The Farmgate Family
Fall is upon us, that wonderful season of reds and golds, warm days and cool evenings. It's also apple-harvest season and that means Jim Davies, his wife, Brenda, sons, Stuart and Jacob, and their partners, Sami Nicholas and Meaghan Dalby, will be busy harvesting some of the more than 40 varieties of apples — dessert apples, such as Empire, Mac and Lobo; heirloom varieties, such as Spear, Duchess and Yellow Transparent, even wild self-seeding varieties — they grow organically to make hard cider. The Davies own Farmgate Cidery, an all-hands-on-deck family business operating on a 75- acre farm along the Mississippi River in Arnprior.
The Davies got into the cider business by happenstance. When Jim and Brenda purchased the property more than 21 years ago, it had one mature wild-apple tree on it, but Jim has a “passion for trees — and apple trees in particular,” he says. He started to graft and transplant more and, with no particular plan in mind, the family soon had an orchard of more than 100 trees and all the apples that go with it. At first, they pressed the apples to make fresh juice, which soon led to a cider-making hobby seven years ago.
In 2016, Stuart returned home from Alberta after completing the brewmaster program at Olds College to develop a business plan for the cidery with his father. Shortly after that, they secured a licence to produce and sell cider and Jim sold his first bottles at Carp Farmers' Market in May 2017. He sold out that day and from there, the popularity of Farmgate ciders and the growth of the business can be measured by how quickly it required the entire family's help to meet market demand. Within the year, Stuart's brother Jacob joined the operation, along with the siblings' partners Nicholas and Dalby, who manage marketing, social media and assist with operations.
Farmgate's trajectory echoes the growth of the craft-cider industry. As the largest apple-growing region in Canada, with more than 16,000 acres of trees, Ontario cider-makers produced 2.1 million litres of cider, generating $12.3 million in sales in 2015, according to the Ontario Craft Cider Association (OCCA). By 2020, the volume is expected to reach 6.9 million litres and $38.8 million in sales.
Plus, new cideries are popping up like breweries. A 2017 study conducted by OCCA found the province had 56 active cideries and another 26 in development.
And it's no wonder. Cider has come along way in recent years.
"We make dry European-style ciders using a combination of traditional and modern methods," Jim says. All Farmgate ciders are naturally fermented without additives — no sulphites, preservatives or stabilizers.
Farmgate's estate series uses apples grown exclusively in its orchard, while some blends incorporate apples, honey and maple syrup produced on neighbouring farms. And having so many varieties of apples growing in the orchard allows the family to offer a wide range of ciders.
Farmgate's Russet is a British-style cider that favours drier or bittersweet apples. It's a champagne-dry cider with no residual sweetness and nine per cent ABV. On the other hand, the Bee Squared cider is a blend of three derivatives of the McIntosh apple, also known as "the Brothers" — Empire, Cortland and Spartan — at seven per cent ABV. It's back-sweetened with unfiltered honey to produce a slightly sweet and floral cider.
Funkhaus is a dry, continental-style cider made with a blend of six estate-grown apples. This cider is aged on the lees, which adds complexity and a flavour profile that distinguishes it from the many British-style ciders Farmgate produces.
And the bottles are a work of art, too, literally. Brenda, a painter and an outdoor-education teacher at the Bill Mason Centre, creates abstract oil and encaustic paintings reflective of her natural surroundings. Her paintings are used as the labels adorning Farmgate's bottles.
You can find Farmgate ciders at Carp, Westboro and Lansdowne farmers' markets, become a member and subscribe to a monthly supply of ciders or, better yet, go to see the operation for yourself (by appointment only), view the paintings, arrange a tasting and meet this hard-working family who will leave you feeling that their cider is special.
Farmgate Cider
4547 Mohrs Rd., Arnprior, Ont.
farmgate.ca | 613.623.9982 | @farmgatecider
