CHEK Upside: Victoria family keeps thanksgiving tradition alive with a nearly 200-year-old apple press

It’s a family tradition over fifty years in the making.

“It’s the way we’ve celebrated Thanksgiving my whole life,” said Lucinde Metcalfe, who annually entertains dozens of friends and family in a longstanding apple-juice-making family ritual.

The day features a handful of folk musicians playing instruments – including the ukulele, violin, and the fiddle – but the star of the event is a nearly 200-year-old apple press used to make crisp, fresh juice.

“My parents bought the press in 1950 and everyone we knew would come out, bring their apples, bring the kids, bring the dogs and press apples and we would be out there for three days,” explained Metcalfe.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual apple pressing event went on without a hitch this weekend in Victoria, with everyone wearing masks.

“It’s a lot of fun. I like getting back to the old school. There’s still something about cranking it. It’s a lot of fun, we all like it here,” said Danny Cox, Metcalfe’s nephew.

The family event produces gallons upon gallons of juice and cider, featuring a seemingly endless supply of ambrosia apples.

“Usually in the region of about four hundred pounds of apples would be for one pressing,” said Metcalfe.

The apples are gathered mostly from windfalls and generous people in the community who are willing to trade apples for juice or cider.

And for those who attend, it’s a labor of love.

“Everyone seems to fall into place,” said Metcalfe, who as a young girl was cleaning apples while others were either filtering the juice or operating the apple press.

All the apple remains are given to a farm in the Cowichan Valley, who use them to feed cattle.

For Metcalfe, the joyful, timeless ritual brings together generations, while they truly enjoying the fruits of their labour.

“Family, friends, it just seems to be such a perfect thing to do on a Thanksgiving weekend,” said Metcalfe. “It’s a harvest activity. Thanksgiving’s about sharing and about bounty and that’s what this is.”

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