Posts by spirittreecider

Spirit Tree Estate Cidery opened its doors in September 2009. Much like an apple tree in the orchard, the idea for the Cidery was planted many years before it first blossomed.

Let’s take a look back at how it all began…

Thomas Wilson, owner and operator of Spirit Tree Estate Cidery, grew up on his family farm in Caledon on Dixie Road near King Street. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree, because his father and grandfather both had a farm and apple orchard. As a fourth-generation farmer, Tom learned from a very early age about farming and grew up to run the family’s Pick-Your-Own & Farm Shop.

In 2002, he married Nicole Judge, a local girl from Cheltenham. Although the Pick-Your-Own & Farm Shop was flourishing, the couple wanted a more sustainable business that was less dependant of the weather. That is when the seeds for Spirit Tree were first planted.

A passion for food and cider

Over the next few years, Tom and Nicole took their passion for good food to new levels and started enrolling in pastry courses. They took an introductory course at George Brown College and then went on to enroll in Le Cordon Bleu Chef School in Ottawa. They spent their holidays learning about traditional cider making in England and journeyed to Paris to complete an intensive one-week course in bread making at the famous Le Cordon Bleu Chef School.

Tom Wilson & Nicole Judge – 10 years ago

They visited bakeries all over Paris and fell in love with the quality of bread in France. They started dreaming about how they could bring their artisan know-how and old-world techniques home to create a high-end cidery and bistro serving artisan foods, unlike anything Caledon had ever seen.

Planting the orchard

In 2004, Tom decided to sell his grandfather’s farm and the couple began the search for the perfect property for their new idea. They wanted a spot that was easily accessible to the urban crowd, but with a picturesque view of the Caledon Hills. They eventually settled on 46 acres of land on Boston Mills Road, the current property for Spirit Tree.

​The land had previously only been used to grow hay, but the soil proved to be perfect for growing apples. In the spring of 2005, along with the help of family and friends, they started planting whips, year-old unbranched tree shoots that would eventually grow into full apple trees.

In the first year, they planted 2,500 apple trees by hand. They wanted to establish the orchard before they started digging for the proposed building. In each year that followed, they planted more trees and more varieties. Today, there are over 6,400 trees and 47 varieties of apples on the property.

Slamming on the brakes

Their original dream was to open the cidery and bakery in 2006, but bureaucratic red tape delayed their dreams. When Tom first approached the Niagara Escarpment Commission with his idea of opening a cidery, he was immediately shut down.

Due to its location, Tom had to get approval from not only the Niagara Escarpment Commission (NEC), but the Town of Caledon and the Credit Valley Conservation (CVC). Each with its own concerns for the project moving forward, their dream of opening in 2006 came to a complete halt.

After a huge investment in time and money to meet the demands of the NEC and CVC, Tom and Nicole were given the green light and were able to open the doors to Spirit Tree in September of 2009.

When they opened however, they did not have the full licence to manufacture hard cider, so they were only able to sell their non-alcoholic sweet cider. The Bistro was also limited in what it could offer, so it opened as a café, serving just soup and sandwiches.

It wasn’t until a full year later in 2010, were they permitted to sell their first hard cider – traditional Pub Cider…now called Draught Cider.

What’s in a name?

The name Spirit Tree was also a long time in the making.

As Tom and Nicole became experts in traditional cider making, they learned about “wassailing” – an ancient English tradition. The ceremony of wassailing included singing and toasting the trees in an orchard. The purpose was to awaken the apple trees and scare away evil spirits to ensure the health of the trees, in the hopes they will provide a good harvest.

​So, the name “Spirit Tree” paid homage to the ancient tradition of wassailing but was also a play-on-words to the fact that cider is an alcoholic drink or ‘spirit’ from trees.

In September 2019, Spirit Tree Cidery celebrated its 10th anniversary.

In this blog, we are sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the environmentally award-winning building and some of the challenges in making it a reality.

Tom Wilson and Nicole Judge, owners of Spirit Tree, had a big idea. They had a vision of creating a high-end farm-to-table cidery and bistro, unlike anything Caledon had ever seen. Their vision was so unique that they wanted to start from scratch by finding a property where they could plant their own orchard.

They eventually found the property, where Spirit Tree currently resides, on Boston Mills Road. Before they took possession, it was just open fields with a few scattered apple trees. With the help of their family, they planted their entire 46-acre orchard by hand, planting over 2,500 apple trees or whips (baby apple trees) in one year.

