Fruit packing: then and now
How far has the industry come when it comes to sorting and packing? | 14
Anointing the king
A succession of Grape Kings. | 18
Andrews Scenic Acres
Profiling the next generation of owners of a well-known pick-your-own operation. | 20
December 2019
Growth, change and challenge
A decade of growth, change and challenge
Greg and Tania MacKenzie are still growing strong on their P.E.I. mixed vegetable farm.
MacKenzie Produce graced the cover for the first time in 2010. Learn about what has changed since then on page 10.
Photo by Berni Wood.
including a look at the
New products 25 . . . and the not-so-new products of the industry. Cover collage 30 Time travelling through covers of past issues. A peek into the past Dispersed throughout this anniversary issue are photos looking at fruit and vegetable production over the years.
20 Fruit packing: then and now When it comes to sorting and packing, how far has the industry come?
BY MADELEINE BAERG
Anointing the king Grape grower John Fedorkow of Fruithaven Farms joins a long line of Grape Kings. BY
JIM MEYERS
A local legacy: Andrews Scenic Acres
Profiling the next generation of owners of a wellknown pick-yourown operation. BY JULIENNE ISAACS
With a new year – and decade –on the horizon, many of us find ourselves in a time of reflection as the end of December draws near. We celebrate and reminisce on what the past year has brought, and welcome the newness and fresh start that January brings.
As this special edition of Fruit and Vegetable magazine came together, our team did quite a bit of reflecting and reminiscing to celebrate the publication’s 75th anniversary. We’ve marked this special occasion with this special edition of the magazine – an issue full of stories, photos and highlights to commemorate 75 years of bringing horticulture news, research and event coverage to Canada’s fruit and vegetable growers. Inside these pages, you’ll find industry highlights from the past 75 years; flashback photos and snippets and facts from issues past. The words flanking our cover photo – “Growth, change and challenge” – refer to the industry as a whole, but also to the MacKenzie family, pictured, from Prince Edward Island.
the MacKenzies are still growing strong. As Tania explains, and as surely every farmer can attest to, the MacKenzies have seen significant challenges, but the family has found ways to keep the farm successful despite the ups and downs. Read the full story on page 10.
We’ve also flashed back to some of the significant industry advancements, like mechanical harvesters and smart sensors. Part of our process included exploring our archive of past issues to compare the old with the new. Take, for example, the dipping and grading line designed by John Boese of Boese Foods in St. Catharines, Ont., that Jerry Utter wrote about in the January 1969 issue of Canadian Fruit Grower magazine. Fifty years later, in 2018, BC Tree Fruits unveiled a new system and on page 14, writer Madeleine Baerg outlines how far packing and sorting technology has come.
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If you look closely, you’ll notice that Tania MacKenzie, second from left is holding an issue of Fruit and Vegetable magazine from 2010, featuring none other than her family. We first featured the MacKenzie Produce in the magazine after Greg and Tania MacKenzie, based in Stratford, P.E.I., won the Outstanding Young Farmers award in 2010. There have been significant changes to their farm since then – perhaps, most obviously, the height of their children! – but
Throughout this issue, we’ve also included flashback photos, news highlights from years past and much more. We hope you have as much fun reading this issue as we had fun putting it together.
From all of us at Fruit and Vegetable, thanks for being a part of this journey and marking this milestone with us. We wish you all the best for the holiday season and for the New Year. •
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Canadian Fruitgrower, March 1984 – Last year Canada sold near 6,000 kilograms of fresh British Columbia cherries to Japan.
But it wasn’t the volume of the sale that was important. It was the first time Canadian cherries cracked the Japanese market.
Ten years ago, similar efforts were made, but the Japanese refused entry for fear of allowing the codling moth, a dangerous pest of fruit trees in North America, into their country. The Japanese did, however, agree that if Canada could guarantee codling mothfree shipments of fresh fruits, they would lift the import ban.
Agriculture Canada experts went to work, developing a fumigation process that would satisfy our customers. Following five years of testing, the Canadian process and its results were taken to Japan. The next year, a Japanese official visited B.C. for a final review.
It was a success and today we are seeing the first trade results of research and inspection efforts – the opening of a new market for B.C. cherries.
Cherries are now one of B.C.’s most diverse fruit and nut exports, according to Trade and Invest B.C., and in 2017, the province’s cherries reached 29 markets, including Japan. Since 1984, trade with Japan has steadily increased. On Dec. 30, 2018, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) was ratified with Japan, among other countries, to boost trade between Canada and 10 other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Through the CPTPP, Japan will remove an 8.5 per cent tariff on fresh Canadian cherries over the next five years. Industry experts in B.C. say cherry exports to Japan could be worth up to $8 million annually – a big jump from where cherry growers were in 1984.
