Whether you like your cider dry or sweet, the best ciders begin in the orchard. From farm to table, this is where it all begins.]]>
It's one of our busiest, and favourite times of year on the farm.
The first blossoms we see on the farm are the wild plums. You can see them from the road, back 40 acres above the tops of the other trees. At the first ridge of the property we have what we call our lost orchard, which was probably a settler's orchard dating back to the 1800's. Back then pears, apples and even plums grew throughout the hedgerows and were spread across farms and then tended to by the families living on the land. It’s a wild and relatively untamed place, buzzing with biodiversity.
Beside the plum trees, we've got a grove of wild pear trees. There are 4 different types of tall spindly trees that tower above us 50 feet in the air. The majority of the wild pear grove here is at full pink, with a few early varieties in full blossom. Of all the blossoms in our orchards, these are my personal favourite. they're the last to bloom and we're often harvesting in the first snowfalls of November.
Although we definitely had a cold slow start to the season this year, it was a quick burst to bloom the past two weeks. On May 17th, most orchards were just bordering on tight cluster. At the same time in 2017 and 2018, the first of the blossoms had started to open, while in 2019 most orchards were at tight cluster/bordering on pink. With the warm spell last week, our orchards barely had a chance to reach tight cluster before pink showed up. This week with all of the heat and sunshine, the trees have burst into a beautiful snowball bloom.
For all this we give a shout out of gratitude to the bees, who have been busy and pollinating in this relatively short amount of time. It wouldn't happen without them!
Cider apple and wild pear trees, digging, grafting and adapting. Farming and planting a cider orchard in Ontario.
]]>Early Spring at the Cidery
It's hard to believe almost an entire summer break has passed already. Since this all began we've found new ways to celebrate birthdays and milestones, pivot our business, reach our customers and today we mark the end of the first long weekend of the summer in this new reality.
Normally we'd have seen many of you at market and then tried to sneak in a hike or some time by the bay. But this hardly felt like a normal May 24th weekend did it?
We’ll admit we're a little sore from a whirlwind of spring tree digging and garden planting. The forecast is looking like summer is on its way, so it was a mad rush this week to get everything into the ground before the rain last night. But we did it.
Bring on the sunshine.
2020 definitely seems like the year of adjustment. The original plan was to plant out our cider orchard this coming fall, but unfortunately we lost most of the cider apple trees we had grafted in our nursery this spring. Remember that one last storm late March? It left us with 40+ inches of snow, and in this particular corner the gusts piled over 4ft of the white stuff (to just above the tree guards), making a perfect dining table for the hungry rabbits to munch their way right around each and almost every tree.
With girdling like this there's little hope left for these whips, as the roots have no means to send energy and nutrients up through the bark to keep the tree alive. We hope we'll be able to salvage the root stocks, by trimming the dead trunk above and re-grafting this summer if the root is showing signs of life. Stay tuned.
In the meantime we've discovered hundreds of root suckers growing in our old/wild pear and plum orchards. These are very old trees and they're particularly sensitive to wind damage, which we tend to get a lot of! We lost a number of older limbs in the pear orchard last year, and this spring hundreds of baby trees have shot up from the roots of the trees.
The pure tenacity of these trees to keep growing and fruiting for the generations to come is something we find inspiring. And in the spirit of working with what we've got, we've dug and transplanted a few dozen so far, and will keep the experiment growing this season. We can never make enough of our Wild Perry and we know you've been waiting for our next release, it's coming!
]]>Now more than ever you can see the impact of voting with your dollars. By supporting small and local producers you can have a huge impact and we appreciate your support!
]]>We’re especially thankful for all of your support.
Witnessing the shift of many small producers like us, to exclusively online ordering and contactless delivery/pickup and the overwhelming customer support for these changes, is truly heartwarming.
In response to your requests, we've added both sizes of our Jun Honey Tonics to the shop, and you can also find them in better food shops across Ontario. Let us know if there's a shop near you you'd like to see them in.
