SHELLBROOK, Sask. – In 1928, Fred and Olga Solovonuk planted seed brought from their homeland and kick-started an entire industry.
Today’s multibillion-dollar canola industry traces back to the couple’s pioneer farm, five kilometres south of Shellbrook.
Among their settlers’ possessions they carried from Turysyk, Poland, was a tied handkerchief full of rapeseed or Brassica rapa.
Beginning with a garden plot on their farm, the couple began growing the first rapeseed crops in Canada. At first, just enough of the crop was sown to make oil for their own use and to get seed for the following season.
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Fred built a wooden press and the family was able to use the Polish rapeseed oil of their homeland.
In 1943, after Fred had been distributing tobacco cans of seed to neighbouring farmers for a decade, he planted his first one-acre rapeseed field crop.
It yielded 28 bushels and an industry was born. In 1946, based on the Solovonuks’s production and distribution, Polish rapeseed was registered for Canadian production.
Keith Downey, a semi-retired federal plant breeder and one of the fathers of canola, was on hand recently when the community of Shellbrook publicly recognized the Solovonuks’ contribution to Canadian agriculture.
“Polish rapeseed became a critical crop for farmers in northern grain growing regions of Western Canada. It had a short season and didn’t mind cooler, damp conditions and would yield in the heat of the summer,” Downey said.
Roy Button, executive director of the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission, said the Solovonuks’ contribution to prairie agriculture was invaluable.
“A few seeds and an idea built the foundation of an entire industry and kept many northern prairie farms viable, with cash flow in the fall and an alternative cereal crop.”
He said before the 1970s, Polish rapeseed had eclipsed its later-season, larger yielding Argentine rival in annual seeded acreage in Canada. After 20 years of breeding, both types became canola in 1977.
Today, Argentine varieties are planted on 95 percent of the 12 million acres seeded in Western Canada, with Polish being used for reseeding and as a later option for oilseed cropping.
“This recognition was long overdue,” Button said.
“Several years ago we (in the canola breeding programs on the University of Saskatchewan campus in Saskatoon) sent someone up to find out something about the Solovonuks. But the family was no longer around and nobody seemed to know much about them. The community went to a lot of effort to put together this historical tribute.”
Recognition of the role individual farmers have made to agriculture shouldn’t be overlooked, said Judy Dyck of the Saskatchewan Canola Growers Association.
“Today, 70 percent of edible oil consumed in Canada is canola based. It is a worldwide commodity and it started right here,” she said.
Olga and Fred sold their farm and retired after their 1954 crop. Their son Peter died in January 2005.
The world’s lone breeding program for Brassica rapa remains in Saskatoon and Beaverlodge, Alta.
A display in the Shellbrook museum and a bronze plaque will recognize the Solovonuks’ former farm site at SE 34-48-03 W3.