Fruit and Vegetable, March/April 2000 – The Food and Consumer Products Manufacturers of Canada (FCPMC) is urging the government to inform the public about the benefits of biotechnology in agriculture. The association, which represents about 170 companies, has been promoting the role of biotechnology in meeting the wants and needs of consumers and in enhancing the contribution of food in Canada’s overall health and well-being. They conducted a study last fall in partnership with OMAFRA to help the food industry understand Canadians’ perception of biotechnology and novel foods. The study showed communications based on openness, readily accessible information and full discussion of all aspects of the technology will help build consumer
confidence and acceptance of biotechnology.
2019 UPDATE
Biotechnology wades in murky waters for the public even in 2019, despite being a staple in agriculture for thousands of years. Biotechnology at its core speeds up the evolutionary process by manipulating DNA – the building blocks of life – to achieve certain goals, such as higher yields or more disease resilience. But what it is, or is not, isn’t a Canadian’s consumers main concern these days. A 2019 Impact Report by FCPMC shows that health is a top concern for many consumers, with Canadians gravitating toward less transfats, less sodium, and less processed foods in their diets. Other main concerns include the confusion around cannabis edibles and plastic waste in packaging.
A research investment of up to $1.85 million is being made by the federal and Ontario governments to help the province develop new cutting edge agri-food technologies, practices and solutions to tackle modern-day industry problems.
The new Ontario Agri-Food Research Initiative is accepting proposals for advancing research in food safety, trade, market and growth opportunities, automation, and bio-based production systems, with a maximum of $150,000 funding allocation per project. The deadline to apply is Jan. 23, 2020.
A released document detailing the scope of the projects’ research priorities dove deeper into what food safety concerns are
a focus, namely – reducing the number of recalls. A priority for further investigation is looking at what’s the risk profile for Ontario-grown minimally-processed fruits and vegetables and the relationship with production practices such as irrigation water. This is a priority because contamination of these products lead to recalls and outbreaks, so more information and data is needed on how to mitigate these risks.
To be eligible, applicants must have demonstrated capacity to perform quality research and be: a university or college; a research organization or foundation; an industry organization or business; a nongovernment organization; or a government or government agency.
In 2019, the Vegetable Transplant Program provided 1.7 million vegetable transplants to 54 commercial farmers at cost as part of a government push to help increase the variety of crops grown in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The program saw significant growth from the previous year, which saw 255,800 transplants distributed to 25 farmers in 2018.
According to the province’s year-end report on the program, the program is expected to result in approximately $1.6 million in combined revenues for participants. The program distributes transplants of various crops, including broccoli, cabbage, onion, kohlrabi, Brussels sprout, kale, leek, cauliflower, and rutabaga.
“Farmers report that this program has enabled them to successfully grow food they would not usually have tried to produce in Newfoundland and Labrador, and – due to the high quality of transplants produced at the Wooddale Centre – farmers are reporting increased yields per acre. This is a fantastic result,” said Gerry Byrne, minister of fisheries and land resources,
in a released statement.
In addition, the province’s Fisheries and Land Resources officials have inspected all 54 participating farms and determined that with one exception, participating farmers have complied with utilization requirements, such as planting their complete orders as soon as possible to avoid decreasing the viability of the transplants, and maintaining transplants properly until planted to prevent loss of productivity or irreversible damage.
The Vegetable Transplant Program is part of the province’s goal to increase food self-sufficiency by at least 20 per cent by 2022. Currently, Newfoundland produces 10 per cent of the fruits and vegetables its residents eat and the plan is to double that figure in the upcoming years.
On top of the transplant program, the province is also testing out a mentorship program by the Federation of Agriculture where veteran farmers help and teach people getting into the business. The mentorship program will reduce the risks associated with starting out by providing knowledge support and experience from established growers.
By the late 1880s, apple production in Georgian Bay had reached such a volume that a large part of the crop was being sold to European markets. The first varieties grown are Russet, Rhode Island Greening, and Baldwin.
1889
The first commercial cold storage unit is built in Meaford, Ont.
The British Columbia Fruit-Growers’ Association is established to foster an export market.
1914
Vineland Growers’ Co-operative Ltd. records its first transaction of five crates of strawberries, sold in North Bay and Toronto for the sum of $14.63.
Two-thirds of the Georgian Bay’s apple crop is marketed in the U.K. through the Georgian Bay Fruit Growers’ Association.
Almost every Canadian farmer is now a horseman with the horse population standing at 3.5 million. This figure would drastically decline in coming years, with the rise of mechanized farming.
The first tractors with rubber tires become available.
1939
Georgian Bay Fruit Growers Co. Ltd. constructs the second apple canning enterprise in Canada.
1941
The number of Canadian farms peaks at 732,832, with an average farm size of 96-hectares. The number of farms has fallen drastically since then, while the average farm size has more than tripled.
