Colorado’s longest-standing business owner has no intention of slowing down

CAÑON CITY, Colo. (KRDO) - Albert Di Nardo has sold Cider in Cañon City for 83 years.

"What makes the cider good?" KRDO13's Bradley Davis asked Di Nardo.

"Because I make it!" he said.

Di Nardo is 95 years old and still operates "Di Nardo's Cider Mill and Farm" seven days a week with the help of a few employees and his business partner and longtime friend Heidi Willard. It's the oldest Colorado Business still operated by its original founder.

In 83 years of business, he says he's taken a vacation only once since opening the first stand with his brother and father at 12 years old in 1941.

"The Cider Mill, that's his life," Willard said.

"Do you like making cider better than taking vacation?" Davis asked Di Nardo.

"Oh, sure do!" he said.

"I'm never going to retire. What will I do if I did?"

Di Nardo works with the same passion as all those years ago when the idea sparked in a 12-year-old boy. It was a moment inspired after Di Nardo and his twin brother were swindled out of cash on a local job.

"We were picking cherries for our neighbor, and he didn't pay us money. He gave us cherries! We took them home, and daddy didn't like that. We needed the money, but daddy said, 'What shall we do?' I said, 'mash them, make juice!'"

That birthed the first Di Nardo cider flavor, cherry. Di Nardo said they use the same cherry cider method today as he used as a 12-year-old boy.