Carmen Dyck and Keith Jorgenson already produce a lot more than apples and berries at their orchard.
They want to take it further still.
“We’ve always envisioned doing something out there that involves the community,” said Dyck.
Plans so far include a U-pick, a hedge maze and an old church they are renovating, which they hope to turn into some type of community gathering place .
The couple owns Fruition Orchards, a business made up of a saskatoon berry farm in Viscount, Sask., and an organic orchard near Saskatoon.
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About 11,000 fruit trees and bushes grow at the orchard. The trees and bushes produce apples, pears, currants, and berries. Besides selling the fruit, Fruition Orchards also sells juice, syrup, and pie filling.
But Dyck and Jorgenson wanted their business to be more than just a place people go to see fruit trees.
Last winter, they bought and relocated the Aberdeen United Church because they liked its beauty and history.
“It’s quite a nice building, so we’re quite excited to have it here,” said Jorgenson. “I think it’s also nice that it’s from Aberdeen, that it’s still part of the local community.”
They plan to start renovations on the church this winter and hope to turn it into a restaurant, a store or a meeting space, all in the form of a co-operative.
“We’re wanting to structure it loosely as a co-operative so that there would be other people, other producers, or perhaps chefs, that would work with us to run the restaurant,” said Jorgenson.
The couple also plans to use the space as a base for the business side of the orchard.
“That’s part of the desire of having a church, being able to process our own fruit and market it,” Jorgenson said.
The amount of fruit produced at the orchard is too much for one family.
They began selling fresh fruit at the local farmers’ market, but found there was a lot left over.
Then a friend of Dyck’s told her about a Community Supported Agriculture program in British Columbia.
She looked into the idea, found that there weren’t many CSAs in the Saskatoon area, and made the program part of Fruition Orchards’ business plan.
A CSA program is made up of people who support local food producers.
People who take out membership in Fruition Orchards’ CSA receive an annual newsletter, a tour of the orchard and a pancake breakfast.
Members are also given a chance to buy packages of various fruits and canned goods.
Fruition Orchards is the only business to be a part of the CSA so far, but Dyck said they may include other producers and products if the members want.
“The idea was always to have the members dictate what was going to happen,” she said.
Fruition Orchards needed at least 20 members to support the program. It reached 27 during the summer.
Since she started making canned goods for the CSA program, Dyck has also been making them to sell at the farmers’ market. She said their juice has been one of the most popular items.
“People kind of know us as the people with the orchard that make juice,” she said.
“We’ve even had some local restaurants and stores ask us for it.”
The Saskatoon orchard used to be owned by Dyck’s grandparents. The original house no longer stands and Dyck and Jorgenson plan on turning the basement of the renovated church into a place they can live.
If living on the orchard goes well during the summer, they plan to build a house for themselves and their children, Frances, Lily, and Parker.
