The cherry road

Three farms, one valley, and the fruit that started it all.

Fizzara began with a phone call to a cherry grower who didn't want to sell to us. Elias Marchetti had spent thirty years selling to the fresh market and had no interest in a soda company. We drove up anyway.

His valley sits at the end of a road that turns to gravel for the last nine kilometres. Three farms share it, and between them they grow four varieties that ripen a week apart. That staggered harvest is why Cherry Rush tastes the same in March as it does in August: we press each variety at its peak and blend across the season.

What changed Elias's mind was the press. We cold-press within six hours of picking, which is closer to how a fresh-market buyer treats fruit than how a beverage company does. He tasted the first batch on the tailgate of his truck and asked when we could take the second farm's fruit too.

Today all three farms sell to us, and Elias still refuses to let us photograph his house. The crate in the photo is his, though.