“No,” my patient cook in charge responds. “That’s why we’re caramelizing the diced apples.”

Strudel is not limited to heat waves. In fact, most people of German or Austrian extraction enjoy their apfel strudel mit schlag in the winter. But in autumn, cherry strudel has its own charm, especially when that cook has put by some sour cherries, or has access to canned sour (tart) cherries, usually found at a middle European or Mediterranean grocery.

Cherries and I are old besties. As much as I love fresh cherries out of hand, I like sour cherries even more. We’re fortunate to have world leaders in hardy plant breeding at the University of Saskatchewan, among them Bob Bors. Bob was an assistant professor, and retired last year, from the U of S plant sciences department, where he taught classes and ran the university’s fruit program, which has gained renown for its hardy haskap, sour cherries and apples. He collaborated with Sara Williams, who authored and co-authored articles and books on Prairie gardening, and has played a major role in the Master Gardener program at the U of S. In 2017 they co-authored an indispensable book on raising and maintaining hardy orchards, Growing Fruit in Northern Gardens.

READ MORE: Fruit growing on Prairie farms

Back in the early 2000s, when the U of S released some of the sour cherries that have since become famous, I acquired six young plants from DNA Gardens in central Alberta. (They’re still in business, FYI, and have evolved from plant tissue culture and propagation to value-added fruit wines and a seasonal farmgate café. I gotta go!)

I planted two cherry twigs in my sunny yard two blocks from the Bow River in Calgary: one a Carmine Jewel, the other a Juliet from the university’s “Romance” series. I gave the others to friends and family. A year later, I started harvesting. Twenty years later, the sour cherry shrubs are madly producing for my friends, family and the current owner of my former home off the Bow River.

This summer, I found sour cherries at the farmers’ market. After I made jam and strudel, I started wondering why I was buying fish instead of the pole. When I called my local greenhouse, I learned that yes, indeed, sour cherry plants are available, and that I have a good window until the end of October to get them into the ground. So first we eat some strudel, then we discuss tending sour cherry shrubs so they thrive in our challenging climate.

Cherry and apple strudel

Strudel is time-consuming but simple, and the results are so much better than what you can buy! Things to remember: precook the filling to eliminate water and add flavour; use hot water when making the dough to quickly develop gluten that allows for easy stretching; and the dough really does need to be stretched thinly enough to see through it to the floral design of your tablecloth!

Serves 12.

Pastry

• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp. kosher salt
• 1 large egg
• 2 Tbsp. sunflower oil + extra for the bowl
• hot water
• 1 c. butter, melted, for brushing
• 1 c. almond flour, graham crumbs or bread crumbs
• icing sugar for dusting

Cherry filling

• 4 c. pitted sweet or sour cherries
• 1 c. fruit juice or liquid from the can if using canned cherries, divided
• sugar to taste
• 2 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 1 lemon, juice and zest
• 1 tsp. almond or vanilla extract

Apple filling

• 3-4 medium tart apples, peeled and cut in ½” dice (about 4 cups)
• sugar to taste
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
• 3 Tbsp. butter

To make dough, combine flour and salt in a bowl. Whisk together egg and oil, then add hot water to measure a total of ¾ cup. Mix with a fork until just holding together, then turn onto a floured counter and knead for three minutes until pliable and supple. Lightly oil bowl, turn dough in oil, cover and rest for one to 24 hours.

To make cherry filling, put cherries in a pot if they are fresh or frozen; drain well if using canned, setting aside cherries and saving the liquid. Add half the juice or liquid to the pot, cook for 15-20 minutes, until tender and thick, then dissolve cornstarch in remaining liquid. (Add canned cherries now if using.) Stir in, boil, and remove from heat. Add lemon juice and zest and extract. Mix well.

To make apple filling, sauté apple dice with sugar, cinnamon and butter in a large sauté pan until caramelized. Cool.

Set oven at 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment. To assemble, dust a counter with flour, then roll dough into a large rectangle. Remove the dough, cover counter with a clean tablecloth, and flour lightly. Pick up strudel on the backs of your hands and let its weight stretch it, working around the perimeter. Stretch until thin enough to read a newspaper through, and lay flat on the tablecloth. Patch any tears. Shape into a rectangle. Stretch the edges until they are as thin as the centre.

Brush the entire surface with melted butter. Sprinkle with almond meal, graham crumbs or breadcrumbs. Spoon apple filling down the long side about 2” from the edge. Stack cherry filling on top. Fold the dough edge over top, then use tablecloth to roll strudel into a snug roll, stopping and brushing with melted butter after each roll, including the final one. Tuck in ends.

Transfer strudel to pan, using tablecloth or your hands, curving it to fit pan. Bake for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and dust with icing sugar. Serve warm.

The post Cherries, part 2: Strudel appeared first on Grainews.

Among my contacts across the Prairies from north to south, fruit production varied from good to exceptional. There may well have been lots of fruit tree damage in eastern British Columbia this past winter due to unusually cold temperatures, but Prairie fruit trees, grown from much hardier stock, did much better. While some damage did occur from a few days of -40 C to -45 C this past winter, most large- and small-fruit plantings fared very well.

