If there’s a heaven, John Ritz is no doubt busily convincing the angels to start eating saskatoon berries.
The Petersfield, Man., farmer, who died of liver cancer July 27, was legendary for creating markets in places no one expected to find the humble prairie fruit.
His sudden death, after only a few weeks warning that he was ill, occurred a few months after he retired from a Winnipeg job and had committed himself full time to saskatoon berries.
“It was really a shock when he passed,” said Waldo Thiessen, a friend, fruit producer and general secretary of the Prairie Fruit Growers Association.
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“He had only retired in February. He was really looking forward to putting all of his efforts into the marketing and production of saskatoons.”
Ritz was 56.
Friends remembered Ritz for his energy and enthusiasm, which allowed him to operate a five acre saskatoon operation, process berry products, purchase and market other producers’ berries and travel the globe promoting saskatoon berries at food festivals and at one-on-one meetings with European and Japanese processors – all in addition to his full-time city job.
“He was a leader in the saskatoon industry in Manitoba and Canada,” said friend and colleague Anthony Mintenko, fruit specialist with Manitoba Agriculture.
“He was a visionary and he was looking out for the good of all fruit growers, not just himself. That’s the trait I liked about John.”
Thiessen said Ritz came along just when the Manitoba industry needed him. While Saskatchewan and Alberta producers had begun developing exportable products, most Manitoba growers were planting acres and expecting to live off of the U-pick market.
