the big stores,” notes Loretta. Today, they have a base of loyal


customers, including tourists who come every year and who appreciate the freshness of the produce, and knowing where it comes from—that it’s local.


Her niece Serenna and sister Cathy


run the fruit stand, while a family friend, Nathan, helps with the picking. All day, orders are packaged up for delivery from what’s been picked early in the morning.


Juice and Cider


Then, last March, the Crosses had an opportunity to purchase juicing and cider equipment from KLO Orchards, and they diversified once again, embarking on an adventure into the unknown.


Once they had made the decision to buy the equipment, they needed to put up a building to house it, but the City of Kelowna wanted development cost charges even for putting up a building on Agriculture Land Reserve land, notes Glenn in frustration. So, they built a smaller building than they really needed to avoid the extra charges.


Next was Interior Health, and the rules and regulations under the Health Act; and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which they found much more reasonable to work with. Apple juice proved to be more difficult to get approved than the hard cider, despite the liquor requirements, because theirs is not heat processed, using UV instead to cold-pasteurize it. In September they applied for their liquor permits for the hard cider operation, a process Loretta began and Glenn finished when harvest was over. By February this year, they had the manufacturing license and cidery license, so they began to make cider. However, they next got a call from the federal excise tax staff informing them they needed to be federally- licensed as well, so that was another procedure they had to go through. And, provincially, even the label has to be registered with the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch, so they submitted the label they had designed for their Double Cross Cidery products and were informed the stick-men family they had on the label under the apple tree silhouette wouldn’t pass muster, even though it simply depicted their family of four in their orchard.


“They said there couldn’t be two British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Fall 2012 7


children on the label of a liquor product, so we removed the children and had the labels printed,” related Loretta. Then they came back and said it was impossible to tell the age of the stick people remaining on the label.


The family home burned down this May, and this was just three months after the fire, so “Loretta had no more patience,” recalls Glenn. Instead, they declined to list the cider with the LDB at the time. On a $20 bottle of cider, it was going to cost them $9.20 to list, even selling it at the same


she comments. The Crosses hand-label, fill


and cork each bottle of cider, and there has been a steep learning curve in the production process, Glenn admits.


One batch went bad; and it


has been challenging to learn exactly what amount of carbonation is the right amount.


JUDIE STEEVES


Depicting children on cider label didn’t sit well with the liquor branch.


price it sold for at the cidery, on-farm. In frustration, Loretta admits there has been an incredible amount of paperwork, adding, “and, we don’t have time for that, or for the marketing. We’re burning ourselves out.”


In the end, they designed a new label, much simpler, to go through the LDB because they need to manufacture 4,500 litres of alcohol a year under the manufacturing license, and they need a point at which to sell that quantity.


They do hope to sell it through cold beer and wine stores as well and the products are available on-farm. “What a lot of fuss over stick-men,”


Although they can use their own fruit for the ciders, they must buy culls from the packinghouse for the juice, because they don’t have a wash station on the farm. Their Function Junction juice is sold through Choices Markets, the packinghouse’s Clement Avenue Fruit Store, Bean Scene Coffee Works and Deli City in Kelowna, as well as through the Delta Grand Okanagan Resort and Pioneer Market.


Already juice sales are holding their own, although the sales of cider products, both iced ciders and hard apple cider are just beginning. The fruit stand does very well, and the tasting room for the cidery is there, so the Crosses are hopeful the new venture will prove to be popular. In the meantime, they’re still waiting for insurance companies to approve their claim so they can re- build their home—and for harvest time to be over so they can take a breath.


“This takes its toll. It’s just work and sleep,” comments Glenn, but he is confident that diversity is the still key to a successful orchard operation.


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