Government Employee By Day Apple Farmer by Night

Summerland apple and cherry grower Adrian Arts picked up a new day job in July, as the Tree Fruit and Grape Industry Specialist with the BC Ministry Of Agriculture.

The industry specialist acts as a technical advisor for the government in their area of specialization, Arts explains. “We provide the expert advice to government on our files, so for me it is tree fruits and grapes. It is important to hold the confidence of my managers of government, but also to have the trust of industry. “

He believes that his experience as a grower will help him do that. “I think that is the bonus of getting a farmer in this position,” he says. “I’m really excited for this opportunity.”

New job or not, Arts intends to keep his hand on the tractor wheel. “I’m still keeping my orchard,” says Arts from his apple lease property, tucked just below Sumac Ridge winery. “But I did resign my job as Field Supervisor at Carcajou Fruit Company (the cherry orchard owned by Summerland’s Carlson family).”

Arts admits doing both will be lots of work. When I met with him at 5:00 pm one August afternoon, he was getting ready to change his shirt and go to work in his orchard. The apples were already a good size, averaging 100’s and ready to start to colour. “Yeah, I might be picking apples with a head lamp,” he joked.

But hard work comes naturally to this recent orchardist, who came back to BC after completing a Master’s degree in Ontario in 2014. In addition to his own orchard and supporting the management of Carlson’s 120 acres of cherries, he is very community minded, a passion he developed while managing the food bank at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.

Arts has served on numerous boards throughout the valley including being vice chair of the New Varieties Development Council, a member of the Summerland Agriculture Advisory Council, and the BCFGA rep to the Okanagan Basin Water Board’s Water Stewardship Council.

Ambrosia and Salish are the bulk of his apple plantings, but he notes, “I also have a bit of Aurora Golden Gala, some Silkens, a few random pear varieties, and a block of Lapin cherries. All together he has nine planted acres on five lease parcels that he could expand to about 18 planted acres. That would make Arts an average grower in the valley.

“I wouldn’t want to get bigger,” he says. “With a smaller property you have that little bit of extra time to spend to make sure the fruit is really good and you get better returns.”

Arts has experience direct marketing his apple crop as well as working with CFP. His cherries go through Carcajou Fruit.

The Carlsons hired Arts and trained him for his very first orchard job and helped him connect with a grower who was looking to retire and lease out his holdings. “Keith Carlson has been my mentor for cherry farming and Gord Shandler helped me get going in apples,” says Arts, adding that he is constantly reading, experimenting and talking with other growers.

“To me it is so important to connect with other growers,” he says. “There is such a wealth of knowledge out there.”

Arts has also jumped into the tech side of fruit growing. He actively uses the Decision Aide System (DAS) and has been part of the BCFG pilot program for the farm management system ‘Crop Tracker’. He’s working with reflective tarps to bring up the color in his apples, and in 2018 he was registered as a Professional Agrologist.

Arts is not shy about his lack of experience in viticulture and has already reached out to the BC Grapegrowers Association. “They have been fantastic and given me lots of referrals,” he says.

Arts came on the job in time to coordinate the province’s support for PPE, wash stations and porta pottys for the fruit industry, a program he says was well received by growers. He’ll be helping with the final year of the replant program (applications are due by November 30) an evaluation of the replant, and developing a snapshot of the entire industry. “We need a good handle on what is in the ground, so we have an understanding of the varieties and acreages out there.” And it’s time for the Golden Apple Award selection and the Viticulturist of the year.

While he knows first-hand the difficulties the tree fruit industry has had over the last several years, Arts believes there is lots of potential for expanding the BC brand. “Our climate, our orchards and vineyards, our growing practices and our lakes are world class,” he notes. “I believe that a well-organized industry can probably do a lot. Feeding good information into government will create sound policies for the industry.”