1942
The Canadian government, in search of a military training area, expropriates 258 acres of prime orchards in the Georgian Bay.
1944
The first issue of the Canadian Fruitgrower magazine is published.
1969
The development of polyurethane insulation allows growers to better insulate buildings for cold storage.
1971
More than half of the grapes grown in Ontario this year are mechanically harvested.
1977
Pesticide importation regulations change – all pesticides sold, distributed and used in Canada must now be registered under the Pest Control Products Act.
1983
The first shipment of 6,000 kilograms of B.C. cherries is made to the Japanese market. This was the first shipment of cherries from Canada to Japan and opened a new market for B.C. cherries.
1984
Field tests on chemical pruning of apple trees begin at the Simcoe Research Station.
1988
Agriculture Canada’s Fredericton Research Station marks 75 years of service to the agriculture community. Vineland Growers’ Co-operative Ltd. marks its 75th anniversary in operation.
In 2008, 32 growers and packers within the Nova Scotia fruit industry had about 33,945 wooden bins, with a shortfall of 12,663 bins within the industry and a need to immediately replace 11,000 bins and a further 8,000 within the next five years.
Combined, those 32 growers own about 33,945 bins. Respondents estimate there is a current shortfall of 12,663 bins within the industry and a need to immediately replace 11,000 bins plus a further 8,000
Healthful
within the next five years. As a replacement option, the survey stated, 19 growers prefer wooden bins while another 13 are opting for plastic.
The Norfolk Fruit Growers’ Association (NFGA) transitioned to plastic bins from 1997 to 2002 due to the rising cost of repairing and replacing wooden bins.
Although growers could only stack plastic bins eight high, compared to the nine-high possible with wooden bins, the NFGA gained a six per cent increase
Levels of flavonoids increase over time in crops grown in organically farmed fields according to a long-term study published in the July 2008 issue of the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Other research has suggested that consumption of flavonoids may protect against cancer, heart disease, and other agerelated diseases. In the new study, Alyson E. Mitchell – with the Department of Food Science and technology at the University of California – and colleagues compared levels of key flavonoids in tomatoes harvested over a 10-year period from two matched fields — one farmed organically and the other with conventional methods that included commercial fertilizers.
The research focused on tomatoes because per capita consumption in the U.S. is so high, second only to potatoes. Researchers analyzed organic and conventional tomatoes that had been dried and archived under identical conditions from 1994 to 2004.
“The levels of flavonoids increased over time in samples from organic treatments, whereas the levels of flavonoids did not vary significantly in conventional treatments,” their report states. Increases corresponded with the accumulation of soil organic matter in organic plots and with reduced fertilization rates. “Well-quantified changes in tomato nutrients over years in organic farming systems have not been reported previously,” the report states.
in capacity in its controlled atmosphere storage as well as reduced freight charges for its growers. The group also reduced fruit damage, improved bin sanitation and achieved improved cooling efficiency with 29 per cent less time and fewer people required to move the crop into storage.
Researchers in the United States have found a great way for farmers to improve quality and field conditions for their youpick pumpkin patches, while providing a cost-effective way to recycle leaves.
During 2005 and 2006, researchers Christian Wyenandt, Joseph R. Heckman, and Nancy Maxwell, from the department of plant biology and pathology at the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, conducted experiments comparing different production systems on pumpkin yield and fruit quality.
“The studies revealed that applying municipal leaves to the soil surface exhibited a marked advantage over bare soil in producing clean pumpkin fruit,” the researchers’ final report states. “In both years, the percentage of clean fruit at harvest was higher in both leaf mulch production systems compared with bare soil.”
The scientists noted the benefits of the research to both farmers and taxpayers.
“Small-farm operators near urban areas can apply autumn leaves collected from municipal shade trees to help maintain attractive fields, maintain suitable soil conditions for consumers, improve the cleanliness of you-pick pumpkins, and improve overall soil health with the addition of organic matter to the soil,” their report states.
fruitandveggie.com
BASF has received Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency registration for Cevya fungicide, which contains the active ingredient (AI) Revysol. The active ingredient is an isopropanol azole that provides fastacting and long-lasting disease control for a broad range of crops and disease combinations.
The company says Cevya is a systemic fungicide labeled for use in pome fruit, stone fruit, potato,
sugar beet, grapes and tree nuts. Its chemistry provides binding capacity and adaptability through its molecule flexibility to control a broad spectrum of fungal diseases. Consequently, it also controls biotypes that may have developed resistance to other Group 3, 7, 9 and 11 fungicides.
Pome fruit growers can expect control against existing DMI-resistant apple scab while providing additional control options
for powdery mildew. The fungicide controls early blight in potatoes and offers sugar beet growers a means to control resistant Cercospora leaf spot.
