Can You Smell the Sweetness? Hacklebarney Cider Mill Starts its Season

For certain local families, September marks not the end of summer, nor the banishment of white clothing to the back of the closet, but the much-anticipated beginning of the Hacklebarney Farm Cider Mill season.

This 150-year-old family enterprise has legions of unabashed groupies who swarm the place during the four short months per year when it opens its doors.

Hacklebarney Farm Cider Mill embodies country life without resorting to the circus-like atmosphere of other local "agri-tainment" farms. There's the big red barn, the historic family farmhouse and the tractor parked amid the neat rows of apple trees in the orchard. Visitors can pick their own apples and pumpkins, watch the old-fashioned oak-rack cider press churning out its sweet elixir or get lost in what is billed as "Morris County's original corn maze."

Behind the idyllic setting, this is a working farm with a real family in charge. Matriarch Wanda Jacobson is a fixture at the counter of the tiny country store.

"I was born right here, in the house. So was my father and my grandfather," she said.

The tradition continues with her son, Bob, who manages the farm.

"You don't think about it much when you're growing up, the fact that you're living with all this beauty," he said, "But as you get older you tend to appreciate it more. I'd like to pass it on to another generation."

He said that his daughter recently brought this 19th century business into the 21st century by setting up a Facebook page.

Bob Jacobson is often seen in a white apron, stepping out of the on-site bakery enveloped in a cloud of heavenly aromas. The bakery may be the best reason of all to visit Hacklebarney Farm Cider Mill. Every day, a fresh selection of baked goods appears on a table in the country store. Arrive early and you can take home a still-warm cake or pie or a bag of cider doughnuts. Arrive late in the day and a smattering of crumbs will be all that remains. Best-sellers include Chocolate Walnut Pie, Sour Cream Pound Cake with Apples and Walnuts, and Southern Pecan Pie. Introduced a few years ago, the Harvest Pie, filled with a combination of fresh peaches, apples, pears and blueberries, became an instant classic. The only item that sells more is the Apple Crumb Pie because, Bob Jacobson said, "That crumb topping is so good." 

A bonus for lazy cooks: the Jacobsons don't make factory-perfect pies. They're bumpy and bubbling over with filling to the point where you can easily pass them off as the products of your own oven. Judging by the fact that Thanksgiving pie orders start to roll in at the beginning of October, some area "chefs" may have already discovered this fact.

On weekends, visitors have the option of feasting on an all-apple menu: hot dogs cooked in cider, topped with cider sauerkraut, accompanied by cider-baked beans and washed down with warm mulled cider.

Hacklebarney Farm Cider Mill is protected land that can never be developed.

"We worked with the farmland preservation program. Even though we don't have a huge piece of land, we wanted to protect the farm," Wanda Jacobson said. "It's nice to have neighbors, but it's also nice to have open space."

Hacklebarney Farm Cider Mill is located at 104 State Park Road in Chester Township. For more information, visit www.njcidermill.com. The bakery is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closes for the year on Dec. 23.