SIGC | Seminary Hill

“This is a moment of grace in our lives. People have come to visit us and we're going to share these people and these stories and whatever this time brings. Then they'd get up, say their goodbyes and my grandparents would go back to work. But at Seminary Hill what I wanted to do was make that sense of leisure and openness available to guests, whether they're coming to Seminary Hill to drink cider or to have a meal or to see friends.”

We’re in great company with Susan Manning and Doug Doetsch, owners of Seminary Hill in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains in New York. Here they have created, curated and stewarded a boutique hotel, restaurant and private event space to coincide with their proudly local and intently sustainable, orchard and cidery - inviting parched guests and passersby alike to experience the agricultural heritage of their land.

With five generations of family members tending to this land and hosting travelers passing through, Doug and Susan returned to commemorate and reinvigorate this sense of place - but with a creative and collaborative twist. Recruiting community members and instilling regenerative practices to create the World’s First Passive House-Certified Cidery for all to savor - whether during a stay or simply passing through.

In this episode, Susan and Doug give us a sweet taste of why Condé Nast Traveler has coined Seminary Hill as “James Fenimore Cooper’s America with a dash of Tuscany.”

Top Takeaways

[1:50] Back in the mid 1800s apple orchards were not planted for city folk to go apple picking or for that perfect Thanksgiving apple pie. They were for making cider…the cheapest form of alcohol and a drink safer than water.

[10:25] While Susan and Doug pursued careers in Chicago, they were called home to the Catskills to steward their family’s land as it was in a “pre consumer culture” and yet to gentrify the town, curating a community of creatives with innovative ideas.

[13:10] Hospitality at Seminary Hill is a simple, timeless and selfless act of inviting passersby to sit on a porch in a rocking chair, having a conversation with a cold drink in hand.

[16:15] Seminary Hill is the world’s first “Passive House-Certified Cidery.” What makes it “Passive House” you ask?

[23:10] Stay in good company at the Boarding House on the National Registry of Historic Places and dine in good company at the Tasting Room overlooking the Seminary Hill orchard, savoring the smells, sights, and sounds of 60 varieties of apple trees and their entire holistic ecosystem.

[45:00] Over the years, planting trees and putting them to bed has become a sort of “barn raising” tradition for the family and friends of Seminary Hill.