Okanagan stone fruit looking good for the first time in years
Don’t jinx it, but a farm in West Kelowna is seeing loads of stone fruit on trees this summer for the first time in years.
Jennay Oliver owns and operates Paynter’s Fruit Market in West Kelowna and she said things are looking up for peach lovers this season.
“It's definitely been a tough couple of years, so it's nice to have a full crop again. But like I said, to knock on wood, there's lots that can happen when the fruit is on the trees,” she said.
Storms, heat waves and dry spells could still come through the valley, but she said the first variety of apricots just came off the trees, and the peaches are starting to come in strong.
“It's so awesome. I mean, I picked our first peach for my daughters and I couldn't believe somebody could be so excited about a peach,” she said. “It's really cool to see how excited our community is that there's full fruit on all the trees.”
The cold snap last winter, heat waves in the summer and the closure of BC Tree Fruits Cooperative made 2024 a particularly challenging year for a lot of farmers.
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The provincial government allocated $5 million for a Tree Fruit Climate Resiliency program for farmers in the Okanagan and Kootenays. The provincial funding is paying for things like protective covers, energy efficient heaters and wind machines for the winter, and canopy sprinklers and shade protection for the summer.
Oliver said financial assistance from the government has been extremely helpful.
“I'm really happy with our government, our local government right now and the ability and the ease it was to access that money,” she said.
Paynter’s Market has been locally sourcing everything for years, but she said more people are coming through the doors due to the trade war with the U.S. and the enthusiasm for the buy Canadian movement.
“We're definitely seeing an increase of customers coming through our doors and really appreciating that they don't have to look at the label to know that it's made here. They can just pick up everything and know that it's made in BC. That's been good to see that that kind of momentum that had picked up a couple months ago is still going,” she said.
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