Salmon Arm: Where Opportunity Meets Community

Written by Margaret McCormick – Taste of the Shuswap

The food and beverage scene in Salmon Arm is expanding. New restaurants, breweries, farmers, bakeries, coffee shops and food trucks are opening on a regular basis. The Downtown Farmers’ Market is alive with vendors, and we suspect there is a waiting list. Why is this? What is the attraction of Salmon Arm? We decided to try and find out by asking new businesses who have recently relocated, why they chose to set up shop here.

Kathleen van der Ree and Alison Round are partners and owners of Salmon Arm’s newest craft cidery Northyards Cider Co., formerly Hanna & Hanna Orchards. We stopped in to visit with cider maker, Alison, to talk about her experience as a new beverage business in Salmon Arm and were greeted with the fragrant aroma of cider in the making.

Northyards originated in Squamish in 2010 but when taxes and capacity became an issue, Kathleen and Alison began to look elsewhere for an orchard of their own, where they could grow, pick, ferment, produce and sell their cider – Apple to Table if you will. After scouring the Interior from Keremeos to Kelowna, a family member told them about Hanna & Hanna Orchards. With 29 acres, multiple apple varieties and good infrastructure, the opportunity was solid. The property history and the prospect to evolve the Hanna & Hanna story was something special, and they knew they’d found a winner. Over and above finding a great location, we asked Alison what made Salmon Arm the right choice and this is what she told us.

You’re getting so much more added value for your money. Absolutely we got more acreage, better buildings and more apples which was in itself is a good business investment, but this community is so welcoming, so kind, and so helpful. Everyone knows everyone so finding the right resources has been great. The Salmon Arm Economic Development staff have been very supportive in helping us navigate issues and, yes, there have been some, but none that we haven’t experienced elsewhere.

Many businesses have been experiencing increased shipping costs. We were delighted to find that shipping our pallets of cans (and it’s always a big shipment) is less expensive coming from Calgary to Salmon Arm than what it cost us from Vancouver to Squamish.

Finding labour has also been a positive experience. We sourced a network of “working moms” last summer to pick apples and created a flexible schedule that allowed them to drop off, come pick and then go pick up their kids. The arrangement seemed to work great for everyone.

Grab some merch while you’re there!

Sourcing local is important to Northyards, and Salmon Arm businesses have been extremely welcoming. Several haskap growers have reached out to Alison and she’s excited to start working on a haskap cider. The bees that make the honey that goes into their delicious honey-infused cider are from a local beekeeper who called Alison up when he heard they had bought the orchard; he is now managing their hives onsite. Northyards is also working with a number of local businesses for cheeses, breads and spreads that guests can buy to create their own charcuterie boards. Alison told us the outreach has been amazing. That’s the added value that can’t be measured but what makes Salmon Arm such a great place to open a business.

Alison feels that Salmon Arm and the Shuswap really has potential – a land of opportunity with little in the way of competition, which translates into lots of room for everyone, like more cideries!