Al Roker Was in the Berkshires Doing a Feature On a Top Orchard

Al Roker, from the the 'Today' show, was recently in the Berkshires. Roker has been known to make his way up here a few times, here and there. He wasn't doing any sort of weather forecasting, but instead, he was doing a feature for 'Today' at one of the top orchards in all of western Massachusetts.

Roker's feature on 'Today', known as 'Family Style' was exploring a spot that was ripe for apple picking, cider donuts, a great cider, a great HARD cider, and the American history of the apple, which happened to start in Massachusetts. And it all happened when Roker visited Hilltop Orchards Home of Furnace Brook Winery.

Speaking of 'Family Style', not only did Roker mention how his family has been making a trip to Hilltop Orchards each fall, but David and Sara Martell, who are the Operations Manager and Hospitality Manager, respectively, at Hilltop Orchards gave Al plenty of lessons about apples throughout the feature.

One of those lessons was about hard cider. Not only does the feature mention how our Founding Fathers used to drink it nearly everyday, but also how it used to be more prominent and readily available until beer took its place as the number one adult beverage of choice. That, along with Prohibition, which lasted from 1920 to 1933. After that, apples, along with its hard cider has gone through a little bit of a rebranding period. And today, hard cider is drank nearly 10 times more than it was just about 10 years ago.

Hilltop Orchards has certainly benefitted from the resurgence of both apple cider and hard cider. They make both! They have their own Hilltop Orchards Apple Cider and their hard cider is the JMash brand, with several flavors. You can order it all from their website. Did we mention they also have the Furnace Brook Winery there too?

We're sure Al Roker will be back again, probably for more apples, or (hard) cider, or maybe even some cider donuts. You can watch his entire 'Family Style' feature here.