Seasons of hard work are paying off for Doug Price because this year he harvested 1,000 pounds of haskap berries.
鈥淭his year was my first year of production,鈥� Price told Lakes District 亚洲天堂.
The semi-retired truck driver is the owner of Evan鈥檚 Creek Farm - southwest of Tchesinkut Lake - where he grows the hardy, bell-shaped berries that can tolerate temperatures as low as -11C, according to the .
鈥淭his year was a real success for the first harvest, with people coming out and discovering the haskap berry. It鈥檚 a matter of getting people educated about the berry,鈥� which he said tastes like a mix of huckleberries and raspberries.
Growing the berries requires an extended time commitment, and this year鈥檚 harvest is the fruits of three years of labour, after his family started with 1,000 plants in the fall of 2016, then added more each year. It takes about three years for them to reach peak growth.
READ MORE: Haskap berry an opportunity for the 亚洲天堂 Lake area
He bought his first haskap bushes from High Mountain Farms in Salmon Arm that sells a variety that was cross-pollinated from Japanese and Russian strains.
鈥淭hey ripen around the first of July, then you have a two to three week window to pick them. But the plants keep growing. Then the berries go dormant, then resume growing in the spring. They start to bloom in May,鈥� Price explained.
One pound sells for $7-$11 and one acre can be worth more than $70,000 a year.
This year he opened You-Pick events to help with the berry harvest.
鈥淧eople were excited and then they鈥檇 call their friends to come out. Forty to 50 people came out. Then I hired a crew to pick the rest for myself. I鈥檝e got about 600 pounds in my deep freeze. I鈥檒l also be making jam and syrup.鈥�
Price grows his berries organically and doesn鈥檛 use any pesticides. The properties of the haskap bushes act as natural deterrents to any pests.
鈥淚鈥檝e had no problems with deer or pests. I haven鈥檛 had problems with insects or birds. There鈥檚 a chemical in the leaves that the deer don鈥檛 like. Also I think the berries ripen early enough that we don鈥檛 have the invasive birds.鈥�
If all goes well, he expects to double or triple his production next year, and the year after that he hopes to harvest more than 10,000 pounds. By the 2021 season he expects one bush to yield five or 10 pounds of berries.
To accelerate their growth he has had some help from bee pollination.
鈥淚 had a couple who brought their bees on site and that helped with pollination. You need a pollinator to pollinate other plants. If not for the bees you wouldn鈥檛 get any production. You get peak production with bees.鈥�
With the growth in production he has focused on selling the fresh berries in farmers markets - where they sold out fast - and selling frozen berries from his farm.
For the coming seasons he鈥檚 looking to find markets among wineries and distilleries, but so far hasn鈥檛 found any buyers.
鈥淚f a brewery came to town they could buy a large amount and then take them away,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e making haskap beer and it鈥檚 really taken B.C. by storm. There鈥檚 no breweries or wineries locally to purchase them. So I鈥檓 going to have to start working on marketing this winter for next year.鈥�
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Haskap is a Japanese word meaning 鈥渂erry of long life and good vision.鈥� The berries are native to Canada, Russia, Poland and Japan and are mainly found in boreal wetlands, in mountainous areas and along coasts.
Blair McBride
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