History

History About the Cold Hollow Cider Mill History Our Famous Cider Press Production Area The Mill
The Early Years The Cold Hollow Cider Mill was started in 1974 in an old dairy farm in Bakersfield, Vermont. It wasan accidental endeavor created by Eric and Francine Chittenden, descendants of Vermont's firstgovernor. Intending to be dairy farmers, the Chittendens were washed out in their first year of farming, near the base of the Cold Hollow Mountains. They began pressing Apple Cider for localfriends with a press that Eric procurred somewhere, and the business began to grow.
The Move Eric and Francine were quite the visionaries. They wanted to become a mainstream tourist attraction AND produce cider in large enough quantities to wholesale to supermarkets. They knew they could not achieve this from their remote location in Bakersfield. They began to look for a new spot. After a statewide search, and studying traffic density maps, they settled on the current location on Route 100, between Waterbury and Stowe. The tourist traffic and proximity to Interstate 89 made this a perfect location. They purchased the old Gibbs farm in Waterbury Center in 1976. This was a classic Vermont dairy farm built in the early 1800's, with the house attached to the barn. The Chittendens lived in the old house right up until the Mill was sold in the year 2000. They raised their three kids right at the Mill, and even now live just 2000 feet away in a house they built on their lot on the shores of the Waterbury Reservoir.
The Business Grows It is difficult now to even pick out the silouette of the old barn after 28 years of additions tothe growing business. While the original barn housed the Press and the store, which it still does,in subsequent years a Jelly Room was added (like a Maple Sugar house) as well as multiple additionsto house the large production facility. Two large cold storage rooms (one for apples, the other for finished product), two press rooms, and a large bottling facility were added in 1999 as the Production area was expanded by 5000 square feet.