Branding the Farm

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One day last year, Rutland fruit grower Karmjit (Karm) Gill called over the fence into the vineyard of his neighbour, Anthony Lewis. “Hey Tony, can you make me some apple juice?”

Karm is a top apple and cherry producer, farming 120 acres, shipping to BC Tree Fruits Coop and serving on the board of the BC Fruit Growers Association. Tony tends grapes on a neighbouring property and crafts wines for The Vibrant Vine, known for the success of “Oops” (when the label goes on the bottle upside down, make it into a positive story and win Platinum at the World Beverage Competition).

The families go back a while. Tony came up from California over 10 years ago to help his dad plant grapes on a former lease property of Karm’s. “Karm would yell at me when I was putting in the irrigation wrong,” Tony jokes. The families kept in touch.

When you take a strong family orchard business and mix it with a strong family winery business known for their marketing flair, you get “Farming Karma”.

“When we buy milk, most of us reach for what is closest on the shelf, but when you buy a phone, it’s all about the brand, the name,” Karm’s son Avi Gill points out. “So we came up with the brand 'Farming Karma', a play on my dad’s name.”

Farming Karma sits on a corner property on the Rutland bench. The site was approved for a fruit stand, but during family meetings they began to develop a bigger vision.

Avi has a pharmacy degree, and was managing a pharmacy in the Rutland village. He’d kept his eye on the farm and the question came up, “Hey dad, what happens when you retire.”

“I wanted to be involved in the farm area, but I wanted to change the way farming is done,” Avi explains. “The whole industry is locked in a commodity world right now. We want our apples to be known as Farming Karma apples.”

It is well known that the next generation is not following their aging farming parents.  “How do you solve that issue? Who is going to pick those farms up? questions Avi.  “I know a lot of older farmers who are just looking to sell land.”

“We as a team (the Gills have hired Tony as their CEO) realize hey, there is a future in farming,” says Avi. “You build a brand and do value added products.”

“We want to do two things here,” says Avi, “We want to add value to our fruit and we want to make farming more exciting to the public,”

“At first I thought Karm was talking about getting in a mobile press and doing box juice,” says Tony. “But when I met with the family they said no, they wanted something more.”

Something more began as apple juice in a can. “I suggested we make apple soda, that hasn’t been done before and it makes it fun for me,” Tony explains. “I’ve always wanted to put wine in a can and after 10 years we finally did it at the winery.”

“Nobody has done apple juice in a can,” Tony says. “There’s a lot of reasons why, a lot of challenges, but we are doing it!”

Avi says he feels like he is back in the chemistry lab at UBC. “I told my dad, no problem, we will crush these apples and put them in a can,” he says. “But if you look over at my desk, I have sulphur tests and Ph tests and sugar tests. I thought I’d left that all behind.”

Apple soda is their first product, and will be distributed to retail across the country and available at their own store. At the same time, a mini home brew cider kit will be launched, that turns 2 liters of apple juice into a sparkling alcoholic cider in just seven days. “That’s going to be available direct on Amazon FBA,” Tony explains.

Coming up for the summer months will be cherry and apple juice pops. “We are doing these 100% natural, using some ice wine making techniques,” says Tony. “Basically it’s a frozen cherry, but we have extracted a certain amount of water. It’s going to be really good.”

The company won’t be going organic, but they have their eye on environmental sustainability.

“We got to go to the American packaging summit this winter,” Tony explains. ‘I thought the big names like Coca Cola would be talking about their latest packaging lines, but the biggest topic was waste.”

Even the small juice pressing facility the team is building produces a lot of water waste. “We’ve looked at strategies to reduce our water use,” says Tony. “We have attached an air knife to clean our juice pressing machine and we’ve considered our fruit waste as well.”

The team is building an apple core machine and are sourcing a cherry de stoner. “With the seeds removed, we can process the pulp left over from the juicing into fruit leathers and ‘froodles’ (fruit noodles) and keep it out of the landfill,” Tony explains.

Adding value to his father’s commodities will help Avi to sustain the family business, but he wants to do more for the greater farming community.

Avi says he didn’t meet one person during his university days who was interested in being a farmer. ”We want to educate people about what farming is and to do that, we are building a full agri tourism site.”

There’s a disc golf course designed by the world champion from Toronto that runs through the cherry orchard.

And there are TV’s in the retail shop and head sets for a self-guided tour. “We want to show kids and adults how an apple or a cherry is planted and irrigated and pruned and harvested,” says Avi. “Hopefully we can inspire the next generation into being a farmer.”

“We’re going to do that by telling our story,” adds Tony. “Karm came here from India with like 20 bucks in his pocket and look what he has built. This is a story I am proud to be involved with.” ■