Alberta Fruit Growers is an association that has met in mid-April and mid-September annually in Edmonton for the last 40 or so years. Its members and other Prairie growers now have proven apples, pears, plums, grapes, cherries and even apricots, producing quality fruit. Many nurseries from Quebec to British Columbia sell some of these newer proven cultivars. For example, the Evans cherry and the many dwarf cherry cultivars from the University of Saskatchewan are fully productive, from the northern U.S. states to Dawson Creek and Fort McMurray. Many of the very hardy plums, pears, apples, grapes and apricots originated from northern Europe and northern Asia.

READ MORE: Fruit growing on Prairie farms

You do not have to be a gifted gardener to grow any of these new and productive fruit trees, but you may need a few precautions to grow these Zone 2 to Zone 4 fruit trees. Such items as fencing and trunk protection are needed to protect the trees and shrubs from the deer family, porcupines, rabbits and voles. The rewards can be well worth the effort.

This year apples and cherries, which are self-fertile, were very productive. Plums, as good as or better than store-bought selections, were well pollinated despite the absence of pollinating insects. If plums are grown near wild plums, it seems wind pollination readily takes place, just as it does for our poplars and spruce trees. Some apples and pears produced less than expected but many varieties yielded very well. We now have Prairie-hardy pears and apples that are as good as any imported fruit — yes, Prairie backyard grown.

Unless fruit trees are grown very close to houses or farm buildings for a better microclimate, they do best on northwest- or northeast-facing slopes. I did an assessment of fruit orchards in Alberta, back some 40 years ago. The most productive and least damaged orchard trees (plums, apples, pears and cherries) grew on a steep hill at Rimbey, at the top of hill near Leduc and — biggest of all — on a northwest-facing hill at Camp Creek on the Pembina River north of Barrhead. Sun scorching and severe frost damage occur on unprotected south-facing slopes. Winter temperatures on hills are much higher than in valleys and northern aspects are not subject to spring sun damage. Remember: where do you find the best saskatoon bushes on the Prairies? You will always find them on the north-facing slopes. Check any east-to-west riverbank. The bigger trees grow on the south bank facing north. On the north bank facing south you have scrub and cacti, even as far north as Peace River.

Small fruit — that is, haskaps (a.k.a. honeyberries or sugarberries), black currants, red currants and gooseberries — were exceptionally productive this year. It seems the cold wet spring particularly favoured fruit set. Again, despite the virtual absence of bees or pollinating insects, with the exception of a few bumblebees, everything got well pollinated. Haskaps must be cross-pollinated but despite relative pollinator absence, yields were exceptionally good. I was very surprised by the bountiful yields.

Raspberries and strawberries did very well in the wetter areas of the Prairies — especially strawberries, since they need constant summer moisture. Both these berry crops should be replanted — every two years for strawberries and three to four years for raspberries — for optimal production.

All of the aforementioned fruit crops may be high in healthful anthocyanins or, in particular, vitamin C — especially black currants. It’s worth mentioning, though, that while boiling fruits or vegetables makes them easier to chew and eat it can destroy some or most of the vitamin C they contain.

Dogs and cats, by the way, and many other animals have the innate ability to synthesize their own vitamin C in their livers — whereas humans cannot. A deficiency of vitamin C causes a destructive disorder in humans called scurvy. It’s for this reason that British sailing ships in years gone by took on loads of vitamin-rich fruits when they were in tropical waters (hence the derogatory name “Limeys” applied to British sailors). Last week I even listened to a report on a Canadian radio station that several individuals in Toronto were in poor health suffering from scurvy. It seems their diets lacked either fresh fruits or vegetables that contain vitamin C.

Apple advice

If you grow apples, do not accept any harvested fruit from any urban areas. Unfortunately, most, if not all apple trees in the Edmonton area, for example, are infested with apple maggots. The first apple maggot outbreak occurred near a University of Alberta student residence. It’s theorized that apples brought from Ontario, where the maggots are widespread on wild apples, may well have been infested with apple maggots. Throw maggot-infected apples in any backyard and the maggots will leave the damaged apples and hibernate in the garden soil until the following spring. They will emerge around July 1 (Canada Day) and lay eggs in healthy developing apples. The only control right now in apple maggot-infested areas is to grow apples with some maggot resistance — or to bag each fruit with commercially available mesh bags that fit over individual apples.

Yes, we have bananas

No, we cannot grow them, but I’ve learned some excellent advice about them. I and all my family enjoy fresh bananas, but after buying several bunches personally I often had to throw away many overripe spoiled fruits. I mentioned this to a friend and she asked why I didn’t place the bananas in the refrigerator. I replied that they would turn black very quickly. Not so, was the advice. If I placed the green to yellowing fruits in the refrigerator, they would remain in prime condition in the refrigerator for three weeks or more. Bananas left on the kitchen counter lasted less than a week before they became inedible. I was wrong. When the ripening pale-yellow bananas were placed into the refrigerator and left for three weeks, they remained in virtually prime condition. The shiny banana skins did get duller in the refrigerator after a few weeks, but the now-chilled fruit remained in excellent shape. No more spoiled inedible bananas for my family.

The post How Prairie fruits fared in 2024 appeared first on Grainews.

