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May 6th, 2008
This spring really set us back with the snow and -15
degree temperature
April 13, 2008

Geese, swans, crows, gophers, muskrats, skunks, coyotes, deer and
rabbits. These are some of the recent sightings. Many staff
members have seen bald eagles breezing by. That is always something
to see. It is only in the last 3 years that we have been seeing the
eagles. Spring in the
country is just grand! Cheryl and Bev French on staff have seen blue birds!
We saw a meadow lark. This is one bird that we would love to see
more often because the song is so wonderful. Apparently there was a
muskrat walking down main street of Elnora that was drawing many laughs.
The geese are not nesting yet; just thinking about it. And about the
plants... We have been looking but the crocuses are not out yet in our neck of the
woods. Of course the pussy willows have been out for quite a
while. We are typical farmers looking for moisture, eh? We
would love our dugouts full but no runoff at all! Yet.
This winter, we have pulled together an interesting collection of
courses and festivals for the summer.
There is great interest and curiosity out there! Looking
forward to it! Make sure you come and visit!
We are preparing to ship plants. Our new
E-Newsletter should be coming out soon. Sometimes hard to do
it all at once!
Press Release: Local
Business hires!
Local business is recruiting and attracting horticulturalists to the
area! Maria and Manasso, a husband and wife team recently hired on with
DNA Gardens in Elnora. This couple immigrated from Holland in 2005 and
have been working in the nursery business in the Edmonton area. They have
20 years of horticultural experience in Holland where they ran their own
landscape design business. Maria jokes that horticulture is just built
into the Dutch DNA code. Because of their input, DNA Gardens has expanded
their ornamental line of perennials, trees and shrubs. There is a good
chance that you will meet this couple of the retail lot.
How did they get
here? On a recent holiday trip that involved a stop at DNA Gardens, they
became interested in the fruit crops and unique plants that DNA Gardens
specialize in. Lab manager Teresa Long was advertising to hire in the
bathroom! Not very glamorous but obviously effective. They are renting
and looking to purchase a home.
They seem to have
a love for our wide open spaces and the native prairie habitat intrigues
them. Most of us locals raised in this area do not have the appreciation
that comes from living in Europe where there are so many people. Maria
said it made them nervous driving at night because there were no lights
for miles!
February 2, 2008
More website changes. Added on line orderform and
a PDF of our hard catalogue.
January 24, 2008
Adding lots of photos from around the farm. If
you want to see prices for mail order, please click the link on the
catalogue page and print out the Excel sheet.
January 15, 2008
Hope everyone had a great holiday season! We have been working hard
behind the scenes to update our website and like all major upgrades, there
are bugs. We anticipate getting an improved mail order form on-line
so please work with the excel file that is there for the moment.
Quite a few additions will be made in the next few weeks so check back
often and please be patient while we hurry to get them done.
The good news and the bad news: our prices have gone up. It is just
a fact of life conducting business now a days. Costs of everything
are up and to remain a viable business, we had no choice. The
good news? We have all kinds of exciting ultra hardy, new plants to offer.
We hope you can see the vision of these plants growing and prospering in
your orchard, big or small !
November 23, 2007
Website being updated.
September 29, 2007
Our retail garden center is closed
for the season. It was an exciting, fun year and we were pleased to
see so many people come to the farm. Pies, frozen fruit etc is
available from the office which runs year round. Our cherry sausages
were a great hit! We attend The Red Deer Farmer's Market and it
finishes up October 6th. So, stock up, folks.
So what do we do now at DNA? We are just busy cleaning up,
organizing and have already started new plants in the tissue culture
lab. The fall colours are beautiful and soon we will be putting all
our plants "to bed." Plants in pots will not survive being
left to freeze and thaw over the winter. We cover them with special
insulating blankets or box and freeze in our storage facility.
Interesting to observe the Saskatchewan cherry plants in the field. Valentine
drops its leaves first and is almost completely bare now. It is
taller and super loaded with winter flower buds which are very visible
right now. I can sure believe it might be the most productive.