Mindful of the Environment

It was important to the Wilson’s that the entire operation was energy efficient and environmentally friendly from the ground up. So, everything from the orchard to the building was created with that in mind. Their intentions were good, but the Wilson’s faced many challenges and roadblocks to open Spirit Tree. It took over four years of planning and permits to even start construction on the building.

A Building Made of Straw

Many people visiting the cidery for the first time might think the building is a historic agricultural building. That is because it was designed to resemble the century-old bank barns common in the area. The building was constructed out of large straw bales. Imagine a giant Lego set of straw bales stacked on top of one another.

The building is so unique it became the first winery production and agricultural building in Ontario to utilize straw bale construction. The result was a building with an insulation value of R-50+, twice of what is typically required in a traditional home.

Originally the Town of Caledon and Niagara Escarpment Commission were concerned about the safety of a building built entirely of straw and demanded expensive engineering reports. After some time, they dropped their concerns and construction was able to start.

Supporting the load of the building are giant posts and beams. The walls were filled with straw bales that were grown by a neighbouring farmer. There is an estimated 700 bales of straw in the walls of Spirit Tree. The straw walls were then secured using a polyvinyl mesh (resembling chicken-wire) and completely covered with three-quarters of an inch of lime/concrete stucco. It took three coats of stucco to fully cover the internal and external walls of the building.

Staying Warm in the Winter & Cool in the Summer

Instead of using fossil fuels and electricity to heat and cool the building, the Wilson’s went geothermal.

When you arrive at Spirit Tree and park your car, you are walking on two 3,700-foot-long loops of pipe. Environmentally friendly ethanol is pumped through these loops, absorbing heat from the earth before returning to the building, where a heat exchanger heats the interior using a forced air system. In the summer, the loop is reversed to cool the interior. Only a small amount of electricity is required to run the ethanol loop pump and the fan motor.

Wood Fired Stone Oven

Did you know that Spirit Tree makes environmentally friendly pizza and bread? Huh? That is because our pizza and bread are baked in our wood fired stone oven.

In the centre of the building is a one-of-a-kind wood-burning artisan oven. It was designed by the late Alan Scott, one of the world’s most famous brick-oven artisan designers. Using the ancient technique of thermal mass retention, the oven is heated by a wood fire directly in the oven chamber. The oven is fired overnight, and the heat is absorbed into the massive stone masonry. In the morning, the ashes are cleaned out, the oven floor is mopped clean, and baking can begin.

This oven allows us to bake nearly all our products using a renewable fuel source, with outstanding results that cannot be replicated by more conventional gas or electric ovens.

Ensuring a Fruitful Harvest

If you walk into the orchard, you might think the grass is over-grown and neglected. However, the long grass and wildflowers between the rows of apple trees help prevent soil erosion and are a natural food source for the native pollinators in and around our farm. In the spring when the apple trees are in bloom, this army of pollinators will ensure an excellent fruit yield.

Keeping an apple orchard free from disease and pests is a fine balancing act. Wanting to limit the amount of sprays and chemicals used in the orchard, Spirit Tree opted for a more natural way to keep the apples free from pests. Using Advanced Integrated Pest Management (or AIPM), Spirit Tree ensures they have a superior apple crop by using organic or soft chemical control.

The trees are continually monitored using insect lure traps, degree-day modeling, visual inspection and soil and tissue sampling. This allows us to fertilize using only what is required and when it is needed. Tom and his team can pinpoint localized infections and treat only the infected areas of the orchard, thus minimizing the use of sprays and to use only those chemicals that are targeted to that particular pest.

Great Tasting Cider

​Even the cider-making process was reconsidered with the environment in mind. Traditionally, sweet cider is flash pasteurized using a gas-fired boiler to eradicate any possible pathogens in the juice. The problem is that many of the beneficial nutrients and enzymes in the juice are destroyed when heated, and this method also uses a lot of energy to run the boiler.

Spirit Tree opted to treat its cider using a Cider Sure UV Unit, where the juice is passed over a glass pane illuminated using ultraviolet light. Any possible pathogens are eradicated with no heat being used, maintaining the naturally occurring nutrients and enzymes released during pressing of the fruit. Not only does it ensure that the ciders maintain their natural benefits, but it uses much less energy. ​

​

Despite the rocky start and bureaucratic red tape Tom and Nicole experienced in opening Spirit Tree, they were awarded “Environmentalist of the Year” and the “Agri-Food Innovation Excellence” in 2010. The Spirit Tree operation continues to focus on environmentally friendly practices as most of the product sold in the Farm Shop and the over 80% of the ingredients used in the Bistro are all locally sourced.

Come celebrate 10 years of Spirit Tree with us from September 27-29 and check out our environmentally friendly building.