Vegetable seeds — with some exceptions such as potatoes, beans and peas — are not grown in Canada. Some of our seed comes from the United States but the bulk of it originates in Europe. Consequently, when you buy vegetable seed from different catalogues, the seeds, such as a variety of carrot, could have come from the same seed farm in the south of France. The same carrot seed lot could end up in 10 different seed catalogues. Another factor is the number of seeds in each package. Some companies are generous; others, not so.

Farm gardens as well as colony gardens should undergo periodic soil tests, just like your cropland. Soil testing has shown me more than a few gardens have high levels of salt, low fertility or high nitrogen levels. Saline soil meant it was time to set up a new vegetable garden. In moving to a new garden site, you will also leave behind many soil-borne diseases, particularly with those vegetables such as potatoes, tomatoes and cucumbers.

Herbicide residue

A significant and recurring problem I saw very many times over the years was herbicide injury to garden crops. The prime culprit in this instance was picloram.

Picloram is an herbicide used on roadside vegetation in all three provinces and perhaps more so in Alberta. This herbicide gives municipalities a low-cost method of controlling vegetation such as large perennial weeds and tree and shrub seedlings. The picloram does an excellent and inexpensive job and is of little consequence to good provincial highway maintenance. The problem is that farmers will take hay cut from major highway embankments. The hay is perfectly edible and safe for livestock, but unfortunately the resulting manure retains the picloram herbicide. If this manure is spread on vegetable garden land it can be devastating. It only takes a few parts per million or less to wipe out sensitive potato, bean or pea crops. Other crops such as carrots, beets, onions and cucumbers can also be significantly damaged. This manure-carrying residue may now take several years to disperse in garden soil, so it may be prudent to seek a new garden site right away.

Picloram can also find its way into farm gardens when pasture or hayland is treated with a combination herbicide that contains picloram. If a compost is made of this cattle manure, using it on a vegetable garden would be disastrous. So the word, on farm gardens in particular, is to avoid any use of cattle manure unless you are absolutely certain it is picloram-free. Poultry manure or alfalfa pellets are an alternative if you must go organic.

When we use peat moss mixes to start garden crops, or perhaps to grow them for a while in the greenhouse, do not take it for granted that this crop starter soil mix is squeaky clean. On a few occasions I have found corn herbicides in the peat mix that have been very toxic to seedling establishment. I must admit, though, this problem is not very common.

Salinity

I had mentioned in earlier articles that garden soils can become saline from irrigation with saline ground water and previous use of cattle manure high in salt. Remember, when you are raising garden seedlings in particular, you must use rainwater or melted snow or pond water of low or very low salinity. Often a few good waterings of saline ground water on pot-grown tomato plants can kill or severely damage them. The use of ground water, for example, on potted houseplants is a sure way to kill them off in a few months and make you believe you have a black thumb.

Another point is that if you have a greenhouse, never use it for storing herbicide — or for that matter, never store herbicide in your house. Volatile herbicides, particularly when spilled, can wipe out a greenhouse or house plant population, especially if herbicide spillage occurs.

Orchard sites

If you intend to set up a fruit orchard for your personal or commercial use, it should be situated on a well drained area, preferably facing north, west or east, and should be separate from the vegetable garden. Remember, the B.C. fruit growers — apple trees are now planted five to eight feet apart, north-facing, and treated as bushes. Who wants a 20-foot apple tree?

What I’m trying to say is that your fruit tree orchard needs very different conditions from your vegetable garden. For convenience, though, your strawberries and raspberries should be rotated every two to three years in your vegetable garden. Please check out my article on fruit growing in a previous issue.

Frequently-grown farm fruit crops such as raspberries and strawberries are normally at their best when grown inside or alongside the garden vegetable crops. This is due to the fact that for best results, both raspberry and strawberry planting areas or rows should be renewed every second or third year. In an ideal garden situation, you would plant out new rows of both strawberries and raspberries. Not doing so leads to sluggish growth and poor berry yields in both these crops in their third and fourth years. Just like their companion vegetable crops, they should then be rotated — perhaps not annually, but certainly by the third year.

The post More on Prairie vegetables and fruits appeared first on Grainews.

In a few snow-free and cold Decembers in those years, a lot of damage was done to alfalfa, winterkilling entire fields of three-year-old stands. Even white and yellow sweet clovers at roadside banks were winterkilled across the Prairies in those snow-free early winter days. When I visited some of these winterkilled alfalfa fields in April and May, it was recommended they be reseeded to alfalfa as soon as possible. The alfalfa was needed for the alfalfa pelletizing plants in the area.

I diagnosed the alfalfa field losses as winterkill since I could not find any significant evidence of damage by verticillium, fusarium or bacterial wilt on any of the alfalfa crops.

Some of these winterkilled fields were resown that spring, and by midsummer the seeded alfalfa crop was non-existent. I found extensive evidence of dead and damaged alfalfa seedlings in these crop failures. I tested the seedlings for disease and could only conclude that it was likely a damping-off disease caused by pythium species.

Little did I know at that time I was wrong. I had misdiagnosed the problem. It was not until recently that it dawned on me that I was dealing with alfalfa replant disease (ARD).

