A Peninsula cider house is celebrating its platinum anniversary, having successfully avoided the negative fruit-growing impacts of extreme weather seen in other areas of the province.
As heat, fires, drought and poorly timed cold snaps damage crops in B.C.’s hotbed of fruit-growing, the Okanagan, Sea Cider Farm and Ciderhouse in Central Saanich presses on.
The Okanagan’s 2023 fall and early winter season was unseasonably warm; some trees were still active and growing buds when temperatures suddenly dropped in January. As a result, the buds froze, rendering them unable to produce fruit. Then, an unseasonably warm spring with ideal growing conditions was hit by a late frost in April, claiming even more crops.
It put the whole business at a higher risk, but the growers they work with have insurance to cover crop failure, said Kirsten Needham, Sea Cider owner.
“You really have to be resilient as a farmer," she added. “Apple trees are very hearty trees, they can handle really cold conditions, so, fortunately, the apple trees were spared when that cold snap hit early in the year.”
There are indirect effects with less food available, particularly the heavily impacted stone fruit – think nectarines and cherries, things with a ‘stone’ – prices can go up and impact the value of other items with a larger market trying to access limited product.
But Sea Cider has long-term agreements with growers that are primarily specialty growers for ciders.
“We have two orchards that we lease in the Okanagan, and both of those orchards are OK,” she said. “Thanks to decades-long friendships of other apple growers who were willing to take a chance and plant cider varieties for us.”
On the other hand, wildfires in other parts of the province seem to drive visitors to the Island, with the Vancouver Island cider house reporting record-breaking numbers of summer visitors for the second consecutive summer.
The orchard on site also provides for ciders, with the apples for popular Kings and Spies grown around the region as well as other areas of the province.
This year marks two decades of business for Sea Cider and they’re celebrating with a special anniversary blend – Platinum.
“That’s something to celebrate I figure,” Needham said.
- with files from Jacqueline Gelineau
