It’s strange when “crazy times” become routine. It’s amazing when putting out fires leads to a brand catching fire. It’s cool to watch a team come together during a time of social distancing. It’s fun having a weekly conversation with customers who first clicked on an Instagram ad and now order weekly.
We haven’t just been treading water. We’ve been rolling out exciting new ciders almost every week. Tequila Grapefruit, Habanero Mango, Date Night, and a bunch of classics like Watermelon Rosemary, Tart Cherry and Jalapeno Lime.
We have delivered ciders to celebrate anniversaries, to help people mourn, to celebrate births, birthdays and the successful completion of chemotherapy. We have delivered to exhausted doctors, lonely military spouses, and parents who suddenly have to home school their kids. We’ve made a lot of new friends.
As our state begins to slowly reopen, I wanted to take a minute to say some thank yous. I want to thank my incredible team for rolling with the punches during a scary and frustrating time. I want to thank my beautiful wife and partner for working long hours behind the scenes every day since COVID-19 came to our community. I want to thank our neighbors who did favors for us that made a huge difference at critical moments. I want to thank my friends for all the little encouragement and support. I want to thank my family for talking to me during the hundreds hundreds of hours I’ve spent behind the wheel, for helping with our website and for all the notes and pictures of happier times. Most importantly I want to thank everyone who ordered a Buskey Cider, shared us with their friends and ultimately made it possible for me to keep my team together and the dream alive. There are an awful lot of people whose hands I want to shake, who I can’t wait to hug, and who I owe a pint after all of this,
There’s a lot of negativity circulating these days but let me tell you, there is a lot of reason for hope. The random acts of kindness I have witnessed, the brave front line workers I have crossed paths with, the huge outpouring of support for local businesses, and the huge sacrifices so many of us have made to flatten the curve are really inspirational. I am yearning for things to get back to normal but it’s not going to happen overnight. There will be some hard realities after this but let’s stay positive, wash our hands, and have a well deserved cold one tonight!