The flexibility of the isopropanol link in Cevya fungicide provides longlasting residual control and extended crop protection.
Growers and retailers can learn more about Cevya fungicide and other BASF Agricultural Solutions products by contacting their local BASF representative.
Vineland Research and Innovation Centre has released a guide to help growers incorporate the RootSmart system into production practices for tree propagation.
Developed through a partnership between Vineland and A.M.A. Horticulture Inc.,
RootSmart – a researchbased solution to root girdling – was introduced in early 2018. The guide touches on various aspects of production, including selection of proper growing media and tips on watering, handling and timing of the production cycle; instructions on
transitioning to containers and directions on transitioning to the field.
For more information, please contact: Darby McGrath, PhD research scientist, nursery and landscape, at 905-562-0320 ext. 766 or by email at darby.mcgrath@ vinelandresearch.com
The Canada Pest Management Regulatory Agency approved the registration of UPL AgroSolutions’s Komodo herbicide, a Group 15 herbicide that can provide selective early season weed control in a wide variety of horticulture crops.
Komodo is the first alternative S-metolachlor product marketed in
Canada that includes benoxacor safener, according to UPL, which provides targeted weed control solutions with improved safety and efficacy on a wider number of crops. According to UPL, the addition of benoxacor safener improves the product’s safety and efficacy in both pre- and postemergent applications.
Fuji apples from Japan begin to invade the Canadian market.
The premier issue of Fruit and Vegetable magazine is launched in November.
The Ontario Agriculture Research Coalition is formed.
The Vintners Quality Alliance, a national regulatory body in the wine industry, is established.
Fruit and Vegetable celebrates its first year as a new brand.
New standards for organic agriculture roll out. The standard provides a consistent meaning for organic and increases market access opportunities.
The Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association celebrates 150 years of service to growers and the industry.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) gain in popularity.
2016
Driverless tractors roll out for commercialization at farm shows. The vehicles rely on remote controls, sensors and autonomy.
2019
Fruit and Vegetable magazine celebrates 75 years in print!
PHOTO BY BERNI WOOD.
Greg and Tania MacKenzie with their children Haley, Gracie and Austin in their cabbage field.
Ten years ago, Toy Story 3 was playing on the big screen, Starbucks started offering free Wi-Fi to customers, and Greg and Tania MacKenzie of MacKenzie Produce in Stratford, P.E.I., won the Outstanding Young Farmers award. The family was subsequently featured in Fruit & Vegetable Magazine in 2010 where readers learned about their family, their successful purchase of an established mixed farm and what it’s like to become Outstanding Young Farmers alumni.
“We bought our farm without farm land,” Tania explains. It was 2003 when they started out.
That’s when the couple purchased Balderston’s Produce, where Greg worked and saw potential. They bought the cole crop side of the business, about three acres that included a house, cole crop business and warehouses, but knew the land purchase was more than they wanted to take on financially, so began leasing – a model they continue with today.
“We lease all of the land we farm. It does make it hard because many landowners decide to sell the land,” she says. “We are in an area that the population is growing extremely rapidly. We are certainly getting squeezed.”
Still, the MacKenzies are able to lease about 300 acres. Because they are on a three-year crop rotation system,
part of their leases are sublet to grain or soybean farmers for a season.
“We pay the land owner and give the other farmer an invoice for farming it,” she explains.
Creative solutions like these are part of what won them the Atlantic Outstanding Young Farmers (OYF) award in 2009. As past recipients, they are alumni and their perspectives are appreciated by Andrew Lovell, who won OYF in 2016 and is the co-chair of the national OYF event December in Fredericton.
“They’re at the top of their game,” Lovell says of the MacKenzies. “As far as I know, they are the largest cabbage producers in Atlantic Canada.”
Of the 300 acres they lease, 130 acres are planted with mixed veggies, 85 of which is cabbage (over two million pounds), which is sold to Freshtone Brands to supply KFC with coleslaw.
About 10 acres are planted with green and yellow beans for grocery stores, with additional acreage in cruciferous vegetables, peas, cucumbers and more. Greg and Tania still grow pumpkins and gourds, which they started when the kids were small to get them more engaged in farming.
Aside from the cabbage and beans, sales are mostly through the onsite market, which is open Sept. 1 to Oct. 31. The market began about
Greg and Tania MacKenzie are still growing strong on their P.E.I. mixed vegetable farm.
BY RONDA PAYNE
15 years ago, based out of a wagon in whatever field was being harvested, using the honour payment system. Then, seven years ago, they established a permanent small shed with a cash desk for payment and a wagon filled with primarily their own veggies and locally produced honey.
“It’s nice to sell direct to customers,” Tania says.
The volume of land leased and acreage planted has dropped, when compared to 10 years ago, but the operation has become more efficient – not to mention the fact that other things have grown in the same time frame.
