Steve Brown
Steve Brown of Happy Valley Harvest, with his award winning apples.
BC apples captured several of the top spots at this year’s National Apple Competition at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair (RAWF) held in Toronto, Ontario. Highlights of this year’s competition for BC apple growers are the Grand Champion and Reserve Champion of the New Varieties Category, for Ambrosia and Salish varieties.
“I congratulate the orchardists from across Canada who participated in the National Apple Competition,” said Glen Lucas, General Manager, BC Fruit Growers’ Association. “We express our special thanks to Ontario Fruit Growers’ Association, who went above and beyond the call of duty to recover our lost delivery of apples, enabling BC to participate this year. The help that Ontario Apple Growers’ Association provided shows the camaraderie and team approach that we have in the Canadian Apple Industry.”
Steve Brown of Happy Valley Harvest, Summerland, received the Canadian Horticultural Council Trophy for Grand Champion of new varieties with his Ambrosia variety entry. Denise and Richard McDonald, of McDonald Farm, Summerland, was awarded Reserve Champion for the Salish entry in New Varieties.
BC placed top the Commercial categories of Red Delicious and Red Delicious, with BCFGA President Fred Steele’s entry. David Bullach of Kelowna placed first in SPartan. Spartan is a variety bred and developed at the Summerand Research and Development Centre in 1936.
BC did especially well placing first in the New Varieties categories of Salish, Ambrosia, and Aurora Golden Gala, and in Other Named New Varieties for the Nicola variety. All the New Varieties BC placed first in were either discovered or bred in BC. “It was great to win first place for the Salish variety, but even more important that Ontario growers placed second and third for Salish - it proves that our national apple breeding program is making discoveries for all regions of the federation,” said Glen Lucas.
Finally, the Summerland Research and Development Centre placed second in the novelty category “Most Unusual Shaped Apple”.
The BCFGA is an agriculture association with a membership of 470 commercial tree fruit growers in BC. It celebrates its 130th anniversary in 2018.