Over the last few months, I have read extensively about replant diseases occurring in such diverse crops as apples, grapes, ginseng and even grasses. These replant diseases are now much better understood, but the actual mechanisms remain an enigma. Soil-borne fungi, both parasitic and saprophytic, have been implicated, but there is no evidence to usually show any one fungus is responsible. Soil-borne nematodes and bacteria seem not to be implicated in this replant problem. When old apple orchards were removed in both Canada and the United States, it was found that if these orchards were replanted immediately to new apple tree stock, the healthy young apple trees would grow very slowly or even die off. If the apple trees were planted on new cropland, then they grew normally. The actual causal fungi may involve several species, but nothing specific has been identified as pathogenic. In these apple orchards you could replant to grapes or pasture with no problems, but pears and peaches, members of the apple “rose family,” did not grow very well. Rose replant disease (RRD) is now fully investigated in Europe but, as in the case of apples, specific causal agents are not identified.

In Canada we have major problems in Ontario with ginseng replant disease (GRD). The ginseng industry, mostly in Ontario, is worth around $250 million annually, primarily as dried root exports to Asia. In this instance the causal agent is a fungus disease, Ilyonectria mors-panacis. This Ilyonectria was formally called Cylindrocarpon destructans, a long-known root-rotting fungus. Ginseng is normally grown under heavy shaded wooden structures on sandy loam soil in many areas of southern Ontario. The ginseng plants are valued for their four- to five-year-old roots, which are harvested and dried for export. The dried roots are highly valued particularly in Southeast Asia for their medicinal properties.

In Ontario they are running out of room to grow this crop on suitable sandy loam soil. Growers have found that land that grew ginseng as long ago as 20 years or more will not grow this plant. Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), when planted in previously grown ginseng cropland, will die in the second or third year of growth for a crop that needs four to five years to mature. No amount of soil sterilizing or amendments has worked to date.

A ray of hope for this economically successful ginseng crop may be the Canadian Prairies. Back some 35 years ago, a district agriculturalist in the Wetaskiwin area successfully grew around a quarter-acre of this crop on sandy loam soil in the area.

Back to the alfalfa replant problem. It has now been shown you cannot plant alfalfa immediately on land that had grown alfalfa the same or previous year, nor even where one had been winterkilled. The current theory is that autotoxicity occurs when mature alfalfa plants excrete a chemical that inhibits the germination and growth of alfalfa seedlings. Researchers at several U.S. universities have clearly shown reseeding alfalfa onto land that had just been cleared of an old alfalfa crop, either by herbicides or winterkill, will result in just about a 100 per cent mortality of newly seeded alfalfa. They have also shown overseeding a thin or patchy alfalfa stand results in seedling die-off.

Researchers recommend the following:

• Allow one or two years between terminating an old alfalfa stand and reseeding.
• Do not attempt to reseed or overseed injured or thin stands.
• Do not waste alfalfa seed on thin alfalfa stands.
• Rotate from an old alfalfa stand with any crop other than alfalfa, preferably into a grass or cereal crop, to use up the residual nitrogen.

Prudently, it seems successfully reestablishing a new alfalfa field that had previously grown alfalfa should be left for two to three years.

I will not discuss allelopathy or autotoxicity, since much of those conclusions are guesswork rather than fact in the case of alfalfa replant disease. It’s just a fact that it occurs not only in alfalfa but also in many other crops. It is a disorder that is widespread but little understood and at present, we can realize it happens and try and avoid the problems. Replant problems may well be the reason why continuous wheat or canola have lower-than-expected yields due to these unidentified and poorly understood root-damaging microorganisms.

So, if you have a farm garden, we know now you do not plant a new apple tree on the site of a removed apple tree. You rotate your raspberries and strawberries every few years — and, on the subject of beautification, you do not plant a new rose bush on the site of an old or dead rose bush. That leads to RRD, which is well discussed on the internet.

For a final comment: alfalfa growers should realize the very cold temperatures the Prairies experienced in January this year could be very destructive on alfalfa stands.

The post Alfalfa replant disease and related disorders appeared first on Grainews.

She has chosen some comedic roles. In It’s Complicated, she plays a divorced bakery owner who embarks on an affair with her ex-husband, who gives her a joint he wants to share with her later. But she smokes the joint with her architect and they end up in her bakery late one night, where she makes chocolate croissants, watching the laminated dough pass back and forth in the sheeting machine with stoned fascination and eating the warm pastries as dawn arrives, melted chocolate and crumbs festooning their clothes and the counter. In Julie & Julia, she turns in a tender and hilarious portrayal of food legend Julia Child as she attempts to publish her first cookbook, for which Streep received her 16th Oscar nomination.

I consider her one of the finest actors of her generation. I love how she moves from hilarity to serious in her roles — and because of all her roles, leading and supporting. She creates complex and believable characters who leave an impact, even when they are secondary to the plot.

Which brings us to apples. From star turn to supporting roles, apples are a constant presence in my kitchen. In their supporting roles, apples are legendary, adding character, sweetness, fibre, texture and flavour. At Christmas, I grated apples into the big bird’s stuffing. Last week when making muffins, I grated two Galas and diced one, caramelizing the dice with butter, nutmeg and maple syrup. This week when Mom was jonesing for coleslaw, apples worked their magic on curmudgeonly cabbage to make a slaw better than you can buy. Apples, ginger and lemon needed not a whole lot, beyond apple cider vinegar and a cinnamon stick, to simmer into chutney for next week’s curried chickpeas. But nothing tops apple pie, no matter if it’s a glamorous inverted tarte Tatin, a rustic galette, a streusel-topped deep-dish, or a two-crust-with-fluted-edges classic.

