Page 28 - At Home Prince Edward County

drying the lavender, and it is that structure production and storage space a practical
that catches the eye of passing traffic. stylish finish.
There were frustrating obstacles to some
MAKING MEAD
of the construction work, in particular the
cement pouring, but they overcame them Sylvain invested in six small fermenting
tanks – three can be fitted with a steamer,
and moved into their custom-built home in
November, in time for Christmas. evaporator and condensor to make them
into stills. “I do not make spirits,” he says
Ray Mulder and his crew then tackled
construction of the production building on firmly. “That’s a whole different licence! I
use the stills to distill essential oils from the
the other side of the lavender field. It had
to be spacious and functional for Sylvain to lavender.”
“I was warned not to underestimate my
extract and package his honey, ferment it
for wine and also distill essential oil from needs, to make sure I had enough space
and equipment at the start in case we
the lavender. It had to include a retail shop
and accommodate visitors and tours with- ramped up production quickly. I thought
I’d done that, but it looks like we will soon
out interrupting the work flow.
It didn’t need foundations. An engi- need even more room.”
But that won’t be a problem. Mulder built
neered slab supports floors reinforced to
support the weight of wine tanks. the west-facing wall with a wide door al-
ready framed in. It’s covered and insulated
“It was damned cold again during con-
struction,” says Sylvain, but once the ce- for now, but can be easily opened up for ex-
pansion, and they have the option of build-
ment was poured, framing and walls were
done in three weeks. When windows and ing up as well as out. Smart thinking.
There are built-in workbenches and
insulation were in, Wilma walked from her
cozy house through the frozen lavender to sinks, beekeeping and honey-making
equipment is stacked high along the walls
the new production centre and declared,
“Hey, it’s okay in here! In fact it’s warm.” and in the centre of the space. “We will
need larger wine vats sooner than I ex-
Coming from her that was very high praise.
Roofer Brian Jewell worked on the house pected,” he says. “We sold out of wine com-
pletely this year.” He wanted to hold some
roof and later clad the production building
walls with ribbed metal sheeting that re- back to be aged and says, “That’s when
we’ll see how very good it can be.”
calls classic tin roofs.
“He did a great job on the house, working Making mead can be less hectic than
making wine. Winemakers have a huge
in the cold weather, so I said how would
your guys like to work indoors now?” says crush at harvest time and must act imme-
diately. “But we can extract honey any time
Sylvain. They were delighted and gave the
Ribbed metal sheeting clads the walls Spacious, practical,climate controlled

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