Fruitful Adventure is a Canadian farm enterprise owned by Marty & Claire Elder. Our sour cherry and haskap orchard is located northeast of Outlook, Saskatchewan and is part of the South Saskatchewan River Irrigation District No.1. The dwarf sour cherry and haskap shrubs are irrigated with an overhead sprinkler commonly referred to as a "pivot ". For this reason our orchard is circular in shape.
We began our sour cherry orchard in 2006, planting 7,400 SK Carmine Jewel and Romeo varieties. In 2008 we expanded our orchard acreage with the planting 1,000 Haskap berry cultivars.
Our farm is located on the east bank of the South Saskatchewan River. With the beautiful view, also comes an abundance of deer whose favorite food, it seems, is cherry trees. An 8 foot high game fence now surrounds our entire home quarter allowing the irrigation pivot to continue its usual circular path unobstructed by the fence, and allowing the fruit trees to grow without continuous pruning by the deer.
Since the planting of the orchard, weeding trees, mowing and tilling have consumed our summers, and we now look forward to harvesting our first crop of sour cherries in 2009. With the first harvest come many new challenges. To prepare for these new challenges we have attended numerous training workshops and conferences. We consider ourselves privileged to be part of the Saskatchewan fruit industry, and believe that with the commitment and cooperation of prairie fruit growers it will become a significant part of this province’s rural economy.
In 2010, we began our project to Individually Quick Freeze (IQF) our cherries. The project was supported by the Saskatchewan Agri-Value Initiative (SAVI) under the Canada-Saskatchewan Growing Forward federal-provincial-territorial initiative. Despite the lack of anticipated production this crop year, the project was successful and we now have a limited supply of pitted, IQF sour cherries available for the Canadian market.
We recognize the importance of the work done by Dr. Bob Bors and Rick Sawatsky at the University of Saskatchewan in the development of a fruit industry for Saskatchewan. It has provided farmers a much needed opportunity for agricultural diversification in this province. We CAN grow fruit in this province; we ARE growing fruit in this province and their years of work WILL bear much fruit!
We invite you to come and visit us, take a walk through the orchard, enjoy the view of the South Saskatchewan, and see for yourself that the Saskatchewan fruit industry is well on its way!
