Discover Merridale this Fall: Slow Down and Savour the Orchard Harvest

It’s easy to get swept up in the busyness of life, disconnected from the beautiful changing seasons right in front of us. Fall offers an opportunity to slow down, reconnect with nature, spend time with loved ones and create beautiful memories.

And it’s a very magical time here at Merridale. Not only are the leaves changing colour and the air getting slightly more cool and crisp, but this is the time of year when we harvest all that has been growing on the Merridale Farm.

We Follow Nature’s Lead

Whether you are visiting the Merridale Farm, enjoying a glass of Merridale at your neighbourhood pub, or picking up a bottle of Merridale spirits at your local store, there’s a lot that goes into creating the drink in your glass.

And it all starts in the Merridale orchard.

Regenerative Farming

We’ve been committed to regenerative farming practices for over 20 years and we go above and beyond to take excellent care of the land, the trees, the animals and even the bees who we share our farm with. Our unique microclimate, which has the longest growing season in Canada, produces some of the best cider apples around. We seek to honour the natural intelligence of the earth through the ways we take care of our orchards and apples and this makes a huge difference in the quality and integrity of our products – you can literally taste the difference.

And when you visit the Merridale Farm, you can enjoy a stunning walk through the orchard, feel the warm sun on your skin and maybe even see one of the wild turkeys that like to wander through the orchard. Or if you are really lucky, watch as we harvest and press our apples, which is the very first step in crafting our cider and spirits.

More Apples in Every Glass

The fall is when we harvest the apples from our orchard. We wait until the right moment when the apples are ripe and ready. We don’t have a specific pressing schedule, instead, we follow nature’s lead and only press when the apples are truly ready.

There’s a lot that we do to harvest our apples in sustainable ways, which creates our delicious cider and spirits…

We shake the trees (yes, you read that right!) Why? Only the ripe apples will fall when they are ready and not all apples ripen at the same time.

When we have enough harvested apples, then we start the process of crafting cider and spirits. It begins with pressing the apples, which takes place right on the farm, and if you sign up for a cider tour, you can learn all of the steps to the process.

We only press the apples once to maintain the highest integrity and create an amazing product for our guests.

With the first pressing of apple juice, we then add yeast which produces our cider. We don’t add sulphites, additives or chemicals, unlike other producers. We do everything possible to generate pure, organic and delicious cider and spirits that celebrate life in the Cowichan Valley.

Slow Down and Savour the Fall Harvest at Merridale

Gather your friends and family this fall and visit the Merridale Farm. It is a truly beautiful time of the year to visit and enjoy all that nature has to offer. You can wander through the orchard on a nature walk with your family, enjoy a meal in the farmhouse eatery or sip a cocktail or cider in the courtyard and celebrate the bounty and beauty that we are so fortunate to harvest during this magical season.

Life is Meant to be Celebrated. Craft Memories at Merridale.

Gather your friends and family and visit Merridale this fall.