Oregon City: When Your Home is in the Line of the Oregon Fires

Our hearts are with you, Oregon. 

We’ve seen the dramatic videos and photos.  Lives have been lost, over one million acres burned, and members of our community are grabbing what they can and fleeing their homes. 

It’s absolutely heartbreaking.

Over the past week, the fire has especially ravaged rural Clackamas County.  

In this time, we are greatly reflecting on the beauty of our community, the deep community support and outreach we received when we first began operations, and those early roots led us to where we are as a company today. 

Our story started about 10 years ago in 2010; this was a pivotal year for Lynda and Jeff Parrish, the founders & owners of Portland Cider Co. Jeff had traveled to England for the first time with Lynda to visit Lynda’s parents and explore the counties of Somerset and Herefordshire. By no coincidence, Somerset and Herefordshire also happen to be the epicenter of English cider production.  

That trip to England inspired them to start their own cidery here in Oregon. Later that year, when Lynda’s parents were visiting the US, Jeff & Lynda found property in rural Clackamas County outside of Oregon City and decided to build their family home. 

Having settled on calling Oregon City “home,” they then started looking for commercial space to start the cidery.  In the summer of 2012, we established those roots in a 2,000 square foot space in the heart of Oregon City. 

It was in a mixed-use industrial park and only 10 minutes from their home - the perfect fit.  It was there that the Portland Cider Company took root. 

Our first ciders were our Kinda Dry and Sorta Sweet.  Because of the rapid growth of our business, by 2015, we began outgrowing this initial space (even with just Jeff, Lynda, an assistant cidermaker, and an outside salesperson!). We then started looking for a much larger space to continue to operate our business in.  Jeff & Lynda wanted to find something as close as possible to their home, but that would also support the other practical aspects of the business.  

Our current Clackamas location, right next to Interstate 205, was only a 20-minute commute from Jeff & Lynda’s home, and at 20,000 square feet, it gave us plenty of room to grow (not to mention TONS of visibility to the thousands of commuters driving the interstate every day).  

We make over 20 different ciders every year, but the original Kinda Dry and Sorta Sweet remain our favorites.

Some things change, like location, team size, and cider varieties, but one thing that remains is how much we love the community we live in. These times are trying, but incredible things are already happening, showing just how #OregonStrong our great state is. 

An estimated 500,000 people are under some level of evacuation in Oregon.  This includes some of our Portland Cider Co. family.  We hope you stay safe, and that we can get together for a proper pint soon.

For resources on how to help the Oregon community recover, check out our Facebook and Instagram. #ItsInOurRoots