Photo by Murza Keech
Fraser Valley Cider sign
The Bolongaro's at the opening of their cidery.
Delicious, sweet apples grow beautifully in the Okanagan, but a few hours’ drive to the west in the Lower Mainland?
The general assumption has been that the coastal region doesn’t have what it takes to create a decent apple.
Turns out there’s a 12-acre plot in Langley that’s perfect for apples – though not the kind you want to eat – the kind for apple cider.
Rachel Bolongaro and her husband came to Canada from the United Kingdom 17 years ago. Both engineers, it was around 2012 when Bolongaro realized she needed a change of scenery, at least part of the time.
“I was thinking, ‘I like engineering, but I don’t like the environment I have to do engineering in,” she says.
The mother of two set off to figure out what she would be when she grew up.
“I’ve always wanted a plot of land,” notes Bolongaro. “And I have always made my own cider.”
Running a cidery is a far cry from whipping up a batch at home to share with friends, so Bolongaro found the Principles and Practices of Cider course in Mount Vernon, Washington. There’s always a wait list for the week-long program because of the growing interest in cider in North America, but Bolongaro got in.
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Photo by Murza Keech
Labeling line.
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Photo by Murza Keech
Cidery
The program ended in the summer of 2013 and the Bolongaros bought their 12-acre property in the following spring. If anything, the site’s perceived drawbacks were benefits to Fraser Valley Cider. Although it was in rough shape, the property was ultimately a blank slate on a busy road in the middle of Langley’s Campbell Valley wine region.
Come April 2015, the couple hired a contractor to build the cidery that was finished in October 2015.
“The first batches of cider went on in November,” Bolongaro says.
The study of the land’s soil revealed it’s ideal for growing apples, but obviously, the trees she’d planted in 2015 weren’t yet producing, so land leased from a partner farm in the Okanagan was the source of apples for this year’s cider. Bolongaro feels the apples on the property will be producing enough to take over the second year of production.
“We’ve got about 2,000 trees,” she notes.
Soon, another 1,800 will be planted making a total of six acres and about 30 varieties. When it came to picking those varieties, she pointed to the wealth of information on the internet including Ministry of Agriculture resources.
“We’ve got lots of space,” she says, but time will tell what varieties work best for Bolongaro’s cidery. Obviously, what grows well in the Okanagan isn’t what she’s after.
“I’m not going to grow anything that the Okanagan growers grow better,” she says. “We grow apples that are called spitters.”
Named because of the need to spit them out after taking a bite, these sour heritage English and French apples make great cider, but the process hasn’t been all sunshine and daisies for Bolongaro.
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Photo by Murza Keech
Rachel Bolongaro
Rachel Bolongaro works with her new apple tree saplings.
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Photo by Murza Keech
Cider Apples
Apples for Fraser Valley Cider.
“Some of the grafting didn’t take,” she notes. “And we lost some [of the trees] over the winter. We hand watered all our trees through the summer. It was just a killer year.”
Fraser Valley Cider opened at the end of May. There is plenty for visitors to choose from. Ice cider – where the apple juice is frozen, similar to ice wine; cyser – a mix of apple juice and honey; and four different types of cider: dry, house cider, honey blend and elderflower cider.
Bolongaro knows each vintage of cider will be different, not unlike how grapes create a different wine each year. It’s not consistency year to year she’s after, but a good product year after year. She believes her customers will appreciate that. It comes down to what works well in the cider and grows well in the orchard.
“That’s our goal, is to be consistently good,” she says. “That’s part of the interest in having a locally farmed product.”
The product won’t be cookie-cutter-like in flavour and neither will the process. This is where Bolongaro’s engineering experience has paid off.
“We’re building a lot of our own equipment,” she notes. “We’re building our own bottling machine.”
She’s not oblivious to the amount of work this kind of endeavor takes. Planting an orchard, building the cidery, establishing the processes, making the first batches, marketing… there is a lot that goes into a start-up business. Bolongaro looks to the future however.
“Nothing will ever be this hard again,” she says.
She knows all the elements to get Fraser Valley Cider up and running and soon she will be able to focus more on production in future years. In time, the plan is to transition into the business full time with a few other changes as well.
“I’ll be saving up for one of the automatic presses,” says Bolongaro.
Currently, the manual press is small, but it does the job. Pressing is done outside on the large concrete pad. Then the juice is stored to ferment.
“You want a long slow fermentation,” she says. “That way you capture more of the aromas.
Racking to leave the lees behind is set for about three to six months after fermentation begins. Bolongaro won’t be filtering her cider and will be striving for a slight fizz of carbonation. Once bottled, the product will be pasteurized to kill the yeast then labelled. About 8,500 liters make up this year’s batches.
“I’ve no idea if that’s going to be too much or not enough,” she says.
Of all the things being experimented with to make great cider, the yeast is one of the most interesting aspects.
“Cider makers are lovely people but none will tell you what yeast they use,” she notes. “It’s kind of a proprietary secret and different yeasts give the ciders a different taste.
The yeast is just one of many things Bolongaro can look forward to experimenting with in the coming years. With an orchard full of thriving apple trees and a new business to introduce to the world, there will be plenty to keep her busy at Fraser Valley Cider. ■