GAGETOWN, N.B. – Four generations of the Stirling family have grown
apples in New Brunswick, and Blair Stirling is most excited about a new
apple variety he is introducing to the family orchard near Gagetown.
“I’m energized,” he said, with obvious enthusiasm. “My goal is to have
500 bins (almost 170 tonnes) of Honeycrisp.”
Other producers might cautiously evaluate a new variety one bin at a
time, but Stirling has begun replacing his orchard varieties. He wants
to have 3,000 trees of this “explosively crisp” variety, and by the end
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of this year will have a third of that planted.
With 100 acres of trees, Blair and Brenda Stirling have the province’s
largest apple orchard. They grow more than 30 varieties of the fruit.
But the new Honeycrisp apple represents a chance to make their orchard
more profitable.
Developed in 1990 by the University of Minnesota, the sweeter,
melon-flavoured Honeycrisp was developed for northern zones, so
Stirling expects less competition from some U.S. states.
The apple’s qualities are ideal. They are firm, grow large, and keep
their quality at three to four degrees C for up to eight months.
In comparison, his McIntosh apples will keep up to 10 months but need a
controlled atmosphere. As well, the quality will deteriorate.
The new apple variety is changing the Stirling orchard.
In the1920s, the family expanded its operation from Nova Scotia to New
Brunswick. When a hurricane damaged the orchard in 1954, the Stirling
family bought and moved to the Gagetown location because it had been
untouched by the storm.
Blair’s grandfather had seven children and his vision was to turn the
family business into a major shipper and exporter.
“He made a success of that,” said Stirling, adding that his grandfather
remained the head of the business past his 90th birthday.
Blair entered the business in 1976 after he graduated from agricultural
college and had travelled for a year. He took ownership of the family
business and soon began to influence changes.
By the fourth season, the Stirlings received a licence from the liquor
commission to have an on-farm cider mill and winery, the first in the
Maritimes. Apples are used to make alcoholic and non-alcoholic ciders,
and other fruit flavours are added including cranberries, strawberries,
raspberries and pears.
An apple-blueberry product will be introduced next year.
“The cider business helps, but is very small,” he said.
“There are a lot of farms of this size …. We might crunch the
numbers, decide a little this, a little that, and it’ll add up to a
decent living for ourselves.”
The Stirlings also grow pears, plums and grapes. They sell their cider
and fruit wine in their own retail store, where Brenda has a tasting
room, but they also sell their products and fresh fruit at various
retail stores, farmers’ markets, roadside stands and cottage wineries
in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
About half the apples are used for juice, and the rest are for the
fresh fruit market. The family takes its apples to commercial fruit
plants. The one in Nova Scotia is closest, about five hours away by
truck, but they have also gone to New England and Montreal.
The cost of growing apples is increasing, but the price is not.
Stirling said he and a lot of other apple growers are trying to recoup
their costs, but “it’s tough, it’s tough going.”
This year’s weather disasters, such as frost during bloom time and high
temperatures in the summer, have affected other parts of Canada and the
United States.
Nova Scotia and New Brun-swick enjoyed normal crops, and “the demand
for our fruit is very good at this point in time,” he said in
mid-September. He expected to receive up to $14 per bushel for fresh
fruit.
However, he said grade standards can be unstable. Apples are sent to
packing plants, and the definition of fancy depends on how much red
colour a certain market wants. Apples may be intended for the fresh
market, or be sent to processing instead.
Labour is more unstable.
“Nothing is secure,” he said. “We’re very vulnerable…”
In the 1950s and 1960s, local people provided much of the work. Last
year Stirling used Mexican labour, and this year he tried a private
recruitment company from Fredericton.
Seasonal employees are paid $18 a bin. Depending on their speed and
the crop, they can make between $20 and $100 per day and are provided
with housing.
The average yield for Stirling’s orchard is 20 to 25 bins per acre.
Three bins make a tonne.
The different varieties of apple trees in the orchard range in age from
more than 100 years old to newly planted, and the tree density ranges
from 50 trees per acre to 300.
“If I see a new variety, I’ll try it out. I like to keep some of the
old area varieties” too.
Comparing his Maritime orchard to those in British Columbia, Stirling
said B.C. growers plant their trees close together and hope to have
production in the second year.
“In the Maritimes, we don’t have that luxury of those growing
conditions.”
The trees are smaller, and they may take four to five years to spread
out and bear fruit.
In the case of Honeycrisp apples, he plans to place them about 1.5
metres apart, compared to six m for other varieties.
