Farmhouse cider

Yesterday, far from the County, I met Derek. He lives on a farm outside a small village in a forgotten corner of England. His cidery, Hartland, doesn’t get many visitors. I wish it did.We followed hand-painted signs down weaving, narrow roads. Derek emerged from the barn and smiled.

His cider is stored in 300-litre barrels called hogsheads. That’s all I can tell you about his oak; decades of weathering have worn off the coopers’ marks that show who built the barrels and how. Derek doesn’t seem to mind about the detail of the oak. He’s focused on the fruit within. He grows all his own pears and apples. Thirty-foot trees keep watch over his farm, sheltering the animals below.

A hundred years ago the County was full of farms like Derek’s. During the First World War they focused on supporting troops overseas.

Knowing that souls need feeding too, County residents sent care packages abroad. Socks, letters, candies; small tokens of home.

Our farmers sent something else—cider. Most farms in the early 1900s had a small cider orchard. Land owners spent the winter perfecting their ferments. When Summer came, labourers would get pints of cider alongside their pay. During the war, a lot of this cider was sent to Europe.

A push toward prohibition took root soon after. Under pressure, farmers cut down their apple trees. It was an end to farmhouse cider in the County.

Our hedgerows are littered with descendants of forgotten orchards. They are a memorial planted by birds and deer. They are living statues that burst to bloom each spring.

My cidery, FieldBird, draws its name from the critters who decorated our hedgerows. Like them, I’m on a quest to recreate a forgotten world. To reimagine a time when farmers made their own cider from their own trees. A time when oak barrels were common and bubbles rare.

I’m not alone. The County is in a cider resurgence that started 23 years ago in Waupoos. In 1995, Grant Howes took over his family’s orchard and started The County Cider Company. Grant was the first, forging a path for cidermakers like me. He cultivated world-wide recognition for Ontario cider. He built an industry from a dream.

Grant’s story echoes within Apple Falls Cider. They’ve built their cidery in Rednersville at another family farm—Campbell’s Orchard. A year into production and they already need to expand.

Kings Mill Cider, in Stirling, is 10 days away from opening. Kees and Margaret are kind and adventurous. Kees was brave enough to tackle making an ice cider in his first vintage —a cold and difficult task.

There are other cideries too: Empire, Hard Way, Settlers, 401, and Clafeld. Also wineries like Old Third. Each of us, in some small way, trying to discover the County’s history.

I learned a lot from Derek and his historic English farm. I needed to experience what our farms looked like a hundred years ago. He taught me about the past so I can uncover the future.

But my inspiration comes from elsewhere as well; from blossoming memorials and passionate cidermakers.