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Originally published:

May 2018
Vol. 104 Issue 5

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Stories In This Edition

Fraser Valley bee shortage overstated

Still waiting: ag waste regs

Cannabis shift delivers hit to vegetable sector

Peter’s legacy

Editorial: The straight dope

Back Forty: Our best friend deserves greater recognitiontory

Overheard: Farmers should embrace First Nations model

Change is coming, fast and furious

Foundation effective in fueling ag projects

New meat producer association launched

Sidebar: On board

Traceability regs to include animal movement

Report recommends FN approval on tenures

Province urged to regulate farmhouse size

Dairy group highlights industry needs on tour

Ottawa plays hardball with Agassiz leases

IAF showcases innovative ag projects

Neonics in water not from farm operations

Potato growers need to exploit opportunities

Spuds in tubs

Vegetable commission optimistic

Sidebar: Variety update

MacAulay grilled over farm labour issues

Apiarists want pollination income to count

Sidebar: BCHPA launches pollinator health study

Raspberry growers increase board size

Popham meets with berry growers

Hazelnut growers flush with optimism

Ranchers schooled in disaster preparation

Westgen eyes beef semen sales for growth

Big prize money draws big entries

Holstein auction sets new sale benchmark

North 40 bull tops Vanderhoof sale

Reclaiming market share in a global economy

Day-neutrals show promise for strawberry fields

Weather skews results in Peace variety trials

Salal berries have market potential

Vole control in blueberries

Wannabe: When tragedy brings us together

Watchful eye

Woodshed Chronicles: Henderson masterminds an apology

Jude’s Kitchen: Celebrate May with beef on the ‘barbie’

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BC Cattlemen’s Association members gathered in Cranbrook for their 97th AGM last week. BCCA president Werner Stump welcomed upwards of 300 ranchers as he signalled a change in tone with the association’s approach to government. “We are going to be a lot more blunt in our dealings with government as we fight for our livelihood,” Stump told his audience. The North American herd size remains down, and calf prices are expected to stay strong, says Brenna Grant from Canfax. “We could see $5.50 -$5.70 this fall for a 5(00) weight calves.” Duncan and Jane Barnett and family from Barnett Land and Livestock in 150 Mile House received the Ranch Sustainability Award, which recognized their riparian management and community involvement. From left to right, Clayton Loewen with Jane, Duncan and Lindsay Barnett.

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BC Cattlemen’s Association members gathered in Cranbrook for their 97th AGM last week. BCCA president Werner Stump welcomed upwards of 300 ranchers as he signalled a change in tone with the association’s approach to government. “We are going to be a lot more blunt in our dealings with government as we fight for our livelihood,” Stump told his audience. The North American herd size remains down, and calf prices are expected to stay strong, says Brenna Grant from Canfax. “We could see $5.50 -$5.70 this fall for a 5(00) weight calves.” Duncan and Jane Barnett and family from Barnett Land and Livestock in 150 Mile House received the Ranch Sustainability Award, which recognized their riparian management and community involvement. From left to right, Clayton Loewen with Jane, Duncan and Lindsay Barnett.

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Congratulations!!!

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Congratulations Duncan and Jane Trott Barnett Well deserved recognition

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Congratulations to Duncan, Jane, and all the rest of the Barnett family!

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Congratulations Jane and Ducan! Sandra Andresen Hawkins

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Congratulation Duncan & Jane!!

Congratulations Jane Trott Barnett and Duncan!!!

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1 month ago

Grapegrower Colleen Ingram, who was recognized earlier this year as the 2024 Grower of the Year by the BC Grapegrowers Association. “Given the devastation we have had over the last three years, I feel like this award should be given to the entire industry,” she says. Her story appears in the June edition of Country Life in BC, and we've also posted to our website.

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Industry champion named BC’s best grape grower

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KELOWNA – Colleen Ingram’s enthusiasm for collaboration within the BC wine industry is so great that when she was named 2024 Grower of the Year by the BC Grapegrowers Association, she wanted to sh...
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2 months ago

From orchard manager to government specialist and now executive director of the BC Fruit Growers Association, Adrian Arts brings a rare blend of hands-on farming experience and organizational leadership to an industry poised for renewal. His appointment comes at a pivotal moment for BC fruit growers, with Arts expressing enthusiasm about continuing the momentum built by his predecessor and working alongside a board that signals a generational shift in agricultural advocacy.

