Brian Phillips is the sixth generation of his family to operate Phillips Orchards & Cider Mill. Brian graduated from St. Johns High School before earning a BA in Business Administration from Alma College. He spent 15 years at Metzler Automotive Profile Systems rising through positions in Accounting & Financial Management and finally as Director of Purchasing. After a short time at JAC Products, he returned to the orchard with his husband Gregg Smyth in 2008 to take over the family business from his father.

Phillips Orchard & Cider Mill operates 4 locations in the central Michigan area. The farm itself consists of 170 acres along the southern edge of Gratiot County, which includes 30 acres of apples, 1 acre of peaches along with plums and pears. The farm includes cold storage facilities, apple grading, fresh cider production, hard cider production and a bakery.

 

Our focus is on providing high quality fruit grown on our farm, along with value added products produced from those fruits, including cider, hard cider, and made from scratch baked goods. We augment our own products with other Made in Michigan jams, pickles, cheese, meats, snacks and gifts and home goods.

 

Phillips Gatehouse Market - St. Johns Primary retail location for apples, cider, baked goods, hard cider and made in Michigan provisions. Located 8 miles north of St. Johns on US-127

 

Phillips Cider Bar & Market - Lansing Hard cider bar serving pizza and small plates along with a selection of apples, cider and baked goods. Location on Vine Street just outside Frandor.

 

Phillips Cider Bar & Pizzeria - Maple Rapids Hard cider and pizza for dine in or take out, or enjoy in the social district.

 

Phillips Orchards & Cider Mill - St. Johns The farm store opens on weekends during the harvest season where you can watch cider pressing, pick your own appkeas, enjoy a horse drawn wagon ride, while enjoying time in the beautiful countryside on a fall day.

 

Plaiduray is the worldwide celebration of plaid, because we're all connected by a common thread. Plaiduray is celebrated annually on the first Friday of October. With plaid, we are stitching together a better world, one seam at a time.

 

We will take a photo and share with #plaidurday, for more information go to https://plaidurday.com 

 

Rotarians gathered last Thursday at the Irish Pub for a social gathering. The beer was cold the Ruben eggrolls were hot (and tasty). Conversations were had by all gathered, subjects ranged from collapsing Tigers. roaring Lions and just catching up with the happenings of fellow Rotarians.

 

I will say it was concerning to learn that Chris Holman is tasked with mentoring and fellow Rotarian on the intricacies of serving on the Rotry Board, which includes learning chapter and verse the Rotary Club handbook that Chris admitted he has yet to read. On another note, I learned something from Irv Nichols, when you turn 100 years old your greens fees are waived, and you can just head out to the first tee. I now have two goals, first to get to 100 years old and second to be able to still golf when I do.

 

It was a pleasure seeing everyone who was able to attend our gathering.

 

Email for Tim Adams:  Tadams@manercpa.com