Apples are one of the few fruits I eat year-round. In midsummer, when I have recovered from my peach infatuation and the new-crop Macs are out, I eat apples to the exclusion of all else. Nothing can come between me and raw apples — except maybe apples in a crisp or cobbler, apples in a pie or tart, caramelized apples in a bread pudding (did I say that? I don’t even like bread pudding!), and apples in any kind of pastry at all. Like Streep, apples are a class act. First we eat, then let’s binge on Streep films.

Deep-dish apple pie and variants

Like Meryl Streep, this all-Canadian pie is adaptable. Single-crusted, topped with streusel, up-styled with a handful of frozen raspberries, it uses pat-in pastry. Or omit the pastry and make a crisp in individual containers or a large ceramic dish. To make tarte Tatin, caramelize quartered apples tightly packed in a cast iron pan, top with pastry, bake, and invert onto a platter. Or roll out the pastry and centre it on a parchment-lined baking sheet, add the apple mixture, and fold the pastry’s edges over top to make a galette, then bake. Serves 6-12.

Pasta frolla:

• ½ lb. unsalted butter, cool and malleable
• ½ c. white sugar
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
• a pinch of salt
• ¼ tsp. ground ginger
• 1 orange, zest only, finely grated
• 2 -2 ½ c. flour

Streusel:

• ¼ c. flour
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• ¼ c. melted unsalted butter

Filling:

• 10 tart apples
• ½ c. frozen raspberries (optional) or Thompson seedless raisins or dried cranberries
• ¼ c. lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• ¼ c. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp. ground allspice
• ¼ tsp. ground cloves
• ¼ tsp. ground nutmeg

To make the pastry:

Cream the butter and sugar in a food processor or mixer. Add the remaining ingredients, mixing long enough to develop a little gluten. Turn out and pat into a 9-inch springform pan with removable bottom or a deep pie pan. Chill.

To make the streusel:

Combine the streusel ingredients, blending with fingers or a fork until crumbly. Set aside.

To make the filling:

Peel and slice the apples. Toss in a large bowl with the raspberries, raisins or cranberries. In a smaller bowl, mix together the lemon juice, flour, sugar and spices. Stir into the apples. Pour the mixture into the prepared pastry.

Set the oven at 425 F. Cover the pie with foil, place on a baking sheet and bake, immediately reducing the oven temperature to 375. After 45 minutes remove the foil lid, evenly distribute the streusel, and bake another 30 minutes, until crusty and brown. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

The post Winter fruit, part 3: The versatility of apples appeared first on Grainews.

When I visited Prairie farms and Hutterite establishments, I invariably checked out the orchards, including all and any fruit-growing areas. Most individual farms had one or more poorly maintained apple or crabapple trees, the usual clump of rhubarb and always a raspberry patch. Hutterite colonies, on the other hand, in some instances had well established apple orchards, with lots of garden space given over to raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb rows and sometimes red currants. None of the farms back some 40 years or more ago had plums, pears or cherries. In many instances this has changed for the better, with significant productive fruit crop production now on farms and colonies on the Prairies.

In my almost 50 years in Prairie Canada, I gave frequent talks to urban and rural residents, primarily on fruit production, from Medicine Hat in the south to Manning in the north Peace. I gave many general gardening and fruit growing courses in rural farm areas as well as to many Hutterite colonies, even in Montana. In general, it was apparent many amateur fruit growers, Hutterites included, were poorly informed. If they grew fruits, they were old, antiquated varieties of apples, raspberries and strawberries, often very poor performers in growth and quality. Even rhubarb was harvested incorrectly. I would see rows of rhubarb in which all the leaves were removed by early June, depriving the rhubarb crowns of energy-producing leaves at the best, sunniest growing time of year. I had to explain you could remove up to 70 per cent of the rhubarb leaves but leave the outer 25 per cent to keep the crowns vigorous, healthy and productive all year.

It seemed, in general, most farm establishments clung to old ideas and old fruit varieties, often growing them in all the wrong places. Wild apples and pears all originated in northern China and Kazakhstan, in hilly, windblown areas, and plums a little further south on the Asian continent. In fact, China grows 10 times more apples than the U.S., and actually more apples than the rest of the world combined.

From Winnipeg to British Columbia’s Peace River region, I found a few successful apple orchards, with pears, plums and sour cherries growing very well. What did these orchards have in common? They were on hills, all facing northwest or north, from Lethbridge to Dawson Creek.