The MacKenzies’ kids, Austin and Haley, are now 22 and Gracie is 14. They grew up living a farming lifestyle, but Tania says she doesn’t think they will want to take the farm on when she and Greg are ready to retire. Greg has been farming all his life, but Tania and the kids came into it when they bought the site.
Haley recently came home from Kenya after being part of P.E.I.’s Farmers Helping
“They are real examples of what all farmers are: they are full of passion for agriculture, they are resilient.”
Farmers program, where farmers help with a variety of projects in the African country. She and her brother share what they learn at university with their parents, though both work off the farm when not in school.
“I don’t think our kids will get into farming, but quite possibly running a business at the market land and growing it bigger; doing agribusiness . . . with value-added products maybe?” she ponders. “Our son mentions growing hops and having a brewery here. Then I talk about growing grapes and making it a winery. Who knows? It depends on what customers want to see more of.”
Sharing with other farmers is part of how the couple determines some of their next steps, according to Lovell.
“They’re so down-to-earth. They’re awesome,” he says of the MacKenzies. “I bounce ideas off them and they bounce ideas off me. They are real examples of what all farmers are: they are full of passion for agriculture, they are resilient.
They are always positive.”
He adds that both Greg and Tania are involved in OYF activities, including helping plan the Atlantic-based national conference.
“I think they’re quite progressive,” Lovell says. “It’s typical of OYF alumni, they are looking for new ways and better ways of doing things.”
And, as Tania explains, things change every year.
“This year we increased our bean acreage because demand was there, but then the grocery store was not honouring local and bought a lot for a cheaper price and it made it very inconsistent for us,” she says. “It was a hard juggle with staffing and beans don’t have a long shelf life so we dumped a lot of beans this summer.”
Even with a large warehouse, modern coolers and the right equipment, the wrong labour and the weather can render the best plans useless.
Student labour over the summer of 2017 wasn’t working out and by mid-September, the couple knew there was going to be a problem harvesting the cabbage.
“When we finally got up to the amount of staff we needed, which was Nov. 1, the cold settled in and then froze,” she says. “We harvested in the snow. It was a slow go, but we were salvaging everything we could at that point.”
After harvesting frozen cabbage, they drew the frost out with salamander heaters, then shipped it for processing, but it was too late. The freezing had turned the inside of the heads black.
“Our supplier ended up buying cabbage [elsewhere], which was super expensive and we cleaned it up and packaged it for them,” Tania notes. “We did this for a few weeks untill ours was ready for harvest. Because of a shortage of cabbage, we had to work earlier in the spring preparing the greenhouses and seeding more early cabbage than we would normally grow.”
All vegetables, except beans, start from seed in the four greenhouses.
“Once in a while we do trials with seed companies to see what is a better growing and storing cabbage,” she says. “We stopped growing turnip this year because of two bad years in a row of growing them and losing money.”
Another change from 10 years ago is the foray into agri-
The MacKenzies have seen their share of challenges throughout their faming journey, including a dofficult cabage harvest in 2017. Photo by Berni Wood.
tourism, which gets a helping hand from Gracie.
“We are on year three of Mr. Corn maze and the selfie sunflower maze is in its first year,” Tania explains. “We also host school field trips to the pumpkin patch and corn maze and also do night corn mazes with glow sticks. We are enjoying the agritourism side of farming. We call it the fun side of the farm.”
Decisions about what to do next year are made after harvest is over and Greg and Tania get a break away from the farm. One thing that stays the same is long-term quality staff. They have had the same farm manager since they bought the farm and the other full-time team member worked with Greg since before the MacKenzies bought the business.
“We are going through the seasonal agriculture [worker] program, which makes a huge difference,” she says, noting they hired six Mexican workers this year.
In the busiest summer months, they have about 55 employees. Following the cabbage loss due to unreliable staff in 2017, they were careful to make sure they were covered and had enough quality employees in 2018.
Every farmer knows there are ups and downs. The MacKenzies have found a place to share ideas and grow in OYF and continue to make their farm successful, despite the challenges. •
When it comes to sorting and packing, how far has the industry come?
BY MADELEINE BAERG
Fruit and vegetable sorting and packing have come a long way from when human eyes and hands first started pulling culls and loading boxes many decades ago. From today’s perspective, the earliest dip tanks, the conveyor belts lined by dozens of women sorters, the simple and slow-moving early attempts at packing house automation all seem quaint and old fashioned. However, early packing line improvements were as cutting-edge to farmers and packers of past generations as today’s ultra-automated packing line innovations are to us today. In honour of Fruit and Vegetable magazine’s 75th anniversary, here is a fascinating “then-and-now” snapshot of peach packing through the generations.
