By Sarah Wallace

Local orchard now offering bottled wine

Jan 12, 2017 | 5:00 AM

What started 13 years ago for Genevieve Greif and Will Stafford has now grown into something new.

The pair own Forest Fringe Orchards located on Highway 55 northeast of Prince Albert.

Greif said 10 years ago they began a u-pick program where visitors can pick berries at the orchard during the summer months.

“We started with some Saskatoon [berries] and expanded into strawberries, raspberries, eventually cherries and tried a number of other things as well,” she said.

The orchard has now expanded into bottled wine.

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In the spring of 2016 the orchard received its Cottage Winery License.

“We started making wine under that license and in October we started selling our first bottled wine,” Greif said.

She said feedback from the public has been very positive.

“I know a lot of my customers from u-pick have been waiting for this for years so they’re happy to see it. Local people are happy for the added business in the area,” she continued.

The orchard offers seven different varieties of fruit-based wines, including two that are fermented with honey instead of the usual sugar.

“Right now, at this moment, I’m just starting a batch of mead which is a pure honey wine,” Greif said.

The seven fruit wines include: cherry honey sweet, cherry honey medium, cherry dry, raspberry medium, strawberry medium, black currant dry and apple.

This month the orchard plans to start producing honey mead, rhubarb, apple and a few others.

Greif said for their u-pick program there’s almost 60 acres of fruit production for visitors to pick through including Saskatoon berries, gooseberries and three different kinds of currants.

She said there’s a lot of planning that’s involved in creating a wine including making sure she has the right volume of fruit for the job.

First the fruit is frozen which helps break down the berries.

“It’s a three to six month process from start to bottling. It takes probably a week to two weeks just for the initial fermentation and then you’re looking at time for clarification and aging,” Greif said.

Anyone interested in checking out Forest Fringe Orchards selection can call or visit the farm.

Greif said the orchard is open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. but will be closed on Monday and Thursday.

swallace@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahthesquid