Get to Know the People Who Grow Your Ambrosia Apples
Meet Your BC Ambrosia Apple Orchardists
Behind every BC-grown Ambrosia apple is a hard-working farmer. And, each farmer is a little different with their own farming story. We think they’re pretty fabulous. Which is why we work hard to introduce you to as many orchardists as we can.
In case you haven’t checked out our YouTube channel before, we’ve created more than a dozen video profiles featuring the people who grow your Ambrosia apples.
It’s amazing to us how different their stories are. We have couples, families, and single people running orchards big and small. We’ve met immigrants who found farming a welcoming community when they arrived in Canada where they worked hard to be able to buy their own farm. We have young farmers who have been raised on the farm and are now taking over the helm or finding their own land to work. We discovered one BC Ambrosia grower how is also an apiarist (beekeeper). And, we’ve featured women who are proving that there’s no glass ceiling in farming.
For example, Julie Sardinha who continued to run the family orchard after she became a widow and discovered how supportive the Ambrosia apple community could be. Or, Raj Bagha whose days in the orchard started with him in a playpen watching his mother pick. As a young adult, he mentored under one of the community’s veteran Ambrosia apple growers before buying his own farm.
Tahir Raza, Satnam Gill, and Mohinder Dhaliwal all immigrated to Canada and eventually became Ambrosia apple growers but each of their stories is unique.
These are just a few of the fascinating people we’ve featured in our video series about farmers who grow Ambrosia apples in British Columbia. We invite you to meet all of them! We’ve added each of their interesting stories to this video playlist.
Video is a great way to learn about people who you might never get to meet. But, if you live in the Okanagan or Similkameen Valley, you can meet your BC Ambrosia apple growers in person. There are a few ways to do this.
Your local farmers’ market is a great place to meet BC Ambrosia apple growers. Most of them love to chat about Ambrosia and are happy to tell you a bit about their farm. Another way to meet BC Ambrosia apple growers is to get in on the action. Some orchards offer a u-pick option during harvest time. But, if you missed that window, see if they also have a farm-gate market – a small store on the farm where they sell the produce that they grow. Stopping by a farm-gate market is a so rewarding because you get fresh apples, you get to see the orchard (and often have a chance to wander through it), and you get to meet the growers.