In Autumn, a Taste of the Season Wanda Jacobson understands the appeal of fresh wood-pressed apple cider on a crisp autumn afternoon. What continually surprises her is what people will do to get it. Hacklebarney Farm Cider Mill 104 State Park Road Chester (908) 879-6593 njcidermill.com Open Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. until late December. Cider is $4.95 a half-gallon, $8.95 a gallon or $1.50 for a warmed, spiced eight-ounce cup. Cider doughnuts, 90 cents each or $8.95 a dozen; cider-cooked hot dogs, $3.50. Assorted home-baked pies, pick-your-own pumpkins and a small corn maze. Melick's Town Farm 19 King Street Oldwick (908) 439-3888 melickstownfarm.com Pick your own apples, daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through the first week of November. Cider, $3.50 a half-gallon or $5.50 a gallon. Cider is also sold at the farm market at 170 Route 523 in Oldwick, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. until late December; (908) 439-2955. Ralston Cider Mill Museum 336 Mendham Road West Mendham ralstoncidermill.org Open Saturdays and Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. through October. Admission is $5 for adults, free for children 7 and under. Apple pressing, Oct. 26 this year, starting at 1 p.m. No cider sales. Van Duyne Cider Mill 160 Pine Brook Road Montville (973) 227-1464 Open daily from noon to 6 p.m. through December. Cider is $7.50 a gallon, $4 a half-gallon, 50 cents for a chilled cup or $1 for a hot mulled cup. At Hacklebarney Farm, bottled apple cider being refrigerated. The apples go through a "giant Cuisinart" before being strained. "A lot of times on Saturdays the line is out the door, all the way past the fence," Ms. Jacobson, 80, said recently from inside the sweet-smelling farm store at Hacklebarney Farm Cider Mill in Chester. The fence separates the house where she and her husband, Henry, live from the commercial part of the 22-acre farm they own, and it is 50 yards from the store. Before weekend visitors take their place in line, most stop by a rustic open barn that houses thousands of apples and a press that uses 2,000 pounds of pressure to squeeze them. Hacklebarney offers informal cider-making demonstrations Thursdays through Sundays until late December. "They have a routine over there," said Robert D. Jacobson, the farm manager and the Jacobsons" son, referring to the seasonal workers who run the press, which can produce 25 to 30 gallons per half-hour. Mostly, it involves loading apples into a hopper and guiding them through what Mr. Jacobson called a "giant Cuisinart" before pressing them. Visitors can watch the process, which goes on for hours, but most linger just a few minutes. "People come up and ask what kind of apples we use," he said; it is currently a blend of McIntosh, Jonagolds and a few other varieties, said Mr. Jacobson, 59, who also lives on the farm, above the store. The bulk is trucked in from orchards in Pennsylvania, though 10 percent to 15 percent come from the farm's own six-acre orchard. Hacklebarney has been pressing cider since 1975, though the farm dates to the 1850s, when Ms. Jacobson's forebears built it. It sells more than 500 gallons each weekend in October, according to Mr. Jacobson - which makes it a small operation compared with Melick's Town Farm, based in Oldwick. Melick's, which has been offering fresh-pressed cider since the 1960s, makes up to 12,000 gallons a week, according to John Melick, 42, who owns the farm with his brother and sister. Their 59-acre farm in Oldwick includes a 35-acre, pick-your-own apple orchard. In addition to the retail operation, the farm sells the cider wholesale to New Jersey supermarkets, including some ShopRite and Whole Foods stores, and to other farm markets. More than half the apples used to make it are trucked in from the Hudson Valley region of New York, because the apples Melick's produces in its orchards, including an additional 35-acre pick-your-own orchard on a 200-acre farm in Califon, are generally of a higher quality than what Mr. Melick called "juice apples." The actual pressing is not on display, but Mr. Melick said that "if someone's curious, we'll let them peek in there." Melick's does demonstrations for school tours with a small press on weekdays. Those who are deeply curious about the cider-making process, however, are likely to be directed by Mr. Melick to the Ralston Cider Mill, in Mendham Township, which is less a place to sip cider on a brisk October day than a stop for learning all about the history of the region's cider making. "We're a nonprofit, 501 (c) (3) museum," Raymond Nadaskay, president of the museum's five-member board of trustees, said during a recent tour of the press, built in 1848 as a grist mill, later converted to a cider mill and operational commercially until 1938. On October weekend afternoons, volunteers lead tours, which last 45 minutes - "or longer, depending on how many questions we get," said Mr. Nadaskay, 75, of Mendham Township. While a smoothly running system of shafts, belts and pulleys chugs along in the old three-story structure - the machinery runs for tours, but usually without fruit - visitors hear the story of how the mill produced millions of gallons of cider, applejack and, during Prohibition, bootleg Jersey Lightning, a stronger version of applejack. A ghost or two still roam the premises, they are told. Once a year - this year on Oct. 26 - Ralston Cider Mill presses apples bought from Mr. Melick, and museum visitors are invited to watch as the sturdy equipment squeezes out 200 gallons of cider. "Of critical importance, though, is that we don't sell cider," Mr. Nadaskay said. That's because the press does not meet New Jersey Health Department standards. "But we usually have some of John's cider here, so people can have a sip after they tour," he said. Mr. Melick also supplies apples to Van Duyne Cider Mill in Montville, whose press has been operating since 1896. The 10-acre farm has been downsized from 160 acres when it was established in 1795 by the family of the current co-owner, Doris Van Duyne Heddy Cooke, 78. Customers can wander through the barn during pressings, which happen two to three days a week, and ask "as many questions as they'd like," she said. Ms. Van Duyne Heddy Cooke has lived on the farm and been producing cider all her life. Her husband and co-owner, Brian Cooke, 55, estimated that the farm currently goes through roughly 36,000 pounds of apples per season, from late September through December. But while Van Duyne's equipment is up to health code, its cider has never been pasteurized. "Some people come here specifically because it's not pasteurized," Mr. Cooke said. Others come because Van Duyne's is a tradition. "We have our regulars who come every year, very nice people who keep coming back," Ms. Van Duyne Heddy Cooke said. They love that our cider is made like it always was.