Commercial apple growing in the Shuswap is but a small fraction of what it once was prior to 1950.
Being an orchardist was the dream for many of the settlers that homesteaded here, and by the 1940s there were upwards of 300 growers and many hundreds of acres of apple orchards. To accommodate the bounty, there was at one time five cold storage packing houses, including a giant one in Canoe.
The first orchard in Salmon Arm was planted by Pete Parsons shortly after he cleared his first five acres in 1890. He sold off his 70 acres in 1893 and two years later Robert Turner acquired it, as the story goes, after winning a poker game. Turner developed the first substantial orchard and then went on to help establish the Salmon Arm Farmer’s Exchange, which operated the first packing house and cold storage facility. In the late '20s, Turner developed a unique variety of red delicious apple that was a prize winner.
During the Depression, Turner managed to ship apples to Belfast, where they were most appreciated and then later shipped to Britain and Europe.
Some of the most profitable years were during the Second World War, when the demand for B.C. apples peaked. One story from those years is of a merchant seaman who, after his ship was sunk by a torpedo, found himself surrounded in the ocean by floating apple boxes with the Turner label.
The crunch came during the 1949-50 winter, when an extremely harsh frost killed off nearly all the apple trees in the valley, thus decimating the industry that has never fully recovered. Orchardists reported hearing their trees explode, as the sap that was flowing due to early warm weather expanded as it froze in the cold and burst open the trees.
A similar hard frost decimated fruit trees late last fall, including most of the soft fruits and some apple trees as well. This was the nail in the coffin for the BC Tree Fruits Cooperative, which has been devastating for Okanagan growers and has created some repercussions here. Unfortunately, much of this year’s Okanagan crop could end up rotting on the ground.
Currently, there are just three apple orchards left in the Shuswap, all in Salmon Arm: Petersons’, Ruth’s and DeMille’s (formally Hanna’s).
To be successful in today’s global marketplace, where there is competition from lower cost operations in the U.S. and China, apple growers need to be both adaptive and creative, as well as focused on value-added marketing.
With the loss of BC Tree Fruits, there is now an oversupply of apples, which will lower the price for bulk sales of lower-quality fruit. Considering that growers were often losing money in recent years because the cost of production was higher that what the apples could be sold for, the only way to turn a profit is to sell directly to the consumer or make secondary products from the apples such as juice, pies or cider.
The Petersons now have the largest orchard, with a few trees that are over 100 years old, and their frozen apple pies are delicious and popular. Upwards of 63 varieties are grown on their 40-acres, including Macs, Spartans, Red and Golden Delicious, Ambrosia and Honey Crisp. They also sell to cideries and are concerned that the price will drop due to competition from the glut of Okanagan apples.
The Hanna orchard dates back to 1907 when it was first homesteaded by the Dodd family and then purchased by the daughter and her husband, James Hanna’s grandfather. Operated by James and his brother Stuart, Hanna and Hanna orchard marketed their fruit through Okanagan North Grower’s Co-op. However, in recent years it was difficult to make a profit with costs around 30 cents a pound and apples selling for 25 cents. For many years their orchard was rated as one of the top apple producers in the province, but after they sold it to Northyards Cidery, it struggled.
Most recently, Brad DeMille purchased the 29-acre property and has plans to relocate his Farm Market business there. He will continue with what the Hannas began, replacing the old orchard trees with high-density apple trees. Easier to pick and maintain, high-density orchards are the way of the future, with upwards of 1,200 trees per acre. Brad has plans to press juice as well as sell the apples at his market. Recently, he came up with a novel idea to harvest some of this year’s crop, by inviting the Larch Hills ski club and the King’s Christian grad class to pick. In one day, 85 skiers and students picked 20,000 pounds of apples, and earned 10 cents per pound for their groups.
The Ruth’s 7.5-acre apple orchard is also being converted to high density and all their apples are sold at their popular Pedro’s Fruit stand west of town. Their new trees are in 12-foot-wide rows, three feet apart, grow upwards of 12-feet high and are supported by wires and posts. They use the hardy Budavoski root stock for the grafting and a windrow of deciduous trees helps protect the orchard from wind.
Thanks to the new generation of local apple growers who are using the latest, innovative technology, employing youth groups, marketing locally and creating value-added food and beverages, the Shuswap apple industry is set to thrive again.
