The magical powers of the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny are widely recognized, but far fewer people know of the peculiar Vermont icon who exercises his talents seasonally at Hudak Farm in Swanton.
The bearded, aproned creature plies his magic most Saturdays from the beginning of September through Halloween in a back room of the farm store. His presence is marked by the tempting scents of cinnamon and boiled apple cider.
He introduces himself with glee as “the Hudak Doughnut Ho.”
Off the farm, the 57-year-old goes by the mononym Moretti, “just like the beer.” He has done regular weekend shifts making Hudak’s from-scratch cider doughnuts using a vintage 1960s tabletop fryer for about eight years.
All name jokes aside, Moretti and the farm’s full-time doughnut maker, Sarah Coon, do need special powers to reliably produce the cider doughnuts that may be the best I’ve ever tasted.
Many cider doughnuts produced seasonally around Vermont are fried fresh but start with a prepackaged dry mix. I know this because my husband, who loves cider doughnuts, has a soy allergy, and the commercial mix used by many orchards and bakeries contains soy flour, not a standard from-scratch doughnut ingredient.
By contrast, for the roughly 15 years Hudak Farm has made cider doughnuts, the person in charge has started each batch by whisking together 5.5 pounds of King Arthur Baking flour with spices, sugar, baking powder and baking soda before adding butter, buttermilk, eggs (from the farm’s flock, as supply allows) and cider syrup boiled down from the farm’s fresh-pressed cider.
“These doughnuts are very finicky,” said Coon, 35, noting that the temperature of the ingredients, the room and the lard in the fryer is critical, as is the moisture level of the batter. “Sometimes they just fail for no reason. They’re sort of famous for [provoking] tears and swear words.”
The old fryer can also be temperamental, she said: “Every morning when I turn on the machine, I say, ‘Oh, God, I hope it works.’”
On the morning of September 13, Moretti was making steady progress through the day’s production run of about 50 dozen. A big stockpot of apple cider simmered on a burner for the next day’s batch. He said he often listens to Pink Martini while working. “The cider and Pink Martini, I think that’s what makes the doughnuts so good,” he quipped.
The fryer, which Moretti described as a Rube Goldberg machine, purred mechanically as it pushed out rounds of doughnut batter into the bubbling fat, moved them along a track, flipped them over and unloaded them into a cooling tray. Next, Moretti dunked some in sugar.
Moretti prefers his doughnuts plain and a couple of hours old. “When they’re hot, you taste the heat,” he said. The lard makes for a very clean fry and also helps the doughnuts taste good longer, he added. “Even day-old, they’re amazing.”
The labor-intensive process takes time, Moretti cautioned. “We don’t have doughnuts until 10,” he said firmly, “so make sure people don’t come before 10 because they will be sorely disappointed.”
Hudak Farm co-owner Marie Frey (Coon’s mother-in-law) was ringing up customers in the farm store, where fresh vegetables were selling almost as fast as doughnuts. The baked treats cost $1.25 apiece, $6.50 for six or $12 a dozen.
Asked if he and his wife, Lynda Ulrich, were fans of the doughnuts, Chuck Verderber of Fairfield responded simply, “Oh, God, yes. How can you beat fresh, homemade cider doughnuts?”
Hudak Farm, 599 St. Albans Rd., Swanton, 527-1147
The original print version of this article was headlined “The Hole Truth | In Swanton, Hudak Farm makes exceptional fresh, from-scratch cider doughnuts every fall”
This article appears in Sept 24-30 2025.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!