FREE shipping is still available in our webstore on orders of 6+ bottles.
Start shopping here to place your order online, no code necessary.
Contact Free pickup is also available at the cidery.
The good news this week, is that Farmer’s Markets have been recognized as an essential part of our food system here in Ontario. The wonderful market management teams are working alongside public health officials to make sure this is still a safe space for everyone during this outbreak.
As part of this effort, Greenbelt Market's will be launching an online pre-order system to facilitate a safe purchase experience for everyone . We’ll have more info on this in the weeks to come and welcome your feedback.
Meanwhile we've been busy at the cidery getting our latest releases bottled, and safely stored away in the cellar for conditioning. Running a bottling line is quite a feat for a team of two, but managed to put down 3500 litres of cider, including your favourites - Crimson Crisp & Golden Russet, as well as a new harvest of our Lost Orchard Cider.
This vintage features exclusively heirloom apples from a historic orchard site in Meaford, and we’re loving the results. Rich and full bodied, with a crisp tart finish - a perfect cider to pair with food. These will be available first to cider club members (2nd quarterly shipment) before their official release early summer.
Our first bottle club shipment will ship out next week and this is one you don't want to miss out on! We've got two new ciders ready to release in April, and club members get first crack at them.
Single Orchard Northern Spy Pét-Nat - 7% 750ml - 288 bottles produced
We've been fans of the Pét-Nat (Pétillant Naturel) style for quite some time. This style is quite similar to our bottle conditioned ciders, in that the carbonation is produced naturally in bottle - in the traditional style. We're not generally fans of added sugars in our ciders, we prefer to keep them natural, letting the fruit be the star. But there are times when a little bit of sweet can really make a cider shine.
The Pét-Nat method allow us to produce a naturally sparkling fruit forward cider with some residual sugar from the apples themselves.
Fresh, crisp and lively, it's one of our favourites so far, we just wish we'd made more of it.
Cyser - 7.2% 750ml - 85 cases produced
Since we started our first hives on the farm, we've been playing around with meads and other honey sweetened ciders.
Our Cyser is a unique co-ferment of Georgian Bay apples and local honey. This vintage is soft, round, layered with wildflowers, beeswax, and backed with crisp acidity. A true taste of the region.
Club members can choose from a 3 or 6 bottle subscription, delivered to your home at the end each quarter.
Shipments can also be customized to suit your tastes - just let us know what you'd like and we'll do our best to accommodate.
]]>Shifting gears, ordering online and free shipping. Stay home and stay safe.
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Catch us at Wychwood Barns
tomorrow 8a-1pm.
Can't make it to market?
(or just want a continuous supply of orchard cider in your life?)
Great news: Bottle Club registration is now live!
Get in on the action with a 3 or 6 bottle subscription delivered to your home at the end each quarter.
Bottle club members receive 2 free tastings at the cidery
(watch for our open hours and Lost Orchard tasting experiences coming this summer!), AND a 10% discount on ciders year round.
This August, it will be five years since we've settled on the farm, and with each new year another layer of familiarity and a sense of being where we're meant to be also settles within us. This time of year, Imbolc or Candlemas, (the midway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, as it's known on the traditional wheel of the year), is traditionally a time when we begin to release the darkness of winter and welcome the return of spring and light. A time to sow seeds of intention and clear out any remaining debris that no longer serves us.
What does this look like for us?
While we reflect on the year that has passed, we also review our holistic goal (and how this determines our plans for the year ahead), and catch up on inspiration - aka reading through the pile of books on our bedside tables.
One that I'm really enjoying at the moment, is Uncultivated by Andy Brennan - a wise and timely book about realizing the advantages to embracing what we've somehow forgotten or ignored. In a region dominated by conventional apple growing and standardized cider cans, it can be challenging to convey why we do what we do, and our fascination/obsession with wild apples and re-wilding in general.
Andy does a much better than we ever could here.
We'll be there with a fine selection of award winning dry sparkling ciders, perry and Jun honey tonics on the following dates:
May 7, June 11, July 16, August 20, September 24, October 1, 2019.
As producers in and supporters of the Georgian Bay apple region and being committed to organic production practices ourselves, we love being a part of their mission:
"To support and increase access to fresh, local, sustainable, naturally grown and certified organic agriculture. To educate the community in the food they eat, the source from which it comes and how it is grown and/or prepared. Trinity is farmer focused, favours slow food, not fast food and eating at hearth and home."
We can't wait to see you there!
Find more info at www.tbfm.ca and @trinitybellwoodsfm
]]>Join us on the path on the fourth Thursday of every month:
May 30th, June 27th, July 25th, August 22nd, Sept 26th, October 24th.
This year we'll there with our full line up of dry ciders - all lovingly made with Georgian Bay apples from local farmers as well as organic and wild apples from our Lost Orchard project.
We're down to our last few cases of 2017 Wild Heirloom Perry but you may just see it there too. Pre-orders are recommended!
And of course we'll have our Jun Honey Tonics (aka the Champagne of Kombucha), about which our Dufferin customers have said "Taste's like Love" (Kyoto Rose) and "The best thing I've ever put in my mouth" (Jasmine Gold).
We can't wait to see you there!
Check out their website and find them on instagram @dufferingrovemarket.
]]>We love the way it's sparkling effervescence and hints of honey and flowers delight your senses and gives you a little zip to get you through your day.
]]>While our love affair with cider has deep roots, it was actually Kombucha that sparked a love of fermenting all things and eventually lead us to cider, perry and meads.
While we've been brewing Kombucha for decades now, the refined sugar used to make it didn't really fit in with our ethos, and so we sought out alternatives.
Enter Jun.
Jun is a similar culture that ferments with sweet tea, but is crafted with local honey and green tea, instead of refined white sugar and black tea as Kombucha traditionally is.
Known as the champagne of kombucha's, (or it's wilder cousin) this lighter and more delicate brew offers all the same benefits as kombucha, as well as the nourishing benefits of green tea and local raw honey. We use only fair trade certified organic teas, and find that this combination results in a lighter more delicate brew that is SO refreshing.
We just love the way it's sparkling effervescence and hints of honey and flowers delight your senses and gives you a little zip to get you through your day.
If you're not familiar with these cultures, they're great for digestion, and provide a probiotic boost, as they're full of beneficial enzymes and bacteria that soothe your insides and help maintain a healthy microbiome.
Join us for a taste and see what all the fuss is about!
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Ice cider is also becoming more popular, although only about 5% of Canada's ice cider is made using cryoextraction. Ice cider is actually more typically made using the process of cryoconcentration.
We froze some organic Northern Spy and Ida Red apples this fall, and with the warmer this weekend we thought we'd try pressing the apples and use the apple essence to naturally sweeten some of our 2017 ciders.
And there you have it. A bright and crisp apple essence that will add a touch of sugar to some our 2017 ciders. Be the first to know about our lineup and release dates by signing up for our newsletter at the bottom of the page here.
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This beautiful urban site is full of mature trees with varieties like Golden Russet, Northern Spy, Cortland, Macintosh and Empire. It was this orchard that inspired us to do our own exploration of Georgian Bay terroir and attempt to showcase the richness of these orchard sites in the bottle.
We originally intended the cider from this orchard to all be blended into a single cider or two, but were so impressed by the quality of the single variety juices that we decided to re-work our lineup to feature the Golden Russet and Northern Spy as single varietal ciders.
While it’s easy for us to see the full benefit of preserving this organic orchard site as the beautifully diverse habitat that it has become, the truth is that orchards take a lot of work. Their natural instinct is to be wild, and the maintenance required isn’t for the faint of heart.
Perhaps that’s what makes these sites that remain, that much more remarkable. As the landscape of Grey County and Georgian Bay continue to evolve, we hope to save a few of these beautiful spots. Wish us luck as we try to save this orchard and bring you more cider from it next year.
