Ellen Cavalli: Tilted Shed Ciderworks

Graton Rancheria and Southern Pomo land - Sebastopol, California

www.tiltedshed.com, @tiltedshed

Ellen Cavalli is co-owner of Tilted Shed Ciderworks in Sonoma County, which she cofounded with her husband in 2011. In addition to being involved with the apple farming, harvesting, and cidermaking and spearheading all the sales and marketing, Ellen focuses on what she calls “foodshed ferments”— cider-wine hybrids using feral and farmed fruits from the local area—as well as her apple seedling project, in a quest to breed new cider varieties. A longtime book and magazine editor, Ellen is also the founder of the quarterly print cider zine, Malus. She has been named as "one of seven women moving American cider forward" by Wine Enthusiast magazine, and is an 2019 inductee into the Heritage Radio Hall of Fame for her work devoted to advancing cider in America. She lives on a small farm in Sebastopol with her husband, son, dog, cats, chickens, sheep, and too many fruit trees to count.

Social Justice and Environmental Restoration Statement

At Tilted Shed, we believe every business has an important role to play in supporting social, political, and environmental justice, and we are committed to working toward a functioning and equitable democracy, even it means loss of sales. Our fundraisers have directly supported LGBTQ+ rights, Ukrainian relief, BIPOC voting rights groups, local agricultural labor nonprofits, BIPOC farms, and reproductive rights, among others. We also believe environmental issues are tied to the work for social justice and those with lower incomes and living in marginalized communities often bear the worst brunt of climate changes’ impacts. To that end, in addition to being wholly committed to local, dry-farmed/drought-tolerant, organic, and labor-friendly agriculture, participating in the local clean energy program, and offsetting our shipping emissions, this year are working to decarbonize our production processes as much as possible, including actively planning to do a refillable bottle program. In 2022, we’re focused on amplifying and raising funds for trans rights, BIPOC farm reparations, abortion rights/funds, and voting rights. We’re in dark times in this country. We must not be silent.