I attended a very cool event last night hosted by the Shacksbury Cider company in Shoreham, Vermont (makers of fabulous artisanal hard ciders) to celebrate the launch of their new Kickstarter campaign The Lost Apple Project.   In general I find Kickstarter projects are about 50%  crazy-pants and 50% totally awesome – The Lost Apple Project definitely falls into the totally and completely awesome category.  

Here’s their quick pitch:

At the time of the first settlers, the Champlain Valley of Vermont was a hotbed of cider apple growing, with thousands of trees dotting the valley landscape. Over time the land has been put to other use, with many trees removed or forgotten. 

But all is not lost–heritage apple varieties planted centuries ago can still be found in lost corners of old farms and forests. Shacksbury Cider launched The Lost Apple Project to ensure that these heirloom varieties don’t slip into extinction. Help us plant 500 trees and create the nation’s first lost apple orchard.

We have already secured the land and started harvesting apples from forgotten trees. What we need now is to invest in the tree stock to build the heirloom apple orchard. Your support goes toward rootstock and nursery fees for the 500 trees we will plant–every $20 pledged plants a tree in our ten acre orchard!

Help Shacksbury Cider bring heritage apples back into production in Vermont and into your cider glass!

Check out their kickstarter project here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/345738559/the-lost-apple-project?ref=kickspy

Follow Shacksbury’s blog here: http://www.shacksbury.com/blog/