Heartwood Ciders will be the newest hangout on the M-72 block (with Rove Estate and Jacob’s Farm right around the corner), but before the public can try their small-batch hard ciders, founders David Barnard and Rachel Nyberg have a building to erect, licensing to procure, and trellised apple orchards to plant. To keep the fires stoked until they can share their first commercial batches, the Maple City couple bought a 14-passenger tour bus for a sister business, NoMi Tours.

As tour guides, they will let others in on the hardcore cider R&D they’ve been doing over the last few months. 

“We specialize in cider tours in Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties,” shares Nyberg. “But we also offer a mix-and-match tour that you can customize with breweries and wineries.” The idea is to help cultivate the region’s cider trail and network with fellow cidermakers before their own cidery opens. “And it will help to support us financially,” says Nyberg. “We have our chauffeurs license now and will launch in April.”

They are currently taking reservations for curated cider tours.

Newcomers to both cidermaking and farming, Nyberg and Barnard became friends in 2017 while supply chain managers at Target. They discovered — often over a cold beverage — that they both had designs on stepping off the corporate ladder. But it wasn’t until 2021 that they dared make a new future together in northern Michigan. They quit their executive careers at Target, sold the house they adored, and found a small apartment in Maple City. Next, they set sights on farmland in Leelanau County to start Heartwood Ciders.

A few weeks ago, the couple closed on a 10 acre former cornfield in Solon Township, located off M-72 on Lautner Road (for those wondering, it’s not this controversial cornland which is across the street). Barnard says “two or three years from now” they will welcome fans to an expansive patio and an open-concept tasting room with exposed beams and polished-concrete floors.  

“We’d like a Morton-style building for our production facility,” says Nyberg, “But site planners are not going to blink at us for 24 months.” Another of the ag startup’s limiting factors is their own juice. The apples they are planting will take at least three years until they can be harvested for pressing.

In the meantime, they are soaking up knowledge (they were kids in a candy store at the 2022 Northwest Michigan Orchard and Vineyard Show) and Barnard is dialing in recipes using Michigan-grown juice from King Orchards to craft a stable of staple ciders. “We know we will have an ‘apple pie,’ a hoppy cider, and a cherry cider,” says Nyberg. “Then we’ll branch out with seasonal varieties — like lavender — and using fruits in season.” The couple and their dog Tank hit the road this week to attend CiderCon, to see and taste firsthand what their cidermaking contemporaries across the country are having success with.

Nyberg is documenting their trip — and their entire startup process — on the YouTube channel Cidery From Scratch. “We are ordinary, just two people who sacrificed a lot and wanted to make this change. We started the channel to show how we are doing it.”

She adds, “What I learned in corporate America — with accountability, with flow and prioritizing — and with how much responsibility we had, each with 40 to 60 team members counting on us, I never have been risk adverse.”

She says though they are “confident we can handle whatever comes,” they know agriculture is an all-new playing field. “I want [other growers] to welcome us. I’m not afraid to call someone up and ask 30 questions and make a fool of myself. I always had respect for famers, but had no idea how deep in the weeds they have to be: with knowledge about pests, fertilizer programs, COVID-impacts on harvest…”

One of their most beneficial relationships has been with fellow orchardist, cidermaker and Northwest Michigan Horticulture Research Center (NMHRC) environmental quality expert Nikki Rothwell. She is helping in part with “the hidden half — the part of the tree we don’t see,” shares Barnard. “We’ve submitted soil samples, and we will be working with MSU and Nikki on a fertilizer program and — depending on the apples we go with — what treatments we do.” Adds Nyberg, “I also foresee our partnership growing, and our orchard can be a place they [NMHRC] can come research and test.”

Heartwood Ciders will start establishing its orchard this spring — trellised plantings, which are a plus due to the apples’ early maturity and the ability to handpick.

They also plan to keep an acre open for future building expansion. “We have heard, up here, double whatever you think you will need in terms of space and production. Just look at Tandem and Hop Lot.” 

They are a two-person show for now: “We’ve got strong backs and we will be digging, wiring, securing trees,” says Nyberg. “In our corporate world there was a budget: red or black? Did you win for the day or not? Now it’s ‘Holy cow, I grew this.’”

Barnard adds, “It’s a different type of reward.”

Nyberg and Barnard are among the region’s newest movers and shakers — with an emphasis on “movers.” The pandemic gave professionals unprecedented freedom to live and work where they wanted and for many, that freedom led to Traverse City and the surrounding area. This month’s Traverse City Business News profiles 28 professionals who have uprooted their lives and moved heaven and earth to make northern Michigan their new home base. Check out their stories here.