Not far from the tree

Courtenay’s Old Orchard neighbourhood comes by its name honestly. In the 1890s, Joseph McPhee bought several strategic parcels of land around Courtenay, surveyed the future town site, and started clearing land. On 10 acres between today’s downtown Courtenay and the Puntledge River, he and his sons planted 1,000 apple trees. They were some of the first fruit trees in the Valley. McPhee sold most of the apples in the general store he opened in 1895, J McPhee and Sons.

Those original trees seeded an interest in apples and cider that continues in the Valley today. But historian Ian Kennedy thinks McPhee had a bigger vision than enabling future generations to enjoy a locally grown and produced pint of apple cider at Church St. Taphouse.

Kennedy wrote in his book, The Life & Times of Joseph McPhee: “This may well have been the first real estate marketing scheme ever attempted in the Comox Valley, planting the trees to beautify each lot with one or more fruit trees, thus making them more attractive to purchasers.” Almost 120 years later, houses have replaced the orchard, though old-timers say a few original trees still stand in the neighbourhood. But also—and more importantly for local cider lovers—the family is back in the apple business.

In 2016, McPhee’s great-great-granddaughter, Quinn Erickson Webber, and her husband, Aaron Webber, started planting apple trees on their farm, Island Orchard. Last year they made their first batch of hard apple cider and started selling it to local restaurants and bars under the name J McPhee and Sons.

“It’s the same original business license; that’s why we can say ‘established in 1895,’” Erickson Webber says. “Joseph McPhee started with apples and now we’re continuing the family business.”

Pressing Matter, a local fruit-juicing business

Along with the orchard and cider business, the couple are also part owners in Pressing Matter, a fruit-juicing business in Courtenay. With all the apple-related enterprises, she’s noticed a truth about Valley residents: “There are a lot of die-hard apple people here.”

The climate and sandy-loam soil is excellent for apple growing; there are orchards and trees in every corner of the region. In season, apple juice and apples are ubiquitous at farmers’ markets and farm stands, and turning the annual crop into juice and cider is a Valley tradition.

Small-scale producers

All that passion makes Erickson Webber wonder why there aren’t more large-scale cider makers in the area. Raven’s Moon and Coastal Black make cider as part of a larger menu of fruit beverages. Hornby Island’s Fossil Beach Cidery and Denman’s Crooked Warden Cider are other new small-scale producers. There’s also Slowpoke Cider, whose owners planted 400 new trees in 2019 and who also juice fruit for the public at Scrumpy’s Apple Press.

As for J McPhee and Sons, despite the family history, growing apples did not come naturally to Erickson Webber. She grew up in town with no real farming background. When she and her husband decided they wanted to start an orchard and make cider, they took a trip to England to learn from the old-world masters.

They returned home and started planting. They now have 10,000 trees, mostly cider-specific French and English varieties. “They taste terrible to eat, compared to the dessert apples most people grow,” Erickson Webber notes. “But they make much better juice and cider.”

In their early attempts to make cider, “we ruined a lot of juice,” she says, adding, “It was a huge learning curve.”

They sell some of the harvest as apple juice. The rest they bring back to the farm’s fermentation building. They use a traditional, small-batch method, fermenting 1,000 litres at a time with just yeast (no added sugar, filtering, or pasteurizing). It yields a crisp, dry cider that’s proven popular with local restaurants; two sell their apple juice and at least five serve their cider.

“The local support has been incredible,” Erickson Webber says.

Keeping up with demand

Demand is exceeding supply, but the trees will produce more apples as they mature. And the couple wants to plant another 5,000 or so trees, most of which they will graft and nurture themselves. “It is important to us to do it all, from growing the trees to making the cider, right here on the farm,” Erickson Webber explains. There’s a satisfaction in the circularity and of the family connection. “As a family business, it’s just fun,” she remarks. “Our kids are right into the farm. It’s a great lifestyle. I love it so much.”

A sixth generation of McPhees growing apples: no doubt Joseph McPhee would smile to see the fruit of what he planted so long ago.