We are just into December and heading towards a time where we work on our business and not in our business. After the holiday season cider sales drop off naturally as people drink less and spend less especially on Cider. So the time is perfect to sit back, reflect and work on our business.
2025 has truly been one of change, let me begin with last winter. We found out that one of our adult children wanted to move back to the farm, work with us and eventually build a home for themselves. Wow I was shocked, Clinton not so much. Of course we made it happen. We were no where near ready for an employee, heck Clinton and I do not even get paid a wage for what we do but we made it happen with a Provincial wage subsidy and hard work and a ton of sacrifice!
April came and Tawny moved home, worked full time until December. What a spring, summer fall we had. Blooms came and went, fruit started growing, the sun shown and the very little bit of rain came. We entered harvest with a gusto, it started August 1st and did not end until the end of October. 80000 lbs of fruit was harvested, pressed and fermented. This is 25000 litres. Can I hear a hell yah!
To go back a bit we had a plan for 2025, it was to plant many many apples trees, take an intern on from France, welcome many WWOOFers ( World Wide opportunities on Organic Farms) and pour an incredible amount of cider. So in the end we did most of this but so much more unfolded and a few things went to the parking lot. We decided to not take on a intern from France as we needed to invest in Tawny. With Tawny home we also managed a herd of sheep in the orchard, planted over 4000 trees, many of which are apple varieties that we are dreaming about for cider. Plus shelter belt trees and natural habit trees were planted to help direct the incredible amount of deer and other wild life that call our land home. We erected a huge ass fence, seriously this fence is something else. I would bore you with the details but let me just say we bit off way more than we can chew but chew we did and I am proud to say it is done!
We want our home, this land, to be a place for our family that everyone is proud of. We also want to run a business that has the land and the people at the heart of it. We work hard to have sustainable goals and actions that heal the earth, our family and our community all the while being able to support us financially and now that family has come home and want to be here it is more important than ever to plan ahead. As you can imagine this is no small ask. It takes a ton of planning and replanning, it takes flexibility, sacrifice, and education.
Now we are in December and entering the dark days of winter and spending a lot of time and energy finishing what we can outside, planning the cider season and working on our business. We as a group are going to have a PATH planning session, this is where we dream out loud and work backwards to action items. The session takes a couple hours but worth the time and energy. We have done this for years. Developing Holistic plans for our farm, family, land and animals. I can hardly wait to let you the readers know what we plan for the future. We will be seeing the blooms of 2026 in early May and the cycle of our small farm and life will continue. As I draw this little blog to a close, stay tuned for more ramblings as I feel there is so much more to say than what I shared here. Take care all and maybe we will see you here at Wooden Gate Cider, in 2026 for more conversations and incredible cider.
Cheers
Pamela