Juliette is showing lovely red, fall colour and Cupid is hanging on.
They sure have different personalities.
This year, it is safe to say that Cupid was the super star at DNA
Gardens. It takes many years of observation before conclusions can
be reached because each year has its own unique growing
conditions. We were pleased with the size of the cherries but
reading the literature, it seems that we can improve on it.
After all these years, we are irrigating
in the field now. Unfortunately, we didn't get the irrigation
operational till the drought ended this summer, but it seems that is
always the way! So, I can plainly see with extra water, our cherries
will increase in size. Wow, is all I can say because we were
impressed as it was!
Our project for the last few years has been to greatly improve the water
quality on the farm. We have been most successful. In fact, we
are surprised to see changes in water quality happening so quickly.
Due to some of the cultural changes we have implemented on the farm, we
can observe the plant life changing in a good way. Foxtail barley is
evolving out and being replaced by timothy and crested wheat grass.
We now have cattails starting to grow in some of our ponds which to me is
a real good indicator of good riparian health. We see muskrats back!
We harvested our hazelnuts
last week. Two years in a row we have had good fruit.
August 27, 2007
Wow, has it been busy! We
have temporarily closed our mail order office till we get our inventory
finished. Please be patient! In the meantime, our retail
garden center is open. We had a nice crop of saskatchewan cherries
this summer. Lots more coming next year. We can see lots of
flower buds set. Saskatoon crop is finished and in the
freezer. Fruit, frozen is for sale. Also, frozen pitted
cherry. Chokecherries are wonderful. Gooseberries are
on. Cherry plums ripening quickly. Pies are always
ready. Jams for sale on the farm now.
June 11, 2007
We
have been very busy propagating new plants! We hope to be finished our
shipping this week. The fruit in the orchards appear to have gotten
through the frost stages and everything looks like a bumper crop
coming! Flower buds on everything and no winter injury on
anything. Very exciting!
March 1, 2007 I added some
pictures of apples today. Also added some new fruits in the catalog.
New yield results on the University of Saskatchewan raspberries have been
posted in the catalogue section and soon I will post the whole report in
the articles section.
February 26, 2007 Please
check out the testimonials just added. Many thank yous for the kind
words. I have added an article on the Saskatchewan Cherries I wrote
last year for the Calgary Horticulture Society. You will find it in
the article section or click this link. Life
on the Prairies is a Bowl of Cherries.
February 23, 2007
Check out this new article I wrote
that is appearing in the Calgary Gardening Magazine published by the
Calgary Horticulture Society. Honeyberries
are storming the Prairies Also posted a lovely article about a
new apple we are starting to grow. Article written by Robert
Davidson. We are interested in this apple because it came out of
southern Alberta where it is often harder to grow things than farther
north. Robert came to the farm and "sold" us on the
apple. M-360
February 22, 2007
Have added some pages for ultra, cold hardy pears and apples. As we collect photos, we will add
more. Our printed catalogue is very slow coming out but will be
worth the wait. Thank you for your patience. We are receiving
many, many calls from the U.S. due to an article in Mother Earth magazine
that cited DNA Gardens as a source for the University Cherries. We
are finalizing agreements with several U.S. nurseries so that American
homeowners also have access to these wonderful plants. We will post
links in the near future. One evening, we spoke to Alaska and 15
minutes later, we were speaking to Maine.
Since I missed Valentine's Day, I thought I would wish you a happy St.
Patty' Day!
October 14, 2006
New
website for you to check out! www.haskap.ca.
You'll now find it included on our links page.
Tremendous interest being expressed in the Honeyberries! It seems I
must get with the momentum being created by the University of Saskatchewan
and join the name change. I will follow up with an article that will
explain the history of both names. Long story I can't relay
quickly! The name Honeyberry was trademarked by nurseryman Jim
Gilbert, of Oregon and DNA Gardens has legal permission to use the
name. However, we will officially start calling Honeyberries Haskap
berries. Our new catalog will call them this way. Please
look us up for a more detailed article coming.
