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Originally published:

MAY 2020
Vol. 106 Issue 5

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Stories In This Edition

Rapid response

Worker health crisis

Spring melt floods Cariboo

Foreign Labour an essential service for fruit growers

Editorial: Watershed moments

Back Forty: COVID-19 will be a reality check for many

Viewpoint: Register now, question later to keep water rights

COVID-19 has varied impact on poultry sector

Social distancing

Honey producers keep focus on research

Beekeepers stung about import issues

Sidebar: Advocating for technology transfer

Farmland values facing headwinds

IAFBC defers major decisions

BCAC focuses on public trust with lower budget

AgSafe governance set for a shake-up

COVID-19 leads to oversupply of dairy

BC Fairs positive as large events banned

Peace growers facing multiple challenges

Co-op considers four-way fix at crossroads

Surprise audits to double

Co-op focuses on cutting costs, increasing sales

Volatility from plant shutdowns could hit BC

Island farmers renew request for local abattoir

Meat processing capacity stable despite closures

Direct marketing saves producers’ bacon

Small producers ride the online sales wave

Farm equipment dealers keep sale smoving

Strawberry growers pin survival on levies

Sidebar: Blueberry and raspberry AGMs postponed

Raspberry growers target fresh market, quality

Apple soda breaks ground in saturated market

Chilliwack family cracks open direct sales

EFB-resistant trees not out of the woods

Distillery shows resilience as it adapts to market

Home gardeners overwhelm seed companies

Sidebar: Commercial seed supply affected

Research: Viruses pursue unique strategies to evolve

Moisture sensors are not created equal

Woodshed: Kenneth gives new meaning to social isoluation

Farmers’ markets go online as channels shift

Farm Story: Pandemic forces a hard pivot to stay in the game

Cheesemaker adapts to coronavirus restrictions

Jude’s Kitchen: Stay-healty food in uneasy times

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4 weeks ago

It’s been four years since the last tulip festival was held in Abbotsford, but this year’s event promises to be an even bigger spectacle than ever. Spanning 27 acres along Marion Road, Lakeland Flowers will display more than 70 varieties of the spring blossom, including fringe tulips and double tulips, the first of six months of flower festivals hosted by the farm. Writer Sandra Tretick spoke with Lakeland Flowers owner Nick Warmerdam this spring to find out how the floods on Sumas Prairie in 2021 have had an impact on his business plan as he transitions from wholesale cut flower grower to agri-tourism. We've posted the story to our website this month. It's a good read.

#CLBC #countrylifeinbc #tulipfestival
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Tulip grower makes the shift to agritourism

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ABBOTSFORD – On a bright sunny day in early April, Nick Warmerdam points out his office window at No. 4 and Marion roads to a spot about half a kilometre away across the Trans-Canada Highway.
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Omg 🥹 Jared Huston let’s go pls

1 month ago

Farming, like any other job.. only you punch in at age 5 and never punch out 🚜 ... See MoreSee Less

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Easton Roseboom Levi Roseboom🚜

1 month ago

The province is allocating $15 million to be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. for a perennial crop replant program benefitting tree fruit, hazelnut, berry and grape growers. The program aims to cover 100% of plant removal costs and 75% of replanting costs. Funds are also available for sector development. The new program replaces a suite of sector-specific replant programs and recognizes the importance of sector adaptation in the face of market, disease and weather challenges. ... See MoreSee Less

The province is allocating $15 million to be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. for a perennial crop replant program benefitting tree fruit, hazelnut, berry and grape growers. The program aims to cover 100% of plant removal costs and 75% of replanting costs. Funds are also available for sector development. The new program replaces a suite of sector-specific replant programs and recognizes the importance of sector adaptation in the face of market, disease and weather challenges.
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1 month ago

Just a week after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials revoked the last primary control zones established in the Fraser Valley to control last fall’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a new detection on April 29 at a commercial premises in Chilliwack underscored the risk of a spring wave. This is the first new detection since January 22, also in Chilliwack, and brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began April 13, 2022. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year. ... See MoreSee Less

Just a week after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials revoked the last primary control zones established in the Fraser Valley to control last fall’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a new detection on April 29 at a commercial premises in Chilliwack underscored the risk of a spring wave. This is the first new detection since January 22, also in Chilliwack, and brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began April 13, 2022. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year.
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Any other details for FVN and chillTV please? radiodon11@gmail.com

1 month ago

The province is contributing $3.2 million for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford that was overwhelmed during the November 2021 flooding on Sumas Prairie, part of a collaborative approach to flood mitigation in the region. During a press conference at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices in Abbotsford today, the province said a collaborative approach that includes First Nations is needed as Abbotsford pursues a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy due to the potential impacts on Indigenous lands. Agriculture's interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry. ... See MoreSee Less

The province is contributing $3.2 million for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford that was overwhelmed during the November 2021 flooding on Sumas Prairie, part of a collaborative approach to flood mitigation in the region. During a press conference at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices in Abbotsford today, the province said a collaborative approach that includes First Nations is needed as Abbotsford pursues a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy due to the potential impacts on Indigenous lands. Agricultures interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry.
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I sure hope part of that money is to educate the people in charge of the pumps and drainage system! They just relayed on computers and weren’t even physically monitoring the water levels. I’ve lived in the Fraser Valley my whole life and the old guys managing that system know how to do it. The new generation just sit behind computer screens and don’t physically watch the water levels. That system works very well when you do it right. The Fraser river levels are very important. The system is designed to drain the Sumas Canal (the part that runs thru the valley) into the Fraser. When they let it get backed up it put pressure on the dyke and the weak part burst. Simple science. And yes, the dykes need to be worked on too. Abbotsford has not been maintaining properly for years.

