by Edible Ottawa | August 27, 2026
As orchards across the province move into harvest season, Ontario’s cider makers are raising a glass to the fruit—and the farmers—at the heart of their craft.
There is something about September that belongs to apples.
Across Ontario, orchard branches hang heavy with fruit, bins begin filling at the farm gate and the annual rhythm of picking, pressing and preserving gets underway. For the province’s craft cider makers, it is both harvest season and the beginning of another vintage—a chance to transform Ontario-grown apples into something that speaks distinctly of where they were grown.
From September 19 to 26, Ontario Craft Cider Week celebrates that connection between orchard and glass, inviting people to discover the makers, growers and places behind Ontario cider. Cideries across the province will mark the week with special releases, tastings, live entertainment, events and opportunities to get closer to the craft.
And there is plenty to discover.
Ontario craft cider has evolved well beyond a single style. It can be still or sparkling, fruit-forward or decidedly dry, familiar and easy-drinking or complex enough to linger over at the table. What ties it together is its starting point: apples grown here in Ontario.
For those looking to explore further, the Ontario Craft Cider Trail offers a way to discover cideries across the province, from small orchard-based producers to destination cideries where a tasting can easily become an afternoon of good food, orchard walks and time spent in the countryside. It’s an invitation to experience Ontario cider where much of it begins: close to the orchards, farms and communities that shape it.
From Orchard to Glass
One of the best ways to understand cider is to visit the place where it begins.
At Ottawa’s Farmgate Cider, September means apple harvest, crushing and pressing. Visitors can get a behind-the-scenes look at the process, walking through the orchard and learning how apples make their way from tree to finished cider.
It is a reminder that cider is fundamentally an agricultural product. Like wine, its character begins with the fruit, the varieties planted and the decisions made in the orchard and cidery.
Not every apple is destined for the lunchbox, either. Ontario orchards may grow familiar dessert and culinary varieties alongside apples selected specifically for cider making, offering cider makers different levels of acidity, tannin, sweetness and aroma to work with.
At Spirit Tree Estate Cidery in Caledon, apple season becomes an experience of its own, with fresh pick-your-own apples, food and live music in the Cider Gardens. During Cider Week, it’s Handcrafted with Love Artisan Market on September 19 and 20 brings more than 20 local makers to the property alongside music and other activities.
A Taste of Ontario in Ottawa
You don’t have to leave the city to explore what Ontario cider makers are producing.
On Tuesday, September 22, Ottawa’s Craft Cider Celebration takes over the Britannia Yacht Club, bringing together more than 50 craft ciders from across the province. It’s an opportunity to sample different styles side by side and, perhaps most importantly, meet some of the people making them.
Elsewhere across Ontario, cideries are making the most of harvest season. Thornbury Craft Cider kicks off the festivities with a Cider Maker Dinner on September 18, followed by live music at its taproom during the weekends.
At Shale Ridge in Thedford, the cidery experience takes a different turn. The family-owned cidery and winery combines farm-to-table tasting with a Nordic-inspired thermal spa retreat, creating a destination built as much around slowing down and enjoying the landscape as what is being poured.
Drink the Landscape
Perhaps that is what makes Ontario cider particularly interesting right now. It offers another way to experience the province’s agricultural landscape.
A visit to a cidery can mean walking through an orchard at harvest, meeting the person who made what’s in your glass, lingering over lunch or discovering a cider made from an apple variety you have never encountered before.
And every bottle or can begins with an Ontario crop and a chain of people behind it—from growers tending the orchards to makers pressing the fruit. Choosing Ontario craft cider keeps that connection going: every purchase supports Ontario apple growers, local cideries and the rural communities they call home.
Ontario Craft Cider Week is an invitation to pay a little more attention to all of it: the apple, the orchard, the maker and the place.
Whether you’re enjoying a tasting flight overlooking the orchard, picking up a few cans at the LCBO, browsing your local farmers’ market or sharing a bottle with friends around the dinner table, every sip is an opportunity to support local.
Ontario Craft Cider Week runs September 19–26, 2026.
Discover the people, places and stories behind Ontario craft cider, and explore cideries across the province through Drink ON Apples and the Ontario Craft Cider Trail.