In 1968, Boese Foods in St. Catharines, Ont. trialled a new dipping and grading line for peaches. It worked so successfully and facilitated such improvement in packed fruit quality that some advocated for it to become industry
ABOVE
standard. The line, designed by Boese Foods’ John Boese, reduced a grower’s on-farm sorting load and achieved a few extra cases of finished product per ton, as well as a more even pack and better grade.
“One really has to see the line to appreciate how smoothly it [runs],” said enthused writer Jerry Utter in the January 1969 edition of Canadian Fruitgrower
With a capacity of eight tons per hour, the line started with a dip tank, then floated peaches onto a conveyor belt inspection. The dip solution (two pounds of Botran to counter Rhizopus rot and two pounds of Captan to counter brown rot per 100 gallons of water) effectively, and for the first time ever, inhibited rot. Following dipping, a team of eight women sorted out culls and then divided peaches into softs, ripes and firms, which fed by conveyor to automatic box fillers.
“The first thing noticed, once the treated box is dumped on the line, is the almost total absence
In order for one piece of sorting technology to accommodate all of this variation in fruit, the Spectrim sorter depends on machine learning as it works.
fee on fruit delivered to the plant with five per cent or fewer culls. The cost was worthwhile, given that the new line meant they longer needed to sort their fruit for maturity on-farm, and they could reduce the number of picks through their orchard from three or four down to two.
According to the article, Boese said, “I had growers come to me from one processor asking if they could switch their contracts and bring their peaches to us, under our dipping and grading system.”
It should be noted that this packing line innovation ran alongside one other “innovation” not practiced by other packers at the time: Boese believed in getting fruit under cover as quickly as possible. Given today’s understanding of spoilage, the fact that anyone would leave fruit in the sun after picking verges on painful. However, to growers and packers 50 years ago, quick handling and cooling was innovative.
According to the past article, Boese said, “During one heat wave this harvest, pit rot developed very fast but our losses
From the archive: A new method of receiving peaches was implemented at Boese Foods in St. Catharines, Ont., in the summer of 1968. The dipping and grading line concept was adopted to reduce the picking and sorting workload and provide the processor with a higher yield per ton and more uniform pack. The original technology had the capacity of eight tons per hour. This technology meant growers would no longer have to sort peaches by maturity, and only two picks would be required to clean up an orchard.
were nominal because all our peaches were dipped and under cover. One processor in the area lost 20 tons over the weekend in the same heat wave, because his peaches were all stacked out
Almost exactly 50 years later, in 2018, BC Tree Fruits unveiled a peach and apple sorting system the likes of which John Boese could not have dreamed. The multimillion-dollar system, installed at BC Tree Fruits’ Oliver, B.C.-packing house, represents some of the most advanced grading
The key piece of the technology is the Compac Spectrim optical sorter: a hightech camera system that takes over 300 images of every piece of fruit in both colour and two wavelengths of infrared. The images allow the machine to identify and cull-out bruising and other defects, as well as to sort for colour, size and grade with exacting accuracy. The machine eliminates the need for a pre-sizer and cuts down the number of human hands necessary, allowing the peach to go from bin to packaging in a single trip.
Optical sorting technology like Spectrim improves packing from both ends. It starts by removing more culls: it can ‘see’ bruising before bruising is visible to the human eye. Conversely, it better captures the full value of premium fruit.
“This technology allows us to finetune the cut points between grades. With older technology, packing houses were giving away a lot of premium grade fruit in lower grade pack, as well as culling good fruit. A Spectrim sorter maximizes return by minimizing misgraded fruit,” says Jeremy Loewen, the general manager of for the Canadian division Van Doren Sales, the company selling Spectrim in Western Canada.
In addition to optimizing sorting, the technology offers return on investment through decreased labour.
One of the biggest challenges with sorting fruit is that a single line is
used for multiple crop types and many varieties, all with different specifications, optimal size parameters, colour, etc. In order for one piece of sorting technology to accommodate all of this variation, the Spectrim sorter depends on learning as it works.
Spectrim’s software contains specific programs for each variety of fruit. The operator then finetunes the system by “teaching” the system which parts of a fruit’s surface are good and which are bad using a simple click and drag interface built into a machine learning algorithm.
“The software targets bruising as well as hard-to-detect defects such as apple russet,” Loewen says. “Fruit is not consistent. It’s always changing. You have to be able to adapt the program to the fruit you’re running. It has some basic classifications pre-set, but gives you the ability to easily adapt to changing characteristics of the fruit.”
Some operators do such a precise job of ‘teaching’ their sorter that they can confidently run their line with no human sorters. Other lines work with a minimal number of human hands.
Spectrim’s maximum capacity is 10 bins per hour per lane (40 bins per hour at the Oliver, B.C. packing house, given its four lanes). The new sorting line will pack apples as well as all summer fruits except cherries. At other packing houses, the same technology is being used with a wide variety of mostly spherical fruit and vegetables: everything from bell peppers and avocados to tomatoes, kiwis and mangoes.
