I’ve been pruning the orchard the last month. When I started writing this journal entry, I thought I had found an insightful metaphor tying the concepts of pruning, which is all about renewal and shaping the direction of the tree, to life lessons of continually working on yourself and

In a business world where each day brings news of cost increases and supplier delays, self sufficiency is an alluring ideal. Being able to grow all the apples right on site, press them ourselves, bottle the resulting final product without needing to rely on anyone is a tantalizing concept. To

Last week BC craft cider lost one of its early pioneers. Tom Kinvig, one of the original three of Summerland Heritage cider, passed away in his home. A recently retired apple grower and cidermaker, he had farmed for nearly 50 years in Summerland. Tom was one of my orcharding mentors.

Not long ago I went to an event at a nearby cidery. It had been several years since I had last been there. Back then, I figured the experience we were offering at Dominion was largely similar. A small, niche business that was an honest reflection of the very normal

One of the appealing things about cidermaking (and winemaking more generally) is the opportunity afforded to the producer to use as little or as much modern digital technology as they want in the process. Many professions you simply could not attempt to do the way it was done one hundred

Last night I took the kids to visit their grandparents who were camping about 10 minutes down the highway from their house.  I asked my father-in-law what the point of camping so close to home was - why not just save the hassle of loading the camper and just read

I’m converting the cider orchard irrigation system to overhead sprinklers from drip lines right now.  Overheads will allow me to mow under the trees and get a cover crop to germinate, key parts of an organic orchard management strategy.  They also allow for cooling of the orchard if 45

The apple blossoms are blooming, the birds are building, and we are busy bottling. Springtime brings a flurry of activity on the farm and we are excited to announce the first round of Cider Club bottles are almost ready. Like last year, we are releasing our Experimental bottles to our

We made 11 tasty, interesting experimental ciders this year. Not 12 like I had wanted. Some plans, even though best laid, don’t always turn out. It's common to hear that cidermaking is not an exact science. In fact, there is plenty of science. In almost every dimension

I have lunch with some retired or almost-retired apple growers at the local pub once a week. Each of them farmed here in Summerland since before I was born and have seen it all.  New, exciting varieties (Jonagold! No, tear those out, Gala! Nay, Ambrosia!) come and go like fads

Every year, around this time, Luke and I brainstorm a long list of the things that we “need” for the cidery for the coming year.  We call this our capex (capital expenditure) long list, or sometimes just the wish list.  It can run the gamut from “forklift” to “better wifi”

“You have to manage the competition better.” That was the diagnosis from Molly, the orchard consultant I’d hired to look at the trees on the hillside block. They hadn't grown much in a year and were hard to pick out from the weeds around them. I was

Most cider club shipments went out in the first few days of December. If you have not received it yet, please get in touch! Vancouver-area members: if you have not yet scheduled your delivery through BeerVan, refer to our December 2nd email to do so, or get in touch if

Late fall is a quieter time in the cidery. The leaves are off the trees, it's frosty in the morning and dark earlier.  It’s all in stark contrast to the mad rush of the previous months picking apples, pressing juice, and fermenting the cider.  In December there

We picked the last apples from the orchard I have been leasing for the last five years today. A year ago, I let the owners Klaus and Liz know I would be resigning after this harvest. Closing the gate for the last time was a bittersweet experience. I guess letting

Mike here. I thought it might be nice to restart a monthly newsletter for our cider club members to showcase some of the day-to-day goings on at the cidery and orchard. The goal would be to try and capture both the small victories as well as the failures. Someone remarked