'Why couldn't we make it?'

“We were always looking for good potato vodka, and we couldn't find anything local, so we thought, why couldn't we make it?” Rebekah Crowley told The Alchemist magazine back when the distillery was brand new.

So they did. Rebekah and her partner, Rob Rindt, incorporated Roots and Wings Distillery in July 2015, the Langley Advance Times reported. The tasting room opened in February 2017.

Rebekah had no distilling experience at all. Her background was in sales for a technology company, she told West Coast Food. Rob was a farmer.

Five brothers and a sod farm

Rob has lived on this farm his whole life, the distillery's website says. It calls him a “farmer, charmer, and Jack of all trades.”

His parents started Western Turf Farms, and before that they grew vegetables, Rebekah told Modern Agriculture. “My family has been farming here since the 50s,” Rob said. Today the 30-acre property is part produce farm and part sod farm.

Rob is one of six boys, the third from the eldest. The distillery was his own project. “I wanted to do something independent of my five brothers,” he told the magazine. Rebekah put it simply: “Rob is a serial entrepreneur.”

The accidental distiller

Somebody had to run the still. In September 2015 Rebekah finished a five-day master distiller workshop, hosted by Urban Distilleries at its original Kelowna location. Then she taught herself the rest, The Alchemist wrote.

Why her? “It wasn't that I wanted to be a distiller but more that I'm just better in the kitchen than Rob and it naturally worked out that way,” she told West Coast Food.

In 2017 the Langley Advance Times said she was believed to be the only female vodka distiller in the Fraser Valley. Rob took the other jobs. “He does the farming and heavy lifting and building,” Rebekah told the paper.

Potatoes, corn and spring water

The spirits start in the fields out back. The farm grows its own potatoes and corn and uses water from a natural spring on the property, according to the website.

The recipe settled an argument of sorts. “I am a fan of corn vodka and Rob is a fan of potato vodka, so we just combined them,” Rebekah explained. The distillery sits in the Agricultural Land Reserve, so it has to grow half of what it distills.

Those first potatoes came out of the ground by hand. That wasn't about quality, the Advance Times noted. They just didn't have the money for all the equipment yet.

The name comes from an old saying about kids. Rebekah told West Coast Food it means “the best thing you can give your kids are roots and wings; roots of responsibility and wings of independence.”

Come for a tasting, stay for pizza

The tasting room is called The Drinkery. It pours tastings and craft cocktails, with more than 50 spirits to choose from, and a small Vintage Bar Shop sells gifts.

The farm has its own wood-fired pizza truck, and the Railcar Stage brings live music outside in the warmer months. Other nights, the music moves inside to the Root Cellar Lounge. The events page lists what's on.

It's easy to drive past. One Google reviewer wrote, “I have driven by so many times and now regret all of the times I didn't stop in.”

You'll find it at 7897 240 St, open Friday to Sunday. Bring the dog in summer, and please clean up after them.

Photos: Roots and Wings Distillery.