Apple Cider from Lincoln County

by Tom Hanchett, November 2009

I grew up in apple country in the Virginia mountains. There's nothing like fresh-squeezed apple cider to bring back my childhood.

So imagine my joy when frosty brown jugs of cider appear at the Mecklenburg County Market every Fall.

The Market itself is a trip back in time any month of the year. The red-brick building hasn't changed much since it went up in Charlotte's Dilworth neighborhood back in the 1920s. In the 1940s a group of women began selling fresh vegetables and home-made cakes and pies there. Today their children and grandchildren still arrive early on Wednesday  through Saturday mornings to greet customers new and old.

Dale McLaughlin, now in his 70s, sells local tomatoes, corn and beans, squash and greens -- and that good cider. Each fall he heads  up into Lincoln County on rural NC Route 18. Davis and Son Orchard -- "in the same family for half a century," says Dale -- squeezes the sweet brown goodness from their own apples.

Close your eyes, take a sip.  You can almost reach out and touch the apples on the tree.

Mecklenburg County Market
1515 Harding Place (just off East Morehead Street)
(704) 533 – 0073
 
Hours:
Wednesday 7am – 6pm
Thursday 9am- 6pm
Friday 9am – 6pm
Saturday 7am – 3pm