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We’re pretty excited about some of the big projects we’re planning at the farm and cidery for 2018. First up in the next few weeks will be pruning in the orchards, later this spring we'll be grafting of another 500 apple tree root stocks. We're also drafting plans for our tiny tasting room, and getting geared up to plant out our first cider apple trees this fall.
While the ground is still frozen, we'll keep ourselves busy with our first production runs for the year. We're pretty pleased with development of our 2017 Lost Orchard Blend - while we loved 2016's blend and can't help but want to try and repeat that, we're also aware that this is a new site, with new apple varieties, and as such really deserves to be celebrated as the unique and rare expression of Georgian Bay terroir that it is.
We’re also bracing ourselves for what could be a very plentiful lost orchard harvest this year. So if you know any one who loves cider and might like to volunteer picking apples with us this year, you'll want to sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know about our harvest events!
]]>We hope the holidays were joyful and relaxing for you and your loved ones.
Here on the farm, we rang in 2018 with an abundance of snow (it continues!), organic sparkling cider (of course!), and our hearts full of gratitude. This week we've been thoroughly enjoying the quiet calm that January brings, to rest and recharge after a whirlwind 2017.
It's hard to believe that this time last year, we'd just submitted all of our licensing applications, harvested our first crops of lost orchard apples, and wild pears here at the farm. The fruit was pressed and the cider was nearly complete in the cellar as we were planning our first releases for the summer.
Every day, everywhere, there'd be discussions about the many decisions still to be made. Would this season's harvest be best showcased in force carbonated vs. traditional method bottle conditioned cider? Single varietals or blends? Kegs vs. bottles? Which logo fonts, label sizes, website platforms would we choose? All kinds of questions and decisions were still swirling around in our minds just 365 days ago.
As you may have read in our Harvest report - we ended up with quite a crop of apples to harvest this year. Along with the help of the world's greatest crew of friends and family, harvest continued over 8 weeks into November! We've discovered a few new Lost Orchard Project sites, which has allowed us to increase our 2017 cider production to just over 12,000L. We'll have some early releases this spring, including some repeats of our 2016 ciders, as well as some that are new to our collection. We can't wait to share them with you.
So to all of those who supported us in 2017, and those of you we have yet to meet in 2018, we wish you a wonder and joy filled year ahead, and we look forward to sharing more of our ciders with you this year. Be the first to know about our 2017 releases this spring by signing up for our newsletter at the bottom of the page here.
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Listed by the American Pomological Society in 1852 as a new variety of promise, Northern Spies were known even then to be not just great for pies, but for cider as well.
Spies were planted in abundance around Georgian Bay and we’ve discovered several Lost Orchard sites that were planted with Spies many years ago. As each one of these organic orchard sites is unique with different soil types and growing conditions, we find ourselves in the unique position to begin exploring the terroir of Georgian Bay apples.
We’ve had the opportunity to experiment with a variety of Spy apples from different orchard sites so far, and there are notable differences in the crops and in the flavour and clarity of the juice. From light and clear with crisp citrus and mineral notes and fresh green apple flavours, to golden straw with baked apple notes - it's clear that they've all got a place at the table.
Our 2016 Single Northern Spy is a blend of spies from the Miller Street and Sunnidale orchards. Our 2016 Perennial and Lost Orchard Cider also include organic Northern Spy apples in the base blend, along with 6 other varieties of organic Georgian Bay apples.
Be the first to hear of our 2017 Northern Spy and Perennial release by signing up for our newsletter at the bottom of the page here.
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Harvest 2017 was fruitful. We’ve doubled production, and are planning a still version of this cider (as well as a sparkling) for release in the summer of 2018.
Be the first to know when it becomes available by signing up for our farm newsletter here.
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With all of the rain in Ontario this spring, pollination and fruit set was a challenge in many orchards. We’ve also found that the older lost orchard and wild trees are biennial croppers (producing a crop every other year), which meant that many of the lost orchards we harvested in 2016, were completely bare this year.
