Have you visited Sunday Cider yet? My husband and I had a delightfully social-distanced visit with owners Clinton McDougall and Patrick Connelly and toured the surprisingly extensive farm gate business at 1632 Sunshine Coast Hwy.
Soon after purchasing the 20-acre property five years ago, they started to develop the cidery, run jointly by the two families. Clinton and Patrick are creating a bio-dynamic farm incorporating cover crops like alfalfa, clover and oats into their orchard.
Cider-making started off as a hobby when the two friends lived in Vancouver and began making cider every Sunday (hence the name!). Once families came along, they decided to expand their hobby into a full-fledged operation and have grown it organically, just like their ciders. Clinton is the head cider-maker, having taken courses taught by Perter Mitchell whom he calls “one of the most recognized cider making instructors in the world.” They’ve now developed several varieties of cider with real attention to detail. Cidermaker Clinton gives such in-depth explanations of how each are made, you may want to try them all!
Although most of their juice is currently sourced from hand-picked orchards in the Okanagan where they grew up, they have a nursery of their own (420!) apple trees: 20 heirloom varieties originating from France and England. Clinton says that COVID has not impacted their plans too badly as they’ve been able to evolve the farm and cidery more slowly, with extra time to try out their creative ideas. With limited fruit trees on the farm currently, they use them “for small wild fermented batches. More and more fruit will be coming from our own orchard in the coming years,” says Patrick.
They sell to a variety of restaurants locally and in Vancouver, and of course, from the farm.
My favourite story was about their entry into a beer competition, which they won for their cider. Clinton explained that with the current interest in craft beer, wine and cider, there is a lot of cross-over, with ciders including hops and even wine skins, and likewise, craft beer infused with fruity flavours. Their brands include Sunday Wild, Cherry Cascara, Trop Hop and Sunday Sesh in cans. On the day we were there, they were bottling a new type, co-fermented with Cabernet Sauvignon grape skins, called Twice on Sundays.
It’s a very hands-on operation and they approach the business with a real community consciousness. They are excited about their plans and passionate about their ciders.
Check out their website https://www.sundaycider.com/ or drop in to purchase from their cider house at 1632 Sunshine Coast Hwy. They’re open all winter from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily for farm gate sales and in the spring will have a food truck and large picnic area.
In other news, Clint Budd, of the Elphinstone Community Association (ECA) board, reported that he and (chair) Rod Moorcroft met with the Woodcreek Park, Poplars and Fircrest neighbourhood associations over Zoom recently. It was a chance to discuss shared issues, with hopefully more meetings to follow.
Let me know of community news or of Elphinstonians who have passed away this year for my next column at: [email protected]
