Historical Tritts-Higy Mill

Super interesting selection and seemingly good prices. Pretty good mix of vintage to newer items like video games. Doesn't have a lot of 100 year old super ancient antiques. One of the better if not best antique stores within 10 miles. Other stores take note.

It was as if I myself stocked this antique store. No items were collectible for the sake of being collectible and everything was rare and valuable either visually or historically. These were every day average items at one time, but you will not find some of these items again I promise. The owner mentioned having an auction soon I will have to keep an eye out.

Wonderful store with lots of good, interesting stuff. The owner is very helpful and friendly. I bought a nightstand for a great price. This a picture after I refinished it. Wish I had a “before” picture. My granddaughter loved it!

This place is huge, and filled with so many wonderful things. I just loved walking through here.. their is literally something for everyone.
The owner is very nice it was a pleasure meeting her. Will definitely be stopping in more.

Tritts Mill was built in 1836 by Mr. Brewster. Joseph Tritt subsequently acquired the mill and continued producing flour. In 1900, the owner installed an 1898 cider mill and powered it with a wooden waterwheel. In 1911, the Higy family purchased the mill. Today the mill is owned and operated by a grandson and his wife, Chuck and Anita Higy. Chuck started working in the mill with his father, Lee, around 1970. Chuck's Father started working with his father around 1940. Today, they produce over 17,000 gallons of apple cider each year. Locally, the cider is a favorite. The Higy Cider is also sold nationally.

The mill is open for visitors to witness the apples as they tumble up the elevator and are dropped into a macerator that turns the apples into pulp. Once the apples are grated the pulp drops down through a shoot onto a cheese. A cheese is a wooden tray lined with material to hold the pulp. The apple pulp is placed in 12 layers before it goes into the press. To get these layers of pulp prepared for the press, a flat oak rack with open slats is put down on the preparation end of the press. Then a 3" tall wooden rack is placed on the flat rack. The cheese (made out of dacron material) is then laid across the rack. The macerator is directly above the rack and the shoot drops the pulp onto the rack. The amount of pulp is monitored by a drawstring on the shoot. The pulp is pulled around the rack with a hoe to fill the box frame. When the frame is full of pulp, the cheesecloth is then folded over to cover the apple pulp. Once covered with the cheesecloth, the oak rack box is removed. Another flat oak rack with slats is placed on the full square of pulp and the process is repeated 10 to 12 times.

Once the preparation for the press is complete, the entire press swings around and the layers of apples are then placed in the press. There are stainless steel troughs that catch the apple juice as it drains from just the weight of the layers of racks. When the press begins squeezing the juices from the apples, the juices flow through the catch trays into a refrigerated container or into receptacles that local farmers bring with them on their trucks to sell locally. While the press is functioning, another rack of apples is being prepared for the press. There is a lever that rises indicating when the press is finished. When the lever rises and another rack of apples is ready, the entire press again swings around. The prepared racks go to the press side and the spent apples are brought to the preparation side. The top oak rack is removed and the cheese with the left over apple remains is removed. The remains are called pummies. There is a truck that sits outside the elevated room where the press is and the pummies are discarded into a truck and a local farmer uses them to feed hogs. This situation benefits Higys as well as the farmer. Higy's don't have to pay to have the pummies dumped, and the farmer gets food for his pigs. Everyone wins!

The pummies that are feed to the pigs don't even look like apples. The pummies look like a dry white blob of fibrous material. It is so dry that when a piece is broken you can see the layers of the fibrous material. There is virtually no moisture left in the pummies. The entire room has a sweet aroma of apples, but there is nothing sweeter than the smell of the pummies.

Each press takes about 45 minutes. One hundred bushels of apples yield about 350 gallons of apple cider. This requires two presses. Each bushel yields about 3 1/2 gallons of cider. Red delicious apples are juicier. Quantity of yield depends upon the apple.

Unfortunately, the Cider Mill is no longer in business but you can still see the beautiful mill pond, dam and historic building.