Diehl's Orchard and Cider Mill

It's just not Autumn without making a trip (sometimes several) to Diehl's Cider Mill.

They are located on 1479 Ranch Rd in Holly, MI 48442-8668. It a great little place tucked back in the woods, on dirt roads where the gold and red trees hang over head like a canopy.

They have THE BEST cider and doughnuts around! (Even Ceddie thinks so, although he not a very selective critic.) Their doughnuts have a sugary crust that crunches open when you bite into them, then you get to the warm soft center, and their cider is deliciously sweet and tangy with lots of apple flavor. (I know that sounds like an obvious description of cider, but I've had cider that just sort of tastes blah!)

The best part of Diehl's is that you get to watch them make your cider and doughnuts. This is the doughnut machine that fries the doughnuts and flips them to get both sides.

They come shooting out all warm and toasty before they're dredges through massive amounts of delicious cinnamon and sugar.

Here is where they make the cider. (I apologize for the quality of the pictures, the process is behind a window that was splashed with cider.) They place a wooden frame down on top of a large plastic plate. Then they put a cloth down inside the frame. Then they fill the frame with ground apple pulp.

Then they fold the cloth up over the pulp and repeat the layers until they have a large stack.

When the stack is high enough, they roll the whole thing under a lift, and the stack is pressed upward against a stationary top, and all the apple cider is squeezed out.