Could cider rule the beverage house? Up Front


By Bryden Winsby M


aking cider on a commercial scale is an idea whose time has come for a number of apple growers in this province. As ideas go, it’s certainly not new, either in British Columbia or the world, for that matter. However, with the number of orchardists dwindling as the industry endures persistently tough market conditions, starting a serious cidery has definite appeal, as you’ll find in our cover story, in which Susan McIver profiles a number of folks who have taken cider-making far beyond the hobby brew stage.


Do they entertain visions of festivals, ‘Cider Routes,’ and hordes of tasters carting off cases of their creations? Well, maybe down deep inside they might, but it’s probably quite presumptuous at this point to suggest cider soon will rival wine as the beverage industry du jour in the Okanagan-Similkameen and at the coast.


Underestimating its potential could be a mistake, though. Growing apples for cider here is a lot less challenging than producing the just-right grape for wine. In fact, while wine has a longer history, cider — whether non-alcoholic or “hard” — seems to be a product better suited to northern climes. Its origins are shrouded in the mists of time, but go back at least to the Roman era, when legions arriving in Britain at around 55 BC were reported to have found Kentish villagers drinking a delicious cider-like beverage made from apples.


Northern France seems to have been the birthplace of cider as we know it today. A thousand years after Julius Caesar and company quaffed the Kentish version, the Normans conquered England, and cider consumption became widespread, with orchards established specifically to produce cider apples. During medieval times, cider making was an important industry. Monasteries sold vast quantities of their strong, spiced cider to the public.


The Normandy connection extended to this continent, in Quebec, where apples are believed to have been planted in 1617 by Louis Hebert, acknowledged as the French colony’s first permanent settler. Many of the subsequent settlers were Normans


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who brought over the apple cider craft.


Rules and regulations around alcoholic beverages also are nothing new, and cider is no exception — almost from the get-go in Canada. Cider making was forbidden from the early years of


British rule as it was in direct conflict with the interests of British brewers. Another tidbit: Quebeckers began making ice cider from frozen apples about two decades ago, and it now is also produced in Ontario and by Kelowna’s Raven Ridge Cidery. Elsewhere in this busy issue, Susan provides coverage of this fall’s anniversary celebrations at Summerland’s Pacific Agri-food Research Centre, while Judie Steeves describes how the provincial government appears ready to make sure the Agricultural Land Reserve is not only preserved but strengthened.


She also brings detail on the travails being encountered by the fledgling Okanagan Tree Fruit Cooperative, a piece on the mini-winery set up at the University of BC-Okanagan by French enologist Cedric Saucier, and some compelling reasons for taking wine awards seriously.


On the research front, Judie brings us up to date on efforts to find a biological control for Spotted Wing Drosophila and the possibility that a nematode could be responsible for loss of viguour in several kinds of fruit. Meanwhile, our resident vine and wine guru, Gary Strachan, has some suggestions for handling the weird kind of grape-growing season encountered this year. He also delves into the relationship between oxygen and wine, and how to scour the Internet for good deals on reference material. Enjoy!


Helping BC’s fruit industries adapt, diversify and grow!


Since 1997, we’ve pledged nearly $8.1 million for 150 projects led by British Columbia’s tree fruit, berry, grape and wine sectors. We’re proud to have assisted producers in carrying out projects ranging from pest and disease management, food safety and sustainable winegrowing programs, to testing the suitability of new growing regions and the feasibility of new value added opportunities. You can count on our support to assist you in finding innovative solutions that address the issues and opportunities your sectors are facing.


CONTACT US OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO LEARN MORE! T 250.356.1662 E funding@iafbc.ca www.iafbc.ca


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