WHEELER, MI -- Nicole Ward describes Eastman's Forgotten Ciders as a "tree-to-tap type of company."

From picking and pressing, to fermenting and bottling hard cider, "We really do it all," said Ward, co-owner of the business.

The cider is made from fruit grown at Eastman's Antique Apples, an orchard located at 1058 W. Midland-Gratiot County Line Road in Wheeler, in southern Midland County.

Family-owned for more than a century, it recently introduced a line of hard ciders and a tasting room. The tasting room's grand opening was held Feb. 13-15. Going forward, it is open from 1 to 7 p.m. Saturdays.

Nicole Ward's husband, Rafe Ward, his brother, Casey Ward, and their parents Cindy and Tim Ward purchased the 16-acre farm in 2007 from Cindy Ward's father Doug Eastman.

"My grandpa had owned the farm for about 25 years prior to that, and before that his aunt and uncle owned the farm," Rafe Ward said.

"This piece of land has been in our family for over 100 years," he added, noting that it has operated as an orchard for the last 26 years.

When they bought the orchard, there was some cleanup to do.

"The first couple years of business were really about getting the apple trees back in working order," Nicole Ward said. "At the time, we had over 1,500 varieties."

In about 2010, the family began experimenting with hard cider production on a small scale.

They entered competitions and won. Specifically, they entered the Great Lakes International Cider & Perry Competition - Noncommercial Division, winning three silver and five bronze awards in 2012, one gold, three silver and eight bronze awards in 2013 and one gold, two silver and one bronze in 2014.

As they were honing their skills, they noticed a trend.

"There was this huge growth in not only the craft ... brewing industry, but also cider as a whole," Nicole Ward said. "We're already making it for ourselves ... maybe we just, kind of, go for it."

Rafe Ward added, "We love our apples and the rich diversity that they have. We realized a few years back that the diversity we have allowed us to make some really great hard ciders."

Rather than continuing to homebrew and sell apples to other cider makers across the country, "creating our own hard cider line just became a natural evolution," he said.

They built a pole barn on the farm by hand, where the hard cider is made and served.

"They can taste it right where it's made, right where the apples are grown," Nicole Ward said.

Today, the orchard boasts more than 1,000 varieties of apples and 3,000 trees.

There are four varieties of hard cider made from those apples, two golden varieties and two red-fleshed varieties. The golden varieties are Rare Harvest, made primarily with Cox orange pippin and Holstein apples, and Windmill Watcher, which contains a blend of more than 50 apple varieties. The red-fleshed varieties are Scarlet Russian and Mad Russian, made with red-fleshed apples, such as Russian crab apples. Each cider contains just less than 7 percent alcohol by volume.

Visitors to the tasting room can try small samples of the four hard cider varieties for free and purchase a flight of four approximately 3 ounce samples for $6. The hard cider varieties also are available for purchase in bottles similar to wine bottles. Forgotten Ciders are not available for purchase anywhere else, yet.

There's also complimentary fresh popcorn and chips and dip and bottled water available for purchase.

Nicole Ward said their ciders aren't sweet like the commercial ones you buy at the store, they're more tart.

"Because we're using traditional cider apples and because we're not adding anything to the cider, it does have a more unique flavor to it," she said. "We don't add any sweeteners. We don't add any juice. We don't add any coloring, flavoring, nothing.

"We really think all types of palettes will like our cider."

In addition to opening the tasting room on Saturdays, Nicole Ward said they also plan to offer tastings and sales at the Midland Area Farmers Market beginning in the spring. They're also looking into opportunities for local distribution.

"We are really excited to open our tasting room, and we are very thankful for all of the support and patience that we have received from family, friends, and of course customers," Rafe Ward said.

"One of the most important things to us about this cider is that it comes from great apples that we grow on our orchard," he added, noting that some batches will contain more than 100 varieties of apples.

"We are one of only a few fortunate growers who is able to offer something (as) unique as this."

More information can be found on the Eastman's Forgotten Ciders Facebook page.