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Apple soda breaks ground in saturated market

A new generation adds value to create opportunities

Avi Gill shows off his signature apple soda inside his family’s on-farm production and tasting room PHOTO / MYRNA STARK LEADER

May 4, 2020 byMyrna Stark Leader

KELOWNA – At 28, Avi Gill recognizes the need to do things differently to keep his family’s 26-year tradition of growing Okanagan apples and cherries profitable. While production improvements are on-going and have helped increase the crops’ value, Gill has turned his attention to adding value to apples, which continue to face price challenges.

Born in Penticton to parents who emigrated to Canada from India, Gill was raised on the family’s farm in Kelowna but left for university and completed a science and pharmacy degree at UBC in 2016. He managed a drug store in Kelowna for about 18 months before returning to the orchard.

The operation had grown from a single property of 20 acres in 1994 to an assortment of owned and leased properties encompassing 150 acres, largely in southeast Kelowna.

“We sat down as a family at the end of 2017 to talk about succession planning and how we can help build on the existing business. We decided that because of commodity prices and limited control of them, we should make value added fruit products,” says Gill.

He started making apple juice but it didn’t take long for another idea to evolve, formulating an apple soda made from pure apple juice. Anthony Lewis, co-founder of the Vibrant Vine Winery, was a major contributor in realizing the vision.

The concept is one apple per can, water and carbonation with no added flavours or colour. Gill says retailers tell him the drink is the first of its kind.

“We’ve tried to keep it very simple and healthy. Rather than using many apples to make one cup of juice, our drink has the equivalent of juice from one apple making it lower calorie than juice, but adding the fizz people crave. At 50 calories a can, we say it’s like eating an apple in a different way,” explains Gill.

The new brand, Farming Karma Fruit Co., honours Gill’s dad, Karma Gill. Karma is well-recognized among Kelowna’s tree fruit growers and has served as a director of the BC Fruit Growers Association and the BC Tree Fruits Cooperative, among other organizations.

Avi Gill hasn’t fallen far from the tree. This spring, he became a BCFGA director. He also serves on Kelowna’s agricultural advisory committee. He recognizes the need to stay in touch with what’s going on in the bigger picture.

The past two years have seen the Gill family purchase a juice press from Austria, a canning line, and create a tasting room on the farm to rival the Okanagan’s many wineries. Guests can view the apples being juiced, as well as the canning line.

“We wanted to make this like a winery for kids – a non-alcoholic place. We’ve converted our existing fruit stand on McKenzie Rd. into a cool place where kids can learn about agriculture … Our slogans are Do Good and Freedom, Family and Fun, the things we value here,” he says.

Family affair

Gill says help from his dad, mom Kuku, wife of three years Binny, and brother Sumeet have been instrumental in getting the project going.

He met Binny through the UBC Bhangra Club. He’s a singer with YouTube videos. She’s a dancer with an engineering background who’s now working for Bank of Montreal as a relationship manager in the agriculture sector.

“She knows more about agriculture than I do,” laughs Gill, who is quick to praise his wife and other family members’ contributions to the business.

His brother Sumeet is in England finishing up a physiotherapy degree but Gill says the farm might draw him back as well. Sumeet has played a huge role in Farming Karma’s marketing direction.

Farming Karma sold its soda at the Kelowna Farmers Market last year and retailers have picked it up. It’s now found in 400 stores across BC, including Independent in Kelowna as well as locations of Safeway, Save-On-Foods and Nesters. With the potential loss of farm visitors as a result of COVID-19, it’s begun selling the soda online through Amazon.

Gill credits the time they’ve spent working on branding.

“Succession is a big issue in the tree-fruit industry and I feel like value-adding is one of the things that may draw the next generation into ag. I know a lot of young people who are into wineries and part of that is the possibilities it creates like getting your own bottle style, marketing how you want and how your product is unique,” he says. “It’s more exciting to them than just the growing.”

While it’s been a lot of work to create the product and establish the market, the family now faces the bigger challenge of getting consumers to try something new in a saturated market.

One step at a time

Gill isn’t discouraged, though. Farming Karma has created a craft cider kit so a person can turn two litres of juice into hard apple cider in just six days. A new cherry soda is another possibility, but he’s taking it one step at a time.

He says finding local expertise in the value-added industry and specifically in the juice industry was more of a challenge than he thought it should be. He would like to see a local lab where producers could test new recipes.

While his pharmacy training was helpful in creating a safe and top-quality product, he worked with a Toronto consultant to ensure he was following best practices.

“I’m very inexperienced at this stuff,” he says. “It is encouraging when I’m told by the outside, more experienced people that they think we have a good product and have it together.”

For now, the company will concentrate on growing the BC market but Gill hasn’t ruled out national and international sales.

“We believe we are a category leader, so if an opportunity came our way, we would be all over it,” he said.

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