The winter of 2018-2019 was a busy time at the winery. Peter completed a lot of construction work inside the winery building, while Margie completed the UC Davis Winemaking course and also completed several tasks required for our manufacturing license. The team worked with a design company and finalized what our first three fruit wine labels will look like.

Spring promises to be even busier.

Pruning in the Bee & Thistle home orchard was completed, with pruning of the North orchard scheduled for August after harvesting is complete and the plants go dormant. Sustainable weed control activities have been completed.

Soil samples of the two Haskap orchards, plus Ravensfield’s Cherry orchard, were sent to Ontario for analyses. The appropriate fertilizer was then purchased according to the soil samples.

As soon as the Bee & Thistle Orchard gardens were accessible, new Currants were planted, as well as our usual very large vegetable garden. And very exciting was the research and purchase of a new Bird Gard system that protects all of our fruit and produce from avian wildlife: blackbirds, robins, finches and, most of all, our nemesis cedar waxwings.

A major task scheduled for May was the transplanting of 1,000 Cherry trees from their current location at Bee & Thistle Orchards to Ravensfield. However, the winter of 2018-2019 proved too cold for the young trees and the majority died. Those that lived were kept in the nursery and will be transplanted to Ravensfield in the spring of 2020.

The winery building was well on its way to completion. Electrical, plumbing and heating tasks were completed. The cooling system will be installed in the spring of 2020. The floor will have epoxy applied as soon as the weather is favourable, and winemaking equipment will be ordered. Once the land around the building is free of snow and mud, brick and metal siding will be applied to the front and back, and landscaping started.

We update our blog quite regularly as we work to complete the winery. Follow along on our progress.