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Arts leads BCFGA forward

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A combination of organizational management and practical farming experience has primed the new executive director of the BC Fruit Growers Association to lead the industry forward.
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2 months ago

A public consultation is now underway on the powers and duties of the BC Milk Marketing Board. Key issues for dairy producers include transportation costs, rules governing shipments and limitations on supporting processing initiatives. Stakeholders have until May 31 to comment.

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Milk board undertakes review

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A public consultation on the powers and duties of the BC Milk Marketing Board is underway as part of a triennial review required by the British Columbia Milk Marketing Board Regulation.
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Salal berries have market potential

May 1, 2018 byMargaret Evans

Sometimes, some of the best health foods are right in front of you – or perhaps swirling in a glass-filled gift from a buddie.

“A friend gave me a bottle of dessert wine that included some salal juice as a present,” says professor Peter Constabel, director of the Centre for Forest Biology, University of Victoria. “I had done previous work on blueberries [and] salal is in the same plant family as blueberry. The fruit had been used extensively by First Nations, so I thought it could be an interesting species to study further.”

As it turned out, it was very interesting. The wild berry of the coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest is rich in health-promoting chemical compounds that include tannins and anthocyanins. The compounds give the berry an edge as an antioxidant superstar with benefits that could perhaps reduce the risks of cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as boosting anti-inflammatory benefits.

“I was surprised, though not entirely, since salal foliage is known to be high in tannins,” says Constabel. “It’s hard to say which one [when compared to blueberry] is superior. However, our side-by-side lab tests showed that salal has several times more tannin than blueberry and a diet rich in tannin is associated with reduced risk of several diseases, including cardiovascular disease. On the other hand, blueberry is also rich in a variety of compounds.”

In addition, salal berries contain anthocyanins which are the red and purplish pigments found in many fruits including blueberries.

“The anthocyanins may also contribute to the beneficial effects of fruits and berries although I think that tannins are more effective as health-promoting plant chemicals,” he says. “Much depends on how the body absorbs and/or modifies these compounds and this is not always well understood. Salal also has significant levels of a specific tannin similar to that found in cranberry that is helpful against urinary tract infection so that is quite interesting.”

Five years ago, Constabel became the first in the world to show, at the molecular level, how blueberries ripen and produce the antioxidant flavonoids for which they are celebrated. His research team, along with collaborators in Finland and Italy, then focused on salal berries, measuring more than 50 phytochemical compounds during the fruit’s development. They discovered that salal flavonoid concentrations are the highest among common berries with the exception of highbush cranberry, a wild honeysuckle relative. Tannins proved to be up to five times higher than in blueberries while anthocyanins came in about 1.5 times higher.

Northwest native

The purple-black salal berries grow on shrubs native to the Pacific Northwest. The plants have leathery leaves and can grow up to three metres tall. The spring flowers are tiny white bells and the small dark berries are slightly hairy. First Nations people valued them fresh, dipped in oolichan grease, dried into cakes and fruit leather as winter food, or used them to thicken salmon eggs. Today, salal berries can make great jams and preserves.

The obvious next question is whether they can be grown commercially.

“I think locally and in previously forested sites, some people are already growing salal for berries as a non-traditional forest product,” says Constabel. “Quite a few people pick it wild for their own use. It seems to do well as an urban landscape plant, so it’s not difficult to grow. In sunny sites with irrigation, I believe [it] can produce lots of fruit. However, salal doesn’t produce berries all at once but spread over the season, so this makes it more difficult to harvest in a commercial context. The farmed blueberries that we see in BC are all commercial varieties, unlike salal, which is basically a wild shrub. So, agronomic varieties do not really exist at this point.”

But that, of course, could change given the will of berry farmers not to mention the enthusiasm and support of consumers. Constabel says that there has been an amazing response from the public. Many people know the plant as a landscape feature but had no idea of the value of its edible berries.

The research on salal berries was published in the March issue of Phytochemistry, the international journal of plant chemistry, plant biochemistry and molecular biology and the study was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

Constabel is planning further studies on salal, focusing on the function of the berry’s tannins as a defense against fungi. Salal are unusual in that they remain on the plant all winter without getting moldy and a hypothesis is that the high concentrations of tannins protect the berries against fungal attacks.

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