Fortunately each different location has it’s own unique microclimate and wild trees don’t all bloom in the same cycles. Our old grove of wild perry pears produced another bumper crop this year and we’ve discovered all kinds of new wild pear trees (wildings) in the hedgerows around our farm.
We were also able to connect with the owners of a beautiful mature organic orchard in the Beaver Valley that’s still in its prime. Situated on the Beaver River, it was once a test pilot site for the University of Guelph, where many unique varieties were planted. With the beautiful sunny weather this fall, we were able to harvest a variety of new apples for pressing this year.
So if you loved our 2016 Organic Lost Orchard Cider, you can rest easy knowing it will be back again for 2018. We can't to see what these new apples and orchards will reveal and to share it with you.
Sign up for our farm newsletter here to be the first to hear about our 2017 releases.
]]>However that all changed our first autumn here. We were hiking through the farm and knew immediately we'd discovered something pretty special when we noticed these big beautiful old trees were covered with fantastic clusters of wild perry pears.
Guessing by the height of them we estimate they must be at least 60 years old, which for us makes this find that much sweeter - since perry pears are endearingly known to be something you plant not for yourself – but for your heirs, because they take years, sometimes decades before they produce a full crop.
The origin of these pears is as yet unknown, were they at one point cultivated, or are they just naturalized wildings? Most likely, they're feral descendants of a European cultivar – either pyrus communis or pyraster, both varieties are often found naturalized in hedgerows and open woodlands.
Either way, they're an interesting tree. Similar to apples, wild pears are a member of the Rosaceae family, but typically produce clusters of small 2-4cm pears that are often quite hard until they ripen mid-autumn.
When we came upon them in early November, most of the crop except the highest clusters had already fallen to the ground. We were surprised to discover how sweet they actually are – full of true pear flavor, with slightly spicy finish. Followed by the hit of sweetness, there’s an element of bitterness and the sort of astringency that makes your mouth feel as though its been turned inside out. There's a reason they call them spitters! But this was great news, because these tannins are what make for an excellent perry.
It was another full year before we could harvest these beauties again, which we did in the fall of 2016 to product our first vintage. The pears were carefully gathered late October after the first few frosts and pressed on a rack and cloth press, producing gorgeous thick golden juice.
We then let it ferment slowly over the next 4 months, and aged another 4 months on the lees.
Friends let me tell you, it was worth the wait.
Our 2016 Old Orchard Perry is fragrant and floral, more delicate and refined than cider - with true pear aroma and a hint of spice. Produced using the ‘methode traditionelle’ to create natural fine carbonation. The result is more comparable to a brut sparkling wine or champagne with wonderful soft tiny bubbles that linger.
We hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Now available for purchase in our online shop.
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Apple trees are grafted for several reasons - the first being that apple seeds, when planted don't grow true to seed, and in fact often carry very few of the parent trees traits. The second being that apple tree cuttings often don't root well.
We graft in early spring, when the vegetative wood (scion) is still dormant and can be joined to the rootstock. We used both the whip and tongue technique and omega tool to perform our bench grafts.
For our second round of grafting we've chosen Geneva 200 & 202 stock - both semi-dwarf trees that will produce an earlier crop and are cold hardy with good disease resistance. We joined these with a variety of scion wood that we collected, including Golden Russet, Tolman Sweet, Liberty, and Wickson to name a few.
In the next week or two, we'll be planting these out into our nursery at the farm and grow them out for another year before planting them in the orchard.
]]>Here at the farm we’ve discovered that there actually are at least three distinct varieties of mature wild/perry pear trees in the old wild orchard.
One is definitely more Bosc like, juicy with a red blush to it. It’s got strong hard tannins, crisp flesh, nutty flavor and finishes with a spicy bite. Another is more Bartlett like, with softer tannins, a sweet green pear aroma, juicy with brown specks. The third is a little golden gem, with smooth brown russeted skin, and a sweet crisp juicy flesh, not unlike an Asian pear but smaller and with soft round tannins.
