We recently connected with Tommy Evans and have shared our conversation below.

Tommy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, what do you think about family businesses? Would you want your children or other family members to one day join your business?

When my son was 1, I found myself going from a stay at home dad to a single father. I had just previously purchased a small farm in hopes of living the ideal family life on it. As a stay at home dad I spent every moment with my son, and didn’t want that to change. The only option I could see was starting a business on my property. I spent three years planting apple trees, building a production building, and preparing to open all with him by my side and helping as best he could. We started and still go to farmer’s markets every weekend together. We balance work and play together but he is now 9 and I don’t think I could do this without him. He helps bottle, can, label, and take readings in our production building. We have grown since we started a few years ago and have since built a tasting room. He has his own private loft in there where he can read, play games and watch TV when I have to work now. But if he sees me getting overwhelmed he’ll start washing glasses, cleaning tables, and just check on me. I chose to open a cidery to keep what was left of my family together and we have both grown and became stronger because of it.

Tommy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

We are a cidery in Maryland that focuses on using local fruit and supporting the community around us. We focus on dry ciders and like to blend foraged fruits and fruits grown by local farmers into our ciders. A community of gluten intolerant people has since formed around us and we have expanded to making gluten free beers as well.

Have you ever had to pivot?

We started selling cider at farmers markets in January of 2019. Our plan was to only sell at markets and eventually produce enough to sell to stores as well. The pandemic hit in March and most of the markets shut down. We are in the suburbs of Washington DC in an agriculture reserve. Development is not allowed in our immediate area but we are surrounded by developed communities. All of the bars and restaurants closed and there were limited options for outdoor space to safely go and distance from others. We saw the opening for one of the only places that could still serve drinks and offer ample outdoor space. We scraped together everything we had an opened a tasting room that has slingshot us up from where we started.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

We started on a shoestring budget from personal savings. Because we didn’t have everything we needed or the sizes we need there was a lot more labor that went into the beginning of the cidery. When we saw an opening to expand and build a tasting room I went to a slew of banks and business loan organizations. Because the business was so new and involved a farm no one would lend to me. I ended getting a small loan from my family and a larger loan from a farm credit union. They ended making everything happen for me and I am so lucky to have found them. I would strongly encourage anyone needing to grow or start an agriculture business into find a local farm credit union.

Contact Info:

• Website: twostorychimney.com
• Instagram: @twostorychimney
• Facebook: facebook.com/twostorychimney
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/two-story-chimney-ciderworks-gaithersburg
• Other: https://untappd.com/TwoStoryChimneyCiderworks