Coming soon is improved camera technology that will allow Spectrim to take better photos of the stem bowl and calyx. Ten years from now, Loewen expects that technology will improve to the point that sorting and packing lines require little to no human intervention.
“Our goal for a decade from now is to be lights out: to run lines with no people involved other than just the few who are there to make sure the equipment is running.” •
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Jack Forrer of Niagara-on-the-Lake was crowned as Grape King in September 1972. Forrer operated a 104-acre farm where he had more than 50 acres of vineyard, growing 10 different varieties of grapes for wine making.
Fedorkow believes he may be one of the oldest grape kings in the history of the event. A coronation ceremony was held at his farm in mid-September and was also the kick-off event for the Niagara Wine Festival, a two-week festival promoting Ontario’s wineries.
To be named the grape king, fellow growers nominate someone who they feel deserves the title. While the eventual grape king very often knows who nominated them, they generally won’t say, and this year’s king is no exception.
“Anyone can nominate anybody. It’s one of your peers who feel you deserve it.” Fedorkow says, adding it’s not so much a competition as it is networking by growers. “That’s where you learn a lot. I suppose we used to be competitive among ourselves and now we have to be competitive with the rest of the world so we have to work collectively or we won’t survive.”
In early August, just as the grapes are ripening and changing colour, a panel of three judges from academia dropped by to poke and prod through the vineyards of a handful of nominees looking for good vineyard management in eight different technical categories.
All things being equal, the scales are often tipped in two less-clinical categories – outreach, which is collaboration with researchers in academia; and innovation which is a grower’s independent research, adapting new technology and being up-to-date on new information in the industry.
Fred Hernder, 31, of St. Catharines, Ont., was crowned the Grape King at the Niagara Grape and Wine Festival. Hernder was the youngest grape grower to ever win the title. The Grape King is selected by a panel of experts who judge which of the contestants have the best vineyard.
encroach on a research project being conducted in their vineyard.
Fedorkow’s grandfather came to Canada from the Ukraine at the beginning of the First World War and then returned after the war to his homeland. He came back to Canada first settling in northern Manitoba, and then in Niagara in the early ’30s to raise a family. Fedorkow’s father did what most other growers did at the time – grow peaches, cherries, plums and pears for the fresh market and numerous canning plants in Niagara at that time.
The family farm where Fedorkow grew up was sandwiched between the expanding community of St. Davids and the non-expanding base of the Niagara Escarpment. By the time he graduated from the University of Guelph with bachelor of science degree in agriculture majoring in horticulture, it had shrunk from 122 acres to just 25 acres – not enough land for a viable farm operation.
“We used to be competitive among ourselves and now we have to be competitive with the rest of the world, so we have to work collectively or we won’t survive.”
“There are a number of growers who tend to turn their farms into experimental projects and they know enough to stay away,” says Helen Fisher, a retired University of Guelph professor, about Fedorkow and other growers who are eager to participate in research projects. By “stay away,” she means they don’t accidentally
“I’d been working on it since I was 12 and wasn’t coming back to farm anyway,” he says.
So, he looked for work elsewhere and found a job as a fieldman with a chemical company that sold herbicides to grain growers in Alberta. Two years later, he landed a job as a sales representative in Ontario for Chipman Chemical with a territory north of Toronto that included the Holland Marsh. What is now Fruithaven Farms was once a run-down mixed-use cattle farm. Fedorkow purchased the farm in 1984.
“It was an old, old farm and a mess with scattered fruit trees, pastures with old fence lines and a block of grapes almost 100 years old.”
After several years of rehabilitation and hard work, Fedorkow has restored Fruithaven Farms to be a standout vineyard. Now as the reigning grape king, he looks forward to the coming year and playing an active role as an industry advocate. •
The business includes field crops including rhubarb, sweet corn and pumpkins, as well as a farm store.
When Bert and Lauraine Andrews bought their farm in Halton Hills, Ont., in 1980, the advertisement noted it was “in need of some repair.”
“The barn fell down before we were able to take it down,” Bert Andrews reminisces.
The duo rolled up their sleeves, rebuilt the barn and added a second – and over the next 37 years they also built a legacy. Forty years after the couple signed the deed on Andrews Scenic Acres, the famous pick-your-own operation is still running.
Fruit & Vegetable magazine profiled Andrews Scenic Acres in 1991. At that time, the business included pickyour-own flowers and berry crops, including strawberries and other berry crops, and field crops including rhubarb, sweet corn and pumpkins, as well as a farm store.
The Andrews family added the Scotch Block winery – now called Andrews’ Winery – in 1999, which produces wines and ciders from the farm’s own berries, grapes, apples and currants.
