Anyone who loves beer cannot fail to also appreciate apple cider! This is my belief, and it led me to discover a tiny artisan farming enterprise, in the territory between the upper Val Baganza and the upper Val Parma. In this wonderful area of the Apennines lies the "Tre Rii" farm, in a truly unspoiled place, where nature expresses all its wild beauty, and where human presence is minimal and well integrated into the environment. The family farm owns an estate of about 80 hectares called "Casarola" on the slopes of Monte Montagnana, in the municipality of Calestano, at an altitude of one thousand metres above sea level. This is a territory made up mainly of coppice woodland and about six hectares of meadow, with a typical farmhouse and a spring of extremely pure water. An essential foundation for producing a top-quality cider! As in all mountain farms, a few fruit trees can be found among the meadows, which once supplemented income and, with their juicy fruit, refreshed the farmer during haymaking. We are talking about some ancient native varieties, from trees that are now hundreds of years old and have never received any chemical treatment. Apples are harvested from these trees and then pressed to produce a cider with truly unique characteristics! The tradition of cider production is quite ancient: farmers who did not own grapevines used these fruits to produce a nectar that was customarily made and enjoyed by all the families of the Emilian valleys and mountains. The owner of the "Tre Rii" farm, after some years of personal production, decided to produce a larger quantity, making many sacrifices and investing all his savings by purchasing an old house with a tower dating back to 1694 in the "Tre Rii" locality, in the municipality of Corniglio in the province of Parma, along with all the equipment and the cellar set up in the old stable and hayloft, where the artisan production of an excellent-quality cider now takes place! In addition to production, part of the investment was used to plant some varieties of pink apple trees, and beehives for the production of honey and mead.