Image: Trevor Nichols
Russ and Helen Johnson work the apple press at Truck 59 Ciderhouse.
Not long ago, on a brisk afternoon, Russ Johnson stood on the edge of a construction site, gazing across a young orchard.
Dressed in bright yellow overalls, heavy boots and thick gloves, his breath curled in in faintly visible puffs.
The air smelled like frost and apple juice. Nearby, machinery hummed and scraped.
As Johnson surveyed the half-constructed building behind him, the corners of his eyes creased and he broke into a big grin.
“This time last year, there was nothing here,” he said.
Johnson stood next to what will soon become the Truck 59 Ciderhouse–a West Kelowna cidery he has been working for years to make a reality.
Six years ago, he and his wife Helen bought the West Kelowna land the cidery now sits on.
Johnson grew up on a farm, but worked for most of his life as a pharmacist. At the time they bought the land, Johnson says they didn’t know exactly what they wanted to do with the land, but after some research and look at the market, it didn’t take them long land on cider.
“I’ve always looked for something a bit different, something a bit out of the norm,” Johnson said, and cider “was just kind of an easy fit.”
Three years ago, he and Helen sold their last pharmacy, so they could focus all their energies on the then-theoretical cidery. Since then, Johnson says the whole thing has “has just been full time planning and developing.”
Although growing up on a farm had given Johnson a basic idea of what it would take to run a cidery, he admitted it’s been a lot of work getting things off the ground.
Image: Trevor Nichols
The view from Truck 59 Ciderhouse
He began by learning about apple trees and the different varieties of apples, and eventually enrolled in a course at a special “cider academy.”
“And then it was just practice,” he said. “There was lots of reading and lots of practicing and lots of relationship and asking other people what am I doing wrong and how do I make it better.”
Reflecting on the very first batch of cider he and Helen made, Johnson laughed.
“It could have stood for a bit of improvement,” he said. “It definitely takes time to learn how to do this right.”
Johnson believes he has put in the time, and Truck 59 is now on the verge of putting out its first commercial cider.
The day he told his story to Okanagan Edge, he and Helen were (almost literally) knee-deep in apple juice, as they ran pallet upon pallet of apples through a whining press.
“Helen and I have worked 24-7,” Johnson said, as apples tumbled into the hopper. Inside a warehouse-sized room, tanks and touts sat in lines, waiting to be frozen or fermented before they eventually become cider.
Truck 59’s first commercial ciders should be on the market by the end of January, available in local pubs and liquor stores.
Cider is an exciting industry, Johnson said, because “there’s so much room for improvement and growth.”
Everyone knows the Okanagan for its wine, he said, and it’s thrilling be part of an industry that’s still, in a lot of ways, establishing itself.
HE said he hopes Truck 59 will continue to be a part of that process.
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