A fresh start

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 to me recently that newsletters, like blogs, have become an anachronism thanks to Instagram. There simply isn’t much news left after a stream of near-daily updates. Besides, newsletters are hard. They can’t be done on a phone in a 5 minute window waiting for the kettle. Writing demands time, of the writer and the reader, both of which are precious. So why bother?

Well, for one thing I don’t write much anymore, but I used to enjoy it. My role at Dominion doesn’t require it, and with two kids under four there are few quiet moments. I’ve false started on this one a few times already. Then I remembered the quote that if you really want something you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse. So I will try.

Another is that time moves fast, and writing a newsletter is a way to slow down for a second and snapshot where things are at with the business and farm. Looking through past photos to include here helps me realize how far we have come when usually I can only see how far we have left to go.

Finally the timing is prosaic. We are just starting our 7th harvest. Each one is a chance to renew and do things differently. The company is also going through a season of change as the lives of people behind it evolve and start families. I'll save that for future newsletters.

Now that this newsletter’s space is already used, just a couple of vignettes:

Upcoming experimental ciders

We’ve got a few exciting cider experiments underway. One is carbonic maceration of a blend of crabapples. Carbonic maceration is a technique borrowed from the wine world where the whole apple is fermented in its skin before crushing and juicing. Fermenting this way in a vat purged with c02 prevents it from spoiling and can apparently reduce the total acidity (usually too high in crabapples to be used unblended). Its a bit of a long-shot but I will keep you posted either way as this one develops and we hopefully juice these fermented apples in a few weeks.

Cidery construction

We built a new bathroom for the cidery with the help of my father and father-in-law. The challenge of building something with limited construction experience was balanced by the pleasure of working through problems and learning from their combined years of handyman knowledge. Thank you both.

Upper orchard

A year ago we planted the upper orchard on the site of the old vineyard. As I’ve struggled to get the trees to establish, I’ve often thought of John Gordon, the soft spoken previous owner of the property who planted and cared for every one of the vines I later tore out after we bought the place. I imagine the anguish he must have felt to watch me do that, though he never spoke of it. Perhaps I’ll live to see the day when our trees will be cut down in favour of vines again. I'll hold my tongue too.

Things change. Orchards, businesses, families, people. It's often painful, but leads to renewal.