2006 Saskatchewan U-Pick Locations Brochure Puts Fruit on the Map

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

It is like looking at Saskatchewan through a different lens, one that allows users to envision a summer afternoon spent with family and friends gathering fresh, juicy strawberries. The 2006 u-pick locations brochure, published by the Saskatchewan Fruit Growers Association (SFGA), is a useful resource for anyone longing for homegrown flavours.

“This brochure is a marketing tool for the u-pick fruit industry, which relies heavily on direct contact with the consumer. A map like this gives consumers all the options in terms of where they could pick,” says Clarence Peters, Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food’s Provincial Fruit Crops Specialist.

Peters estimates that there are probably about 2,000 fruit acres now in Saskatchewan, most of them producing saskatoons, but other fruit are emerging.

“Cherries are starting to be picked up now, and have the potential to grow into a fairly good-sized industry, but it’ll be a few years before we start picking them on a large scale. Strawberries have stayed fairly even, and that is the basis for most of the u-pick operations. They constitute around 200 or 250 acres of the total grown acres.”

Some growers will tell you that there is nothing quite like fruit grown in Saskatchewan, and Peters agrees with them.

“The conditions here in the northern latitudes bring cooler nights, so there is more sugar laid down. We tend to get a sweeter product; very high in colour; fairly dense; and not overly full of water.”

Even though Peters’ major role in the fruit sector is mostly focused on the development and promotion of the commercial fruit industry, he also acts in an advisory capacity in the field.

As the provincial specialist in fruit crops, Peters is the primary source for information ranging from industry development to production problems in the field. Because of his in-depth knowledge of the fruit industry, he is able to draw together the expertise of other SAF production and industry development specialists into a single, cohesive package for the fruit industry.

As such, he has met many of the province’s fruit growers.

“Fruit growers come from all walks of life. Most growers have an extensive farm background, but we have also had lawyers, politicians, right across the board. The larger growers do this full-time—for example, the Strawberry Ranch in Saskatoon is fairly large operation with probably around 70 acres—but a lot of the u-picks are fairly small and family-run. Some of the commercial operations are a lot larger, of course.”

The first u-picks appeared in Saskatchewan in 1980.

“There were two operations established then," says Peters. "They saw the opportunity. Things have grown exponentially since, but the growth potential for the u-picks is fairly limited because of our population. On the commercial side with saskatoons as well as other fruit, however, the international potential is much greater, specifically in Europe and Asia.

“Even at the local level, we don’t have many saskatoons available in our markets. There is a huge potential for a fresh/frozen market supplying the wholesale/retail trade with fresh fruit in season and frozen fruit year-round. Fruit remain a sector of agriculture with a lot of potential. We haven’t even begun to think about all the fruit we could grow.”

Peters is convinced that the possibilities around fruit in the province are still virtually untapped.

“One of the potential new crops is the blue honeysuckle. The University of Saskatchewan is working on this right now. There are good markets for it in Japan, where they are very short of acreage to grow this blueberry-flavoured fruit. They come very early in the season, in mid-June, so they are ready much before all the other fruit come in. They are oblong in shape, a little longer than the blueberry. We are currently looking to develop larger fruit.

“The sea buckthorn is another fruit with good potential. We haven’t figured out how we are going to harvest it yet, because people are not prepared to harvest it by hand. It is very spiny—we are trying to get spineless plants and plants with fruit that come off the stem more easily. Once that bridge is crossed, we will end up with a very intensely flavoured fruit, with very good nutrition. It is bright orange in colour; the fruit is very tightly clustered on the stem; very adaptable to this province, and hardy to about -60°C. Plus, it doesn’t mind dry soil. It originally comes from Europe and Asia, where there could also be substantial markets.”

Peters also mentions the black current as a possible fruit crop, mostly for the European market. It is something our neighbours in Alberta are already looking at. Lastly, he mentions raspberries as crop worthy of further processing.

This man sees no end to the opportunities for Saskatchewan fruit growers.

For more information, contact:

Clarence Peters
Fruit Crops Provincial Specialist
Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food
(306) 787-4666