I had this principle explained to me by a lady in her 90s at a dairy farm near Leduc, Alta. She had a very productive orchard, with an abundance of grapes, apples, pears, plums and sour cherries. She said that on a cold January morning on the orchard hill where the house was located, the temperature could be 10 to 20 below. Where the cow barns were, way down at the south side of the hill, 100 or so metres down, the morning temperature might be -25 or -30 C or colder, sometimes 40 below. It was never this cold on the hill. During April and May, at the bottom of the hill, where she had tried growing fruit trees, the temperature could be 30 C during the day but plunging to -5 or -10 C on some nights. At the top of the hill, it was rarely more than 20 or 25 C and with a slight breeze it usually stayed above freezing in May. If you would like to confirm this information, look at our rivers that run east to west, like the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers. There are big vigorous trees on the southern banks facing north, and generally lots of scrub and few trees on the northern banks facing south.

Saved for posterity

I had many nicknames over the years in Alberta, such as Dr. Bingo (fundraising), Dr. Copper (ergot control) and Dr. Cherry (Evans cherry).

The Dr. Cherry story is an interesting one that began in 1976 at Sherwood Park. I was asked to identify a cherry tree in a home garden, with an enormous crop of cherries, estimated at 200 to 300 pounds. I could not even give it a type name since it differed widely from the only two sour cherries that grew on the Prairies: Meteor and North Star. Those cherries, bred by the University of Minnesota, did not grow that well and produced only a few pounds of cherries.

The owner of this cherry tree in Sherwood Park said the cherry came from a garden in an area called Horse Hill, which then was a hamlet between Edmonton and Fort Saskatchewan. I visited the site and found that the lady living there, a Mrs. Bogward, had a whole orchard of these cherry trees. She said the site was to be bulldozed in a month to make way for a new federal prison. Mrs. Bogward even showed me the original cherry tree her parents got in 1923. The tree was barely alive. She told me to go to the orchard and dig up many of the cherry tree suckers and save this cherry for posterity. The cherry tree grew true and very well from suckers.

This cherry’s ancestor likely originated somewhere in Siberia and was brought to Alaska by Russian immigrants. I finally found out that this hugely productive cherry probably originated from the Haines Junction research station, Yukon, on the border with Alaska, where they handed out cherry seedlings to homesteaders in the 1920s. Seedlings arrived in the Edmonton area and Mrs. Bogward’s parents received a seedling, which they planted on the homestead property.

I planted and tended around 20 of the suckers at a farm site at Tofield, Alta. In 1981 I moved to a new house in the Millwoods district in Edmonton. I found that the suckers at Tofield had multiplied considerably, and I planted some 20 of these one- to three-foot cherry trees around the Millwoods garden perimeter. By 1985 these cherry bushes were producing cherries galore and attracting city-wide attention. After many tries with various nurseries, I finally got DNA Gardens to tissue culture and multiply this cherry. No other nursery would believe that good, very productive sour cherries would overwinter in Alberta. In the meantime, I gave away hundreds of rooted cherry seedlings to Government House, the Calgary Zoo, Olds College, the Brooks research station and the University of Alberta. I virtually had to plant each cherry tree since no one would believe a real sour cherry could be winter hardy. I gave cherry trees to farmers, Hutterite colonies and commercial nurseries. By the mid 1990s there were believers, with U-pick cherry orchards springing up all over Prairie Canada from Pincher Creek to Winnipeg. This cherry, by now named the Evans cherry, numbers in many millions in both Canada and the U.S. and has become the most popular fruit tree in North America. It’s hard to find a Prairie garden outlet or big-box store on either side of the border that does not sell this cherry. Look up ‘Evans cherry’ on the internet. Look around the Prairies and you can find an abundance of cherry products, from jams and preserves to pies and wine. In suitable locations you will find productive cherry trees from Prince Albert, Sask. to Dawson Creek, B.C. and countless cherry trees in urban gardens, Prairie-wide.

In future write-ups I will deal with new apple, pear, plum, grape and cherry varieties that do very well on the Prairies, from zone 2 types to zone 4 types. Growing raspberries and strawberries will also be covered.

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While I was a youth at home, it was common for friends or neighbours to drop by on the day of rest after a drive in the country. One of my duties was to catch a roasting chicken for Sunday dinner using a gaf. So, what is a gaf? The word has more than one meaning and in this instance it’s a long sturdy wooden pole with a curved metal hook at the end for grabbing onto a chicken’s leg. If you’re from a rural area or raise chickens, you’ll know the rest of the story. 

Yes, you can catch a cold merely from feeling cold, getting the chills or shivering for too long while outdoors. My gramma and mother often said that very same thing. For too long it was called an old wives’ tale, but now it turns out that grandmothers and mothers were right all along. A new study from The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology agrees with such wisdom, leaving naysayers wrong. The research showed a newly discovered immune response inside the human nose can actually trigger a respiratory illness like the common cold and flu. The research also showed the nose uses the same immune response to defend against viral threats. 

I recall an at-home remedy my mother made when I was a young 12-year-old gaffer with cold feet and a runny nose after being out on the backyard ice skating rink too long. She would stir a tablespoonful of dry mustard powder and about 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar into a big bucket of quite warm water for my feet to soak in until my body warmed. I passed that tip on to a close friend who did a lot of swimming. He later told me the same foot soak remedy was a good way to keep athlete’s foot between his toes under control. 

So, what’s a gaffer? ’Tis said to be a person who likes to tell secrets, gags or jokes, or a foreman of a gang of workmen. Well, I was never a foreman, but it sounds like I got off to an early start in life after puberty to become a rustic, storyteller and a gardening kind of fellow, among other things. I have some other basic and long-established cold and flu remedies for another day, but a breathing technique worth learning shall follow further along.