We’re starting our Lost Orchard pick in the Miller street orchard, as it has some earlier season varieties. We’ll start with the Empire, Cortland and Macintosh, and finish in a few weeks once the Golden Russet and Northern Spies are ripe.
We’re so thankful for the wonderful crew of friends, family and volunteers who are crazy enough to enjoy this as much as we do!
If you fancy spending an afternoon or two with us next season, be sure to drop us a line at the bottom of the page here.
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In cider news, we've finished up some cider trials and are inspired by the results. The trial is a single varietal Crimson Crisp apple, known for it's white wine like qualities and rich flavour with good sugar/acid ratio.The finished cider has a tropical nose with notes of mango and melon, great body and well balanced acidity.
And in the apiary, we conducted another hive inspection this week and were relieved to find eggs and brood in the brood nest which means there is a laying queen. We were concerned that the hive might be queenless - which is not good news! During one of our spring inspections, there were some queen cups that were accidentally squished, which would mean that none of the potential queens the bees were raising in case of a swarm wouldn't mature to take over the hive. Within a week or two of the mishap, the hive was definitely defensive and when we tried to open the hive, they let out a huge roar and we weren't able to locate any eggs in the brood nest. All clues which can indicate that a hive is queen less.
But thankfully we did find evidence of a queen with eggs, larva and brood all in various stages of growth. This time next year we'll be gearing up for our first honey harvest. These hives being new this year, we'll leave all of the honey stores for the bees as it takes a full year to build up a healthy hive.
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Thanks to an inspiring couple of cider lovers, we find ourselves lucky enough to call this place home.
Recently we took a trip to Grey Roots, the local museum and archives, where we discovered that the first apple trees of the region were planted out on Cape Rich in the 1830’s and by the 1840’s the plantings had spread out to the Beaver Valley.
In those days, early orchardists were cultivating thousands of different varieties of apples with flavours ranging from pineapple to licorice and everything in between. Today, most apple farms only grow a handful of varieties, most of which are chosen for their hardiness, transportability and ability to keep well into the winter.
According to local reports, at peak apple production in the 90’s, there were about 150 orchard operations on roughly 7,000 acres. Today there are less than 30 families on 3,500 to 4,000 acres in the Georgian Bay region.
Over the years, the Ontario apple industry has changed drastically and all but a handful of these heritage orchards remain. Most have been abandoned or torn out and replanted with intensive modernized trellised production orchards or replaced by conventional cash cropping.
It wasn’t long after we started to put down roots in the area that we began to connect with local orchard owners. It began as a casual mention from market friends – “oh you’re moving to Meaford, you’ve got to connect with these lovely folks, they’ve got apples!” And so we did. What started as a casual handshake agreement to harvest some apples and make some cider, quickly snowballed into an entire project with a soulful purpose and a life of it’s own.
We’ve taken to calling it the Lost Orchard Project.
Over the past few months we’ve been busy making more connections, discovering more lost and abandoned orchards, and meeting lots of interesting folks – all gladdened by the idea that these orchards and their fruits still have a purpose and life to live yet.
As cidermakers, we’re pretty excited by the discovery of these orchards, as many are of an age where if they were grape vines, they would be considered to be in their prime, or just reaching their fullest potential. Their roots deeply invested in the soil and capable of producing intensely flavoured fruit that when crafted into cider, needs no additives – like a fine sparkling wine or champagne it’s quite content to stand alone.
We’re deeply grateful for the opportunity to have connected with a community of likeminded folks interested in preserving these trees for the future, and to have the opportunity to craft fine ciders from them.
Stay tuned for more updates as we continue building our cidery and planning our first Lost Orchard releases for 2017.
Get the all the latest updates on Facebook – Windswept Orchard Cider, Instagram @Windsweptcider and Twitter @windswept_cider.
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