FARGO-Breezee and Ethan Hennings' new business just might make hard cider the apple of locals' eyes.

They'll open North Dakota's first cidery and kombucha production facility this September, making several ciders and a house kombucha, a fermented beverage known for its probiotic properties.

Wild Terra Cider and Brewing will have room for about 100 patrons at a time to enjoy house-brewed drinks, as well as snacks, light brunches and other producers' wines, meads and ciders.

"We just want people to get excited about cider," Breezee Hennings said.

It's going into the Stable Building, 6 12th St. N., that was built in the early 1900s as a construction company's stable for horses. It hasn't been fully used in decades.

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Kilbourne Group purchased the property in 2015 when it bought the former Mathison's building, 1213 NP Ave., just to the west where Prairie Roots Food Co-op will open this summer.

New opportunity

The business got its start when Ethan Hennings began brewing beer and cider at home.

There are several well-established beer breweries here, but no cideries, and Breezee Hennings knew it could be an appealing addition based on their experiences enjoying the local cider scene in the Pacific Northwest.

"We just fell in love with what cider can be," she said.

The couple got married when they were 18 and spent several years living in Olympia, Wash. She was born and raised in Fargo and he grew up in Mandan, N.D., and when they had kids, they decided to come back to Fargo.

While hard cider is booming in other areas, Ethan Hennings said there are some unique obstacles here. The climate is good for growing apples, but there aren't any commercial orchards in North Dakota.

Wild Terra will use apples from Michigan and the Pacific Northwest to overcome that, but it could face a supply shortage.

Under the state's domestic wine laws, Wild Terra needs to get 51 percent of its apples from North Dakota in its fourth year of operation. Because there aren't any orchards, they could run out of apples, and it takes four to six years for newly planted trees to produce apples.

Ethan Hennings hopes to go back to the Legislature in 2019 to seek changes to the law, and they also plan to ask locals to let them harvest apples in exchange for some cider.

"We would love to use 100 percent North Dakota apples, but unfortunately right now, they just aren't there," he said.

The couple is hard at work these days renovating the long-vacant building. They're doing most of the project themselves, other than electrical and plumbing.

Ethan Hennings said they knew they wanted to be in downtown, but it had to be an old building with character. It was love at first walkthrough when they got to the Stable Building.

"We saw the vision right away," he said.

Breezee Hennings said they'll retain the building's character as much as possible, and it'll still look like a barn when they're done. Old wood siding will be salvaged to accent interior walls, replaced on the exterior by new siding, while a new roof will go on top of the old one, leaving weathered boards and rafters visible from the inside.

A big part of their business, at least initially, will just be getting locals to enjoy the fruits of their labors.

"We hope to change people's minds of what cider is," Ethan Hennings said. "It seems there is a lot of groundwork to be laid for informing people, but that's half the fun."