[MORE: ‘Singing Gardener’ with Ted Meseyton]

Let’s all remember to stand proud and sing “O Canada” loud and clear whenever attending functions that include the singing of our national anthem. I’m as proud as punch to tip my hat and say welcome to my audience of Grainews readers with a parade of words. Proud as punch is an expression derived from the traditional English puppet show called Punch and Judy that left audiences with feelings of happiness, pleasure, pride and satisfaction. Well, I’m proud to have you with me and provide some good information here too.

Canadians grow a lot of apples and small tree fruit orchards are popping up here and all over, but there’s always room for more. We’re hearing a lot about gut health these days, and a recent study points to apples’ ability to significantly improve, change and transform gut microbial activity for the better. Healthy gut flora is a key part of our overall health because it affects the entire body. Note that I’m also including myself.

It used to be “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Now research specialists are saying two apples a day are even better. In light of an increasing awareness of the connection of apples to gut health and overall human wellness, let’s shout it out not only to the rooftops but to everyone who hasn’t yet planted apple trees. Apples have superfood status! Believe it or not, just days before Christmas I got a call from a first-time but keen apple grower wondering whether he did the right things while planting an apple tree last fall.

My Kerr apple-crab tree (Malus)

This type of tree is actually a fire blight-resistant old-timer, having been introduced way back in 1952 by the Morden Research Station in Manitoba. That’s half a century ago, and the one Kerr tree of mine in particular has done marvels for me. It has flowered and produced abundant crops non-stop annually for over 30 years now. Thousands of Kerr blossoms attract bees and pollinating insects of all sundries by the hundreds. Such essential creatures of nature are most welcome doing their duty and at no cost. In fact, I don’t know what I’d do without them, or any other fruit pollinator.

Each spring I always think of that song “When It’s Apple Blossom Time in Annapolis Valley” while taking in the scent of my Kerr tree. No wonder I love and thank that Kerr tree, and I tell it so. Kerr apple-crabs are all purpose too — ideal for canning whole in jars, making jelly, apple crisp and the most wonderful tasting, natural, pink-coloured apple-crabs juice. You might be lucky enough to buy some at a farmer’s market unless you make your own.

I also appreciate Kerr’s lateness of maturity. When most other apple varieties are finished, Kerr apple-crabs take on a crimson, almost black coloured appearance after a few cool nights or even after a light frost or two at end of September and into October. But what takes the cake is eating them fresh out of hand. Bite into one Kerr apple-crab and you want another and a third and fourth as the tasty flesh and oh-so-sweet juice squirts on your face. Under ideal storage conditions they’ll keep fresh a considerable while too. Inquire at your nearest nursery or garden centre for a Kerr apple-crab tree or do a Google search for Canadian nurseries that sell them. In closing this section, I’ll just mention that apple slices (any variety) and red cabbage make a great combo sauerkraut and are also very good for the tummy and digestion. 

The 4-7-8 breathing technique

This may well help some Grainews readers as it certainly puts me to sleep fast when I’m in bed lying on my side. If you’re too stressed out to enter slumberland, here’s the same pathway to sleep I use instead of taking melatonin or counting sheep backward from 100 to one. Take time to diligently learn the 4-7-8 breathing technique and see what happens, as it comes naturally very quickly. It was popularized by Andrew Weil, a medical doctor, and is based on pranayama, the yogic practice of breath control. A lot of people struggle to fall asleep because their mind is racing. This exercise gives the practitioner an opportunity to settle down and be at peace, something we all need more of before going to bed. Here are instructions to follow for conscious regulation of breath and happy thoughts. Use a counting pace that’s right for you.

Let’s begin. Place the tip of your tongue behind your upper front teeth and keep it there during the entire process. Doing so will help you make a whoosh sound when you exhale air through your mouth and around your tongue. Let’s try it. Breathe in through your nose to the count of four mentally, then hold your breath to the count of seven and finally exhale through your mouth to the count of eight. Don’t rush it. I’ll repeat it one more time. Begin by inhaling through your nose to a mental count of four, then stop and hold your breath for a count of seven and finally exhale through your mouth with a whoosh sound to a count of eight. Do this methodically without rushing, three times in succession. Close your eyes and drift off to sleep in 10 minutes. This breathing exercise is a natural tranquilizer for the nervous system. That’s it but one word of caution. This technique may not act as fast if you go to bed with a stomach filled with heavy food. I wish you sweet dreams.

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Hurricane Fiona, tracking northward after carving a destructive path through the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, could be one of the worst storms to hit Atlantic Canada in recent years.

Storms are not uncommon in the region and they typically cross over rapidly, but Fiona is expected to impact a very large area and bring extended periods of stormy weather, Canadian Hurricane Centre meteorologist Bob Robichaud said at a briefing.

By late Friday morning, Hurricane Fiona was about 970 km south of Halifax, moving north at 56 km/h with maximum sustained winds of 215 km/h, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

When it arrives in Nova Scotia on Saturday morning, Fiona is expected to make landfall as a powerful post-tropical storm bigger than Hurricane Juan in 2003 and stronger than Hurricane Dorian in 2019, Robichaud said.

