From a Sick Day to 600,000 lbs and the Press That Changed Everything

Photo taken from our very first press.

It’s funny how some of the biggest decisions don’t happen when you are planning for them. For us, it started on a sick day at home, watching a rerun of Dragons’ Den.

At the time, we were already working with apples, but only for cider production. We were pressing small batches using a traditional bladder press. It worked for what we needed then, but it was not built for volume. Every harvest season, the phone would start ringing. Backyard growers, neighbours, local farms. Everyone asking the same question. Could we press their apples?

And every year, the answer was the same. We just did not have the capacity to offer it properly. We did not have pasteurization in place, and the press we were using was not efficient enough to handle larger volumes.

Then that episode came on.

A company was pitching a commercial apple press, and I remember sitting there thinking, that’s it. The scale, the efficiency, the way it handled apples at volume. It was exactly what we had been missing. It was not something we needed to think about for long. We knew right away we wanted to bring that level of capability into our operation.

We reached out to the company after the show, asked questions, and started to understand what it would take. From there, we made the investment and a decision to move forward. If we were going to do this, we were going to do it properly.

Eight months later, our custom-built press arrived from Germany, just in time for harvest.

That first season felt like a real shift. This was no longer small batch cider production. This was a full commercial process. The press itself is built for scale, capable of processing up to 2,000 pounds of apples per hour, with a 50,000 ton pressing capacity behind it. What people do not always see is what it takes to run it day to day.

It is not a one person job. It takes a minimum of four people to operate the system efficiently, and after each pressing run there is a full clean down that takes about two and a half hours. It is a commitment every time we turn it on, but it is what allows us to maintain consistency and quality.

That investment, both in the equipment and in how we run it, is what changed everything.

For the first time, we could say yes. That first season was overwhelming and the phone hasn’t stopped ringing since.

We were able to say, Yes to backyard growers who did not want their apples going to waste. Yes to local farms and orchards looking for reliable processing. Yes to distilleries needing professionally pressed juice. And most importantly yes to the community that had been asking for years.

Since then, it has continued to grow. Each season we have added more pressing dates, refined how we operate, and increased the volume we can handle. Last year (2025), we pressed approximately 600,000 pounds of apples.

What matters just as much to us is what happens after the pressing. Nothing is wasted. The leftover apple mash goes back into the local system, used as livestock feed on nearby farms or as nutrient rich compost. It is a simple way to keep everything connected and make sure the process gives back.

At the end of the day, it is not just about the machine. It is about what it allows us to do. It allows us to take something that might otherwise be wasted and turn it into fresh, single ingredient apple juice. It allows us to support local growers, producers, and community organizations. And it allows us to keep building something that is rooted here in the Cowichan Valley, season after season.

We are proud of how far it has come, and we are still refining it every year.

Planning to Press Apples This Season?

If you are thinking about harvesting apples, it is always best to get in touch early. Our schedule fills quickly during peak season, and we are happy to help you plan ahead.