The Cidery was started in 2009 just in time to meeting the needs of a resurgence in Cider popularity in Ontario. Nicole Judge and Thomas Wilson built on their Apple Orchard producing great varieties of Cider along with gourmet food. A Toronto Star article summed it up this way,
“They gravitated to high-end gourmet, artisan food and hard cider. They travelled to England for cider courses, Paris for a Cordon Bleu cooking course and California for a wood-fire oven building course.
(Jennifer Bain , Toronto Star , 2011)
The result is a very unique offering of delicious local based food, ciders and more.
Owner Profile: Owned by Thomas Wilson and Nicole Judge. Thomas is the Cider maker. Both Thomas and Nicole have long roots in Caledon; growing up here. Thomas’s grandfather, Harold Wilson planted the first Apple trees in 1952.
Sustainable Agricultural approaches to Farm
Spirit Tree Cidery sources many of its ingredients direct from local Ontario farms earning themselves the Feast On Certification (Ontario Culinary Tourism).
For example, milk comes from the Sheldon Creek Dairy bottled fresh on the farm.
Spirit Tree utilizes many sustainable practices in their facilities, operations and food including Straw bales construction, Geothermal heating, zero emission wood fire oven, composting of all food and cider waste for tree nutrition, a Bio digester Septic and an orchard designed for promoting wild pollinators