Dorian had slammed though Halifax as an intense post-tropical storm, knocking down trees, cutting power, and blowing over a large construction crane.

“Where (Fiona) fits in the history books, we’ll have to make that determination after the fact but it is going to be certainly a historic, extreme event for Eastern Canada,” Robichaud said.

Fiona is expected to hit Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island, home to about 135,000 people, or 15 per cent of the province’s population, Environment Canada said on Friday.

A hurricane warning was in effect for most of central and eastern Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. The eye will move across Nova Scotia later on Friday, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence on Saturday and over Labrador on Sunday.

Forecasters say areas close to its path could get up to eight inches of rain, while winds could damage buildings and cause utility outages, with storm surges swamping the coastlines.

Farmers in Nova Scotia have told local media they’re concerned also about the potential damage the storm may bring to crops, including corn and apples.

The country’s two largest carriers, Air Canada and WestJet Airlines, are suspending regional service starting Friday evening.

No natural cover

Off the coast of Nova Scotia is the Sable Island National Park Reserve, a narrow strip of dunes and grasslands managed by Parks Canada. Here roam some 500 Sable Island Horses alongside the world’s biggest breeding colony of grey seals.

All scheduled flights for visitors have been canceled and a small team of officials are prepared to shelter in place on the island, Parks Canada representative Jennifer Nicholson said, adding team members had been busy securing materials and equipment to minimize possible damage.

But the horses, which are not indigenous to the sandbar and are believed to have been brought by European sailors in the 18th century, have practically no natural cover on the isle.

“Over the last two centuries, the horses of Sable Island have adapted remarkably well to their environment. During inclement weather the horses act instinctively and seek shelter in groups in the lee of the dunes for protection,” Nicholson said.

Environment Canada has issued a storm alert for much of Atlantic Canada, along with parts of Quebec.

— Reporting for Reuters by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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Foreign labour is critical to farm production in both countries, where domestic workers shun the hard physical labour and low pay.

In Canada, where farms rely on 60,000 temporary foreign workers, their arrivals are delayed by initial border restrictions and grounded flights. Once they arrive, the federal government requires them to be isolated for 14 days with pay, unable to work.

In the United States, nearly 250,000 foreign guest workers, mostly from Mexico, help harvest fruit and vegetables each year. The State Department is processing H-2A visas for farm workers with reduced staffing, though some companies are still having a hard time getting workers in on time.

Ontario farmer Mike Chromczak said he was afraid he might be unable to harvest his asparagus crop next month unless his 28 Jamaican workers start arriving by mid-April.

“It would be well over 50 per cent of our farm’s revenue” lost, Chromczak said. “But I see it as a much bigger issue than me. This is a matter of food security for our country.”

Steve Bamford’s 35 Caribbean workers are just starting to trickle in to his Ontario apple orchards. Then they are isolated and paid for 40 hours per week during that period without touching a tree. Pruning work, a critical step to maximize yields, is now overdue.

“It’s an extreme cost. You don’t plan on bringing people in and not work for two weeks,” Bamford said.

Some Canadian farmers expect to reap smaller fruit and vegetable harvests this year if foreign labour is not available soon, said Scott Ross, director of farm policy for the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.

In the U.S., “delays are potentially very hazardous to farmers who were counting on that workforce to show up at an exact period of time to harvest a perishable crop,” said Dave Puglia, CEO of Western Growers Association, which represents fruit and vegetable companies in states such as California and Arizona.

He said workers in the U.S. do not have to wait 14 days before they start working, although more efforts are being made to space workers out on the farms.

Dannia Sanchez, president of D+J and Sons Harvesting in Florida, is awaiting approval to bring in some 200 temporary workers, while blueberries in Florida ripen and Michigan asparagus nears harvest.

Abad Hernandez Cruz, a Mexican farmworker harvesting onions in Georgia, said he is working 12 or more hours a day.

“A lot of people are missing,” he said, referring to farmworkers whose visas weren’t approved after the United States scaled back some consular activities in response to coronavirus.

“If the farm doesn’t produce, the city doesn’t eat.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and Chris Walljasper in Chicago.

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Farmers will not be allowed to use the neonic insecticide, sold under the brands Calypso and Biscaya, after April 30, 2020, when its current approval expires.

A majority of EU countries approved the proposal of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, not to extend approval.

The Commission based its assessment on findings of the European Food Safety Agency published in January 2019. It highlighted concerns about the active substance being toxic for humans and present in too great a concentration in ground water, an EFSA spokesman said in an email.

The EU prohibited the use of three so-called neonicotinoids everywhere except greenhouses in April 2018. France has already outlawed all four insecticides and one other, including in greenhouses.

In Canada, thiacloprid picked up full registration from the federal Pest Management Regulatory Agency in 2007 and is sold by Bayer under the Calypso 480 SC brand.

The product is registered in the six eastern provinces and British Columbia for use in pome fruit, such as apples and pears, to control Oriental fruit moth, apple maggot and leafhopper, among others.

Bayer CropScience Canada bills the product as “the first new truly broad-spectrum insecticide for apple and pear growers since the organophosphates in the 1960s.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Marine Strauss. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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