We were heading for our third Harvest Host stay today, and I’d been looking forward to this one — a cidery, which felt like a fun change of pace. Before leaving Falcon Beach we flushed all the tanks and filled the fresh water, since Harvest Host sites mean being completely undocked.
Even though southern Manitoba doesn’t exactly overflow with standout geography or must‑see stops, we planned a couple anyway. First was the Mennonite Heritage Village, since we’d enjoyed a similar museum earlier in the trip. This one turned out to be just as good, maybe better — complete with a fully functioning windmill grinding flour. By the time we’d eaten and wandered through the village, we decided to skip our second stop and push on toward Wooden Gate Cidery.
The cidery was well off the beaten path, down long stretches of gravel road. It sits tucked into a wooded valley, quiet and green. Pam, who has worked and lived on the farm for more than thirty years, greeted us and led us to a grassy clearing overlooking their new orchard. Then we headed inside to buy some cider, which quickly turned into a full tasting session. Pam walked us through each cider and how it was made, pouring very generous samples. We’d arrived with empty stomachs and were already running late, so after five or six tastings we were feeling decidedly tipsy.
We got the trailer set up and settled in for a quiet night — helped along by a few extra bottles of their excellent cider.
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