The sweet juicy flavour of fresh fruit may be all you need to satisfy your sweet tooth -- and with less guilt. Rich in dietary fibre, vitamin C, potassium and other essential nutrients, the benefits of eating fresh fruit are well known. Locally grown fruit is a fruit less travelled, hence far less potential for nutrient loss compared with fruit that must travel thousands of kilometres before reaching your grocery store.
In spite of the late start to the growing season, most homeowners and local growers have experienced normal yields for this summer's fruit crop.
Anthony Mintenko, provincial fruit crops specialist, says while there may have been some delay in the ripening process due to fewer heat units, there won't be a problem this fall with insufficient moisture and plants should go into the winter well-watered.
For those of us who don't grow fruit in our backyards, there are plenty of opportunities to stock up on locally grown fruit products to enjoy throughout the winter.
In spite of a devastating fire this spring that destroyed the building that housed all of their equipment including their apple-cider press, John Boy Farms-Apple Junction diversified its product line to include apple syrup and apple jelly and will launch a new product in 2015: apple vinegar.
Demand has been so strong for the apple syrup, says Jean-Guy Cote, co-owner, that production will be scaled upwards. Originally, the Cotes sold the syrup as a topping for pancakes and waffles, but customers are using it in their tea or coffee, as an alternative sweetener on oatmeal, or as a glaze on ham at the end of cooking for a tantalizing apple flavour.
"We were really fortunate that last year's crop was so excellent," said Cote, "because we pressed far more juice than we were able to sell." The surplus juice, stored in freezers, carried their small but growing business through the summer.
"The fire did not put an end to the dream we have for our business," said Cote whose fifth-generation farm is home to a small orchard planted with varieties that include Goodland, Fall Red, September Ruby, Gemini, Prairie Magic and Red Sparkle. Still, the orchard does not produce enough apples to make all of their products and large amounts are purchased from local growers.
The idea for apple vinegar came from Cote's mother, Rita, who has always made homemade vinaigrette from scratch. Cote's mom combines the apple vinegar with equal parts oil in a bowl, adds fresh onion and garlic, salt and pepper to season, whisks with a fork, then lets salad ingredients marinade for a short while before adding lettuce. The result is a light-tasting salad dressing without excess sugar or fat.
Everyone is familiar with jam preserves but flora & farmer's Kimberley Bialkowski has added a twist. With products such as cardamom-spiced apple maple butter, peppery strawberry balsamic, hot and smokey tomato and pineapple, blueberry anise, and so much more, Bialkowski first piqued curiosity and then had customers clamouring for more. Both fearless and adept in the kitchen, Bialkowski's joy of cooking involves the combination of daring ingredients for flavour that is, in her words, fruit forward.
"I select my ingredients to bring out the flavour of the fruit without overpowering it," said Bialkowski who only rarely uses pectin, preferring instead a long, slow cooking process.
Like some spirits with your jam and toast? Try blueberry bramble with gin and lemon, or strawberry ginger orange with port, or perhaps spiced grapefruit marmalade with lime and dark rum. Bialkowski also specializes in boozy pickles.
While she grows some of her own ingredients such as rhubarb, basil and anise hyssop, Bialkowski sources the rest and plans to make more connections with local farmers.
In only her second year of business, Bialkowski has already been approached by 10 local retailers, including Generation Green, Organic Planet, Neechi Foods and Organza.
Visit her facebook page, flora & farmer, for more information on her products.
Another spirited fruit-based product comes from Grant Rigby, Rigby Orchards Ltd., who will launch this fall the first Manitoba-made dinner wine, Borealis Dry Haskap, made from dark blue borealis cultivar haskap berries.
Sulfite-free and with a distinctive haskap aroma, this new red wine is produced at Rigby Orchards in Killarney, Manitoba's only estate winery. Rigby Orchards, a family-owned farm dating back to 1882, was licensed in 1999 which is when it first released Boyne raspberry wine.
Rigby is an organic grower who minimizes disease by mowing down half of his raspberry orchard each spring, allowing new raspberry primocanes to grow free of any contact with inoculums on prior year canes. Rigby also grows Ben Tirran blackcurrants that he ferments with honey into a mead cassis.
Rigby says prevention of soil salinity is especially important for orchard longevity and soil sustainability.
"By enabling plant life to flourish between the rows in the fall and remain alive until mid-spring," said Rigby, "living roots not only prevent salinity but also nourish and develop mass networks in the soil of native perennial mycorhizae which receive energy from plants in exchange for soil nutrients."
Rigby recommends gardeners re-invent garden soil management towards the objective of ensuring garden soils contain living roots at all times and that they consider alternatives to deep roto-tilling.
"Daily close clipping of unwanted plants near ground level via very shallow hoeing or sprinkling vinegar or scalding hot water are proven methods for damaging leaf cell tissue of unwanted plants. As the leaves of unwanted plants are removed, our food crop roots can then integrate with the living mycorhizae they had maintained." The result, adds Rigby, is enhanced mineral density of our human nutrition.
Both saskatoons and haskap are gaining prominence as delicious, highly nutritious berries. Mintenko describes the flavour of saskatoons as a combination of blueberry-almond with a sweet-tart taste experience. Haskap, also known as honeyberry, is newer to Manitoba. Mintenko says it is the earliest maturing berry on the Prairies and has a particularly tart blueberry-type flavour that can be eaten fresh or processed into jams or pureed spreads.
Two different cultivars of haskap are required for pollination and fruit production while saskatoons mostly self-pollinate.
Philip Ronald, owner of Riverbend Orchards Ltd., located on eight fertile, well-drained hectares south of Portage, grows a variety of saskatoons called Smokey. Ronald says Smokey is the sweetest of all the cultivars. The plants are almost 15 years old but still very fruitful, producing close to 9,000 kilograms annually.
While saskatoon berries have earned their reputation as one of the best of the blue berries in terms of antioxidants, Ronald is also experimenting with other fruit. "We are also working with a brand-new plant called aronia chokeberry," said Ronald, adding aronia has the highest antioxidants and phytochemicals of any fruit plant.
Ronald advises homeowners to check with their local nursery if they are interested in growing aronia, which has beautiful fall colour and spring flowers. It is not for eating out of hand, but rather used in making jam or wine. "Treat it more as an edible ornamental or medicinal crop consumed primarily for its health benefits," said Ronald who grows the Viking variety.
In addition to berries, Ronald grows apples and picked about 180 kgs this year.
The plum crop may be the most challenging. "It's been a challenge to get pollination and proper fruit set," said Ronald who adds there is only a brief window of opportunity of about three days in May when the flowers are ready to be pollinated. In order to stimulate pollination, Ronald ordered mason bees this year from Westcoast Seed in Vancouver. Mason bees are smaller, less aggressive bees than honeybees and are more active in cooler weather.
The bees come with a little house, almost like a birdhouse, and over the summer have built their homes throughout the small tubes in the house. In the next month, he will store the house in a refrigerator, bees and all, and put it out again next spring to build the colony even further.
Ronald sells 50 per cent of his fruit crop at the farm gate, starting in the first week of July for about five weeks. His produce is sold at Crampton's Market, St. Leon Gardens, Vic's Fruit Market and The Little Red Barn. Visit www.riverbendorchards.ca for more details.
