Vendor Spotlight: Rise & Ruin

As a third generation apple farmer, Jesse Van Ymeren had been casually making cider with his friends for years during harvest season. So when COVID hit the St. Thomas and Elgin County area, Jesse and his wife Chelsea Preston fully embraced living locally, and they soon noticed a gap in the market for local ciders. “We really just love making cider,” Chelsea explained with a laugh. “It’s the classic millennial making your hobbies your job. We thought it was a good opportunity and we’re really looking to make something kind of bigger.” Chelsea and Jesse decided to officially give cider making a try, and in 2023 they started the small batch cidery Rise & Ruin. 

Getting into the cider making business is no simple feat, there are many difficult rules and regulations which further encouraged Jesse and Chelsea to embrace their advantages. With Jesse’s family already owning farm property, the couple had a leg up on one of the most difficult requirements. “We really just kind of realized that we had a big opportunity in front of us. We loved what we were doing as a hobby, and I think we really realized how challenging it is for people to get into this industry because of regulations and all of that; winery and cidery things, all of that’s just a really big challenge,” Chelsea explained. “We really saw the privilege of him being a third generation family in apple growing as an opportunity to do something more, and hopefully build something that could be an experience, and build more for the community.”

Rise & Ruin (also affectionately known as R&R) currently produces out of Van Ymeren Orchards in Sparta and Aylmer. As for apple varieties, they have their pick of numerous varieties including Honeycrisp, Gala, Ambrosia, Red Delicious, Cortland, Mutsu, Paula Red, Northern Spy, Idared, Empire, Ginger Gold, Pink Lady, and Fuji (though not all are suitable for ciders). “We kind of pick and choose [what apple varieties to use] here and there. We use Courtland, Mac, Idared, and Ambrosia depending on the time of year,” Chelsea explained. “We’re kind of exploring with the cider.” 

The cider industry in Ontario is quite new in comparison to established places like Quebec and France, where they have been honing in and growing cider apples for years. Chelsea explained that in those varieties, the cider makers and farmers have been able to intensify the flavours, making them very bitter for eating but great for cider making. “They’re very tannic, they kind of take over your whole mouth,” she said. In comparison, the apples here in Ontario have higher sugar and acid contents, making them good eating apples, but they can be tricky to ferment into cider. “We typically blend them to get more of a fuller flavour, to add some sweetness, and to add some aroma just because they’re not quite as complex as [Quebec or French] apples,” said Chelsea.

A lot of steps go into growing apples, let alone cider making, which Chelsea roughly outlined for us. They grow all of their apples on their farms, diligently working away at thinning, making sure the bloom goes well, monitoring apples to prevent diseases, and more before harvest in the fall. All of their apples are hand picked by roughly 35 workers across their Sparta and Aylmer farms, and then the apples go into storage. “We get the best of the best apples,” Chelsea said with a smile. “Then we will either store them to sell as apples or we choose them to set aside to make cider. Like I said, we’ll pick a kind of a mix of apples, and then we ferment them in different ways.” 

Rise & Ruin’s two core products are actually made of the same blend of apples, and are fermented through adding a yeast to create a more uniform, predictable cider, allowing Chelsea and Jesse to know they will be similar everytime they make them. “It takes a few months to go through the full process of pressing the apples and getting the juice,” said Chelsea. “We have to do a lot of filtering, making sure they’re stable and ready to go to packaging because they do have such a high sugar content to them. It’s a lot of making sure things are safe, clean, and honestly a lot of tasting and testing things along the way. And then we package and do label design; there’s just so many pieces that actually go into it.” 

They typically bottle in the winter after the fall harvest, then they get set to do it all again in the spring. Due to space constraints, they currently bottle outside of their facility with another cidery, and have worked with a Kitchener based graphic food design specialist Steven Taucher for their labels. 

Rise and Ruin has been a true labour of love, and is continuously evolving with Chelsea and Jesse as they learn more about cider making and try out different apple combinations, fermenting, and aging. Chelsea said she loves the ability to try experiment and try different things, like their first release Sundown which pulled a lot of interesting characteristics out of some wooden barrels, and their most recent limited release Wild at Heart (which is still offered), and is made with a red skinned apple, giving it a natural kind of rose colour and a tart and fresh flavour. 

Jesse and Chelsea have spent a lot of time learning and exploring the world of cider making through individual study and research, as well as immensely supportive connections with friends in the brewing industry local cideries, including local businesses like Caps Off and Heeman’s. “The brewing and cider industry has just been so welcoming,” Chelsea smiled. “Everybody’s very happy to share their knowledge. It’s great because you get to work with friends and support them, and they support you. We’ve been very lucky in that.” Rise & Ruin is always looking to partner with local people and businesses, with the aim of making something from the community for the community. 

So far the community has fully embraced them, and Chelsea and Jesse cannot be more thankful for it. “Oh my god, it’s been amazing,” Chelsea said proudly. “We really didn’t know, because we don’t have a physical space. Being a part of Horton has been super beneficial to us, not only having the EDC group of team members but also small businesses themselves coming to buy our products and letting us know how they can help us get into more places.” Horton has allowed Rise and Ruin to connect with the local community, educate them about the cider industry, and gain exposure and feedback. “The community that goes to Horton is so committed; they are there, they are talking about our stuff,” Chelsea said with a smile. “It’s been really, really great. We’ve had a lot of positive feedback, the community’s been really welcoming.” 

In addition to popping up at Horton throughout the regular season, Rise & Ruin primarily does online orders and markets throughout the summer. They are going to try out a few dates at Covent Garden Market in London, and they offer free local delivery on orders over $27 within 30km of Sparta. Keep your eyes open for their new releases, pop-ups and events by following them on their socials, and be sure to come by and chat with them when they are vending at Horton! ​

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Paige Palmer, Marketing Assistant

Paige is a proud recent graduate of Western University's Media and Communications (MACS) program and King's University College's Thanatology program. Born and raised in Elgin County, Paige loves connecting with local people and businesses to tell their stories and promote their hard work. A previous St. Thomas Parks and Forestry summer student, Paige loves exploring local parks and trails, capturing some beautiful pictures along the way. ​