Little did Gary & Susan know when they were married in 1986 that both of their families' histories would play a role in their future plans of processing the World's Best Juice: Susan's family in Canada and Gary's family in the United States. Prompted by the romanticized descriptions in flyers and the British Newspapers of the availability of fertile farm land in Canada, the Truscott family sailed to Canada in 1908 and settled in Saskatchewan with the Barr Colonists. Two years later in 1910 with the promise of bountiful fruit orchards, they moved to the lush fields of the Creston Valley in southeastern B.C. Susan Snow’s grandfather, William Truscott, her grandmother, and their four boys, farmed the land that primarily grew apples in those early years. They called their farm "Cornwall Ranch".
Because of difficulties encountered during the Great Depression, Lew Truscott (Susan’s father), quit school to take over the family farm. In 1956 Lew and his wife, Iva, diversified the orchard offerings to include a fruit stand and over 500 bee hives, producing high quality honey. In the 1970’s Lew was elected President of the Canadian Honey Council and very active in the politics of the industry. Iva passed away in 2012, and Lew lived his last days on the original farm that he and Iva built until his passing in 2019.
Susan and Gary Snow always knew that Gary's Great Grandfather was a grape grower and grape expert, but it wasn't until only a few years ago that they learned of the Snow's colorful history: he also had a very successful juice company in the 1800s, "Snow's Grape Juice Company", located in Penn Yan, New York. George C. Snow and his family lived in a mansion called Esperanza, high on the hill overlooking Keuka Lake in upstate New York's Finger Lakes area. Esperanza has quite the history itself, still overlooking Keuka Lake but operating today as a B&B. The Snows purchased Esperanza in 1873 and turned it into a thriving grape orchard and juice company. Snow's Grape juice was advertised and sold as far away as England. George's expertise as a grape expert was quite well known. He audited several books on grape growing and is recorded as such in those books that are still being used today. George C. Snow was also in charge of the Viticulture section at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.
Upon George's death in 1902, they lost Esperanza, and soon after that, a fire broke out in a warehouse in Penn Yan that held all of their juice, causing them to lose everything. The business was then sold to Welch's Grape Juice Company in 1902. Interestingly, when Gary & Susan were in Spain for the World Juice Awards in 2012, they spoke to a Senior Vice President from Welch's who remembered reading about the Snow Grape Juice Company in their extensive archives. Prior to moving to Montana to expand their juice company, and on the day of the closing of their farm property in Canada, Gary was researching the Snow Grape Juice Company on the internet and found an original Snow Grape Juice bottle on Ebay. They were lucky to have won the bid, and below is the picture of the bottle back in the family's hands some 125 years later.
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