

Heartwood Ciders bears the influence of those other local cideries. One harvest season, David worked with George and Max Koskela, the brothers behind Two K Farms Cidery & Winery in Suttons Bay, to cut his teeth in the cider world. The layout and vibe of Townline Ciderworks in Williamsburg, meanwhile, provided “inspiration” for the look and feel customers will find at Heartwood. The most notable of those accents is the main bar itself, made from a bowling lane taken from the now-shuttered Lucky Jack’s bowling alley in Traverse City.

Rachel says Heartwood will likely launch with eight original ciders on tap, including a sweet cider, a dry cider, low-calorie and non-alcoholic options, and flavors like cherry, cinnamon, and hops. So far, David has been making ciders using apple juice purchased from other local farms, since Heartwood’s own apple trees won’t reach maturity for a couple more years. In the long run the plan is for the vast majority of Heartwood’s ciders to be made from estate-grown apples, likely with “a little bit more spotlight on the individual apple varieties,” Rachel says. She cites Two K, whose ciders are often single-variety brews that spotlight specific apple types, like Russet or Spitzenberg, as an inspiration.

Speaking of spotlights, the Barnards and the Nybergs have another plan to shine one on northern Michigan’s cider industry: an “up-north cider trail,” similar to the Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail or the Old Mission Peninsula Wine Trail, but meant specifically for cidermakers. Ed envisions “a passport kind of thing, where you would go to each cidery, get your passport stamped, and maybe if you finish it, you get a hat or a t-shirt or some type of merchandise.”

“Michigan is, I think, the third largest producer of apples in the whole country,” Rachel says. “We’re just huge into apples here, so our idea is to come up with some sort of a trail where people can come up and celebrate that aspect of local agriculture.”