01/25/2026
Ken's daughter Alyson here. We've been seeing so many interesting comments surrounding the potential sale of the orchard and meadery. The past two years have unequivocally been some of the most difficult years of our lives. From Ken's terrifying heart attack while on a walk with Lily on Halloween of 2024, to his more recent hospital stay this past August — it has been a scary, scary year in terms of his health. The meadery and the orchard are both still for sale and we have received quite a bit of interest, including two offers which are still at the negotiating table. It's very sad to think about a future where my family does not own 100% of both ventures.
The possibility of the meadery and orchard being able to stay in our family is so close, yet so far in the distance. The amount we owe on the orchard is truly less than one successful GoFundMe away, yet my dad has been hesitant to ask for that type of support. I have been struggling personally with an extremely high risk pregnancy, which we found out about the same month my dad experienced his most recent Cardiac ICU hospitalization, when they placed the internal defibrillator pacemaker. I have been continuing to grapple with the thought of possibly taking on partners and putting together a comprehensive offer to purchase.
It also feels worth mentioning, that upon Ken’s retirement regardless of new ownership, the recipes will remain unchanged. For better or worse, Ken is not playing a day to day role in the large scale batch production. He and Sarah continue to work on our small batch estate meads from time to time within his physical limitations. We have been very fortunate to have teams of commercial mead makers who have been able to flawlessly execute the batches of mead that you have known and loved for the past decade. These days, the large scale batches are made by my husband James Naeger and Shawn Richardson. Shawn was hired on as our Tasting Room Manager shortly before the start of the pandemic and has truly become an invaluable member of our production team. Before James and Shawn, there were Scott, Ethan, Dave, Josh, Nick, Jackie, Mike, Chris, and Lee all holding things down. And you can’t forget Debbie, Kristen, and Rahsaan! These amazing people made batches of mead in a tiny tasting room and in the midst of a global viral pandemic and when the equipment was failing and in the middle of a polar vortex and the time the air conditioning went out and through all of Ken’s speaking engagements, health issues, the birth of his grandchildren, and the death of his mother.
We will continue to carry on Ken’s legacy as it has always been. Out of our love and admiration for him and his incredible contributions to the mead industry.
Please keep drinking mead and be kind to each other.
Also if you’ve got like $500k or a cool milly and want to have some fun, hmu, lmk, ily, lmfao.