In 2017, after 37 years, the farm was sold to David and Jenny Tang. The sale was years in the making, Andrews says.
“It’s difficult to buy a farm in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and run a relatively small business, because
the business can struggle to pay for the value of the land, so it was a hard sell for a few years.”
The Tangs had business rather than farming experience when they bought the farm, says farm manager Matt Setzkorn, so they kept on many of the original staff members to ease the transition and keep the operation running smoothly.
Setzkorn, who has worked at Andrews Scenic Acres for nine years, says the Tangs were a great fit for the operation. “The Andrews family were waiting and waiting for someone who would have the heart, business and passion – as well as the resources – to keep the business going,” he says.
Although the ownership of Andrews Scenic Acres has changed, its focus remains the same – it’s one of few pick-your-own operations in the area, according to store manager Lorraine Fiset. While nearby operations have put a focus on entertainment, adding festival features like rides, Andrews Scenic Acres has kept its focus on the produce itself.
“We really want to keep that family farm feeling,” she says.
While Andrews Scenic Acres has stayed true to its original vision, regional market demands have
Profiling the next generation of owners of a well-known pick-your-own operation.
BY JULIENNE ISAACS
shifted, and keeping track of the trends while looking for creative ways to build the operation’s value is a big focus for the farm’s team, Setzkorn says.
“A major change from 1980 is that in the early days, people would come out to the farm and pick buckets and buckets of berries. That’s not the case anymore – people are not in the habit of picking that kind of quantity,” he says.
Around the time the Tangs took over farm ownership, the provincial minimum wage increased, which added to financial pressures for many fruit and vegetable farms in the area, including Andrews Scenic Acres.
To cope, Andrews cut staff by almost half, although the farm retains a core team that includes long-term seasonal workers from Mexico who return every growing season, as well as a small team of year-round staff.
They also eliminated some of their rented acreage and reduced the number of weekly farmers’ markets they participate in from eight to just two.
“We’ve gotten out of wholesale sales entirely, and we’re really pulling everything back to the core of what we do with pick-your-own and the direct market sales,” Setzkorn says. “I think it’s healthy for us as a business to do things more efficiently and get back to basics.”
The team implemented another change: Bert and Lauraine had begun charging admission during the autumn, but the Andrews team opted to charge admission throughout the picking season.
It was hard for some long-time customers to accept the change, Fiset says, but most eventually came around to the idea.
“It comes back to education, explaining why we do what we do on the farm,” she says. “It’s really important for us to educate the public on how their food is produced. At the same time, we want to be able to keep prices low on the produce and baked goods. People are starting to understand that.”
It’s not just produce that visitors walk away with: Andrews also tries to provide the best experience possible. Guests get free tractor rides to the fields, and the farm is so picturesque that many visitors come for the sole purpose of taking selfies in the sunflowers.
With fewer staff on the ground, there are fewer hands to restore order to the farm after visitors have left, but Setzkorn says this year the admission fees
contributed almost a quarter of the farm’s revenue, which will help Andrews improve visitor experience over the long-term.
“If we want to keep farms like this in our communities there is a need to cover the costs associated with that,” he adds.
While Andrews Scenic Acres looks much the same as it always has, there’s another important way things have changed.
“One thing we’ve learned in the past couple of years is that to get people to get out to the farm, you’ve got to be really active on social media, engage with your customers and supporters and give them new reasons to come out to the farm,” Setzkorn says. “It’s not just strawberry picking, it’s linedancing on Saturday afternoon.”
Fiset says one experiment in social media marketing – drop-in “toddler Tuesdays” for stay-at-home parents looking for kid-friendly social activities in the area – paid off exponentially, with more than 100 toddlers and their parents dropping by one week.
Social media marketing helps Andrews target their ideal audience among millions of potential customers in the GTA. The farm also offers educational tours to school groups and corporate events. Diversification, with all activities rooted in farm production, has helped Andrews raise its bottom line while keeping its focus.
“It’s pretty special being at this farm having such a long history. Every generation is coming back to relive that farming experience or reconnect with the land. It’s nice to be that community hub for so many families and groups in the area,” Setzkorn says.
As Andrews builds equity, the team has big dreams for where they can take the business in the future, he adds. “It’s exciting to be at the early stages of building on what Bert and Lauraine have done, and looking forward to say, ‘This farm has a future – maybe another 40 years!’”
For Bert and Lauraine Andrews, retirement represents a new set of challenges and rewards, but they look back with gratitude on their days on the farm as well as the people who made it possible.
“I feel very humbled to have been able to be a part of a legacy at Andrews Scenic Acres,” Andrews says. “It was a team effort over the years, consisting of high school and university students including our own children, and temporary workers through the federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
“Only with our fantastic staff over the years have we been able to provide an ongoing legacy,” he says. •
