ROSH HASHANAH
Franklin Cider Mill
owner Jack Peltz
says running the
historic landmark
is a hobby.
KIMBERLY LIFTON
111
Staff Writer
rown bags stained with
grease from spicy, warm
donuts are evenly placed
atop an old wooden table
at the Franklin Cider
Mill. In the background is the keen
aroma of freshly pressed apples and
a kaleidoscope of the changing
autumn leaves.
The scent, which lingers for
miles, signals the arrival of fall. The
water wheel is rolling. All kinds of
Michigan apples — mackintosh,
granny smith, red delicious and
• jonathan — are bagged for sales. Hot
caramel apples are smothered with
24
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1989
nuts. Shelves are lined with cheeses, •
salamis and Rokeach crackers.
Jack Peltz is ready for another
season. For about six weeks before
Labor Day and 100 days thereafter,
the owner of Greenfield Noodle Co.
turns back the clock and runs the
historic landmark the old-fashioned
way. No assembly lines. No
automated packaging system. Just
35 employees baking donuts, mak-
ing and bottling cider, slicing
cheeses, stirring caramel and dipp-
ing apples.
"I love it. I love meeting the
public," Peltz says. "This is a happy
place."
Quickly but carefully, Peltz
walks up three sets of stairs to reach
his destination: the Candy Cave,
where two women are melting candy
to coat apples.
They banter among themselves
and tease their boss.
"He's a slave driver," says one of
the women, holding back a grin.
Peltz laughs and motions with
his hand to leave the cave. His next
journey is down the stairs, held
together by rugged, sturdy wood
pegs. They are crooked, covering
rocks from the water-powered mill
built in 1834. Construction is mostly
tongue and groove throughout the
cider mill, which opened for business
in 1875.
"Everything is original. It's a
showpiece," Peltz says. "I could
commercialize this place in one sea-
son. But I want to leave a little bit of
old here."
In 1946, after serving in the U.S.
Army; Peltz opened The House of
Foods grocery store at Six Mile Road
near Schaefer. Five years later, he
moved the store to Seven Mile Road
In 1963, Peltz bought the cider mill
and in 1974, he purchased the
Greenfield Noodle Co. He left the
grocery store business in 1977.
Raised in an Orthodox home in
St. Louis, Mo., Peltz moved to
Detroit with his family during the
Depression. His father, a shoe
repairman, came to work with
relatives in the bakery business.
In 1953, Peltz moved with his
wife, Eleanor, to what was then
.
Continued on Page 26