The Westview Orchards family has been making fresh apple cider for generations. Starting in the 1940’s Grandpa Harvey would take his truckload of apples, stacked in bushel crates, over to the historic Yates Cider Mill to be made into cider. Once pressed, Harvey and his staff would bottle the cider into glass jugs, load them back into crates to be stacked and bring them back to the farm’s commercial refrigerator.
Over time a new apple pressing system called the J-belt press was introduced. By the early 1970’s 5th generation Armand was very interested in it. Before long he was taking his truckloads of fresh, tree-picked apples to be pressed at a different cider mill using their modern J-belt press.