Sugar Creek Cider Mill

Posted by Randy Earles on Oct 5, 2010 in Artwork

Sugar Creek Cider Mill

A delivery of fresh picked apples from the local “Apple Blossom Orchard” arrives at the mill ready to be ground and then pressed into cider. The dogs watching and wanting to know whats going on, one of them even sampling one of the apples to meet his approval. Of course there will be a special batch of hard cider on hand for the adults later on in the evening. I proudly present “Sugar Creek Cider Mill” for your viewing pleasure.

There actually is no Sugar Creek Cider Mill here in Iowa. There is a Sugar Creek and it did have a grist mill called Freeman’s Mill built in 1838. There is also a township called Sugar Creek (1885) which was formerly called Sugar Creek Mills (1875-1881) oddly enough. Both of which are listed as ghost towns now I believe. This scene is not reflective of that though. It is a representation or idea culled from various old photos of what I imagined a mill looking like back then. I wanted to combine the idea of an old mill with my favorite time of the year which is Autumn. Plus my memories as a child of visiting a local cider press at an apple orchard that was near where I grew up. The smell of apples and fresh pressed cider on a cool crisp day. I think I finally captured everything I wanted to in this piece and I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I did working on it.

I am really fascinated by old mills of days gone by. There is something about harnessing the power of nature that appeals to me, nature and people working together. Mills, for me, represent that and back in the old days there was no choice. No modern electricity or steam to run the equipment in the mill. This was a project I sketched out awhile back but was never happy with the result until now.