Grand Opening a Grand Success!

What a day we had! All summer, we’ve been working like crazy to get our new cider house and tea room built and operational in time for Thanksgiving. It came right down to the wire, and we only made it thanks to our friends and neighbours who helped us bake pies, bag apples, install plumbing, paint walls, wash windows, set up a debit machine, write up our chalkboards… in fact, all of those small details that make it all come together.

On Saturday the 11th of October, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Although we weren’t officially open until 2pm, visitors started arriving at 11 am! We had the old Dance Hall opened up, with agricultural antiques from our family’s own farming past, as well as a number of beautiful pieces lent to us from the personal collection of Joy and Dalton Hodgins of Clarendon – some 1930s era dairy equipment, barrels, and a handpump that now sits proudly on our well. I showed off our pressing equipment to a steady stream of visitors in the pressing room; Greg ran the children’s activities, Tamara & Kelly handled the apple sales, and Ronda put in a hard day running the tearoom and much else besides! By the end of the day, over 500 visitors had joined us for pie, cider, games, demonstrations, and our wee petting zoo – without a doubt, one of the busiest days the village has had in some time! My niece, Alyssa, and Mr. Lawrence Cannon, MP, and Mdme. Charlotte L’Ecuyer, MNA, cut the official ribbon. Mr. Cannon and Mdme. L’Ecuyer both spoke briefly, about the potential and dynamism of Pontiac’s youth. We’d like to extend a thank you to both of them for being able to be part of our celebration!

Getting to this day has been quite a process. We began construction before the snow had even melted last spring. My uncle, Barry Matson, is a master carpenter, and he guided us throughout the process. In fact, while we had a floor plan settled on before we began, the structure as it was built emerged entirely from Barry’s imagination! It is truly awesome to watch a master at work.

While Garry (my father) and Barry worked to get the structure built, I was running ragged trying to obtain all of the necessary permits and equipment to allow us to make sweet cider (and eventually, hard cider too!). The last piece of equipment we needed in order to make sweet (non-alcholic) cider arrived in late September: a Cidersure 3500 Ultraviolet Light pasteurizer. This machine achieves a 99.999% kill rate of micro-organisms in the cider, but happily does not raise the temperature of the cider. This means that the cider that comes out has the same flavour profile as the cider that went in! No processed apple-drink from us, no sir!

Our first pressing was on October 1st; that batch was sold out completely at the Chelsea farmer’s market. I pressed twice more for our grand opening – and it sold out as well! It is amazing to see people’s eyes open wide in surprise when they first taste ‘real’ apple juice, ie sweet cider, for the first time. (But did you know – ‘cidre’ in French only applies to alcoholic cider. A ‘sweet cider’, ‘cidre doux’, is actually a low-alcohol, but typically higher than beer, drink!)

Thank you to all who visited – your kind words and support really touched all of us here at Coronation Cider Mills, and we hope to see you again soon.

-Shawn, for

Tamara, Greg, Ronda, Isaac, Alysaa, Kelly, Gord, Garry & Norma Graham