Coming Event - October 23, 2006 - The Haskap Producers Association is
holding an initial organizing meeting on October 23rd. in Saskatoon
Saskatchewan. Anyone interested in attending the meeting should send an
email to the organizing committee.
Coming Event - January 8
to 13, 2007 Crop Production Week 2007 Monday, January 8 to Saturday,
January 13, 2007, Heritage Inn in Saskatoon. Segments sponsored by
the Saskatchewan Fruit Growers Association.
September 14th, 2006
Just finished our fall shipment of
actively growing plant material. Now waiting for the leaves to drop
enabling us to acquire hard inventory numbers. Cherry plums are
awesome this fall. Cheri, on staff here made some wonderful cherry plum
jam that her daughter, Alyssa (12 years old) just loves. She is
going to make some more jam but try it with Stevia. Once preserved
with no sugar, it will be excellent for jam but also a very healthy, tasty
yogurt addition. We have in stock, the coolest
apple peelers. We are having a blast doing apples.
Order yours today. Teresa, on staff had a great afternoon testing
the new apple peelers with her triplets aged 9. It was a great year for
apples. New this year, our cherry
pies are available at the Red Deer Farmers Market as well as the
nursery. The last day for the RD market this year is October
9th. After October 9th, available at the farm. Get your pies
while you can. These cherry pies are all made with SK Carmine Jewel
and they have the full approval of everyone on staff.
What a great edition Garden's West magazine just put on the stands.
They had a very interesting article about bonsai. Many plants are
excellent bonsai candidates. Gooseberries are a good example.
Contrary to popular believe, gooseberries can taste great. The
varieties we offer are very sweet and tasty. Please check back for
the coolest gooseberry bonsai photos. I just have to get permission
to post them on the website. In the meantime, check out the award
winning Evans Cherry bonsai photo under the article page. Does
anyone know the name of the owner of this bonsai? I would like to
give them proper credits. I believe this fellow may live in
Lethbridge, Alberta.
Now is a great time to plant Martagon lilies. Dakota Pinnacle Birch
sales are going very well. This plant is causing great excitement.
Call the farm today.
August 26, 2006
Price change effective August 1,
2006. Please call the nursery for updates.
Martagon bulbs for fall sales are ready! Not all varieties are
available. Again, please call the farm to check and see what we
have. Fall is an excellent time to plant.
Please be patient while we fix some of our broken links on line.
August 23, 2006
What a wonderful saskatoon crop we have just harvested. We put extra
in the freezer at the end of the season but the good news / bad news is that
it is all sold out and gone now. Call us earlier next year or
call us now and we will put your name on our fruit list. Our
saskatoons pies are getting rave reviews. So if you missed the
fruit, try the pies. We are offering saskatoon with sugar and saskatoon
stevia pies.
We also harvested a small chokecherry crop of 13,000 pounds which was
bought right off the combine.
It seems the market place for fruit buyers is heating up. It is very
exciting times right now with three of four large processors putting plays
together. We hope they are successful but it certainly be a race to
buy up existing berries.
The first cherry plants we have sold into the industry are doing
phenomenally well. We have been able to slip away and visit a few
orchards. The Carmine Jewels are reported to be averaging 30 pounds
per plant. Many reports are coming of 34 pounds and 54 pounds!
Growers are so in love with Carmine that they are saying prove to me
another cherry could be better. Folks, some of the University
cherries are indeed sweeter and larger size but it seems that for
commercial production, they can't be beat. Stay tuned. The
next few years will tell the story as the other cherries start to fruit.
Wow! How about the honeyberries! They are just more impressive
all the time. The tiniest little plants bare fruit and at such a
young age. Very preliminary food science research is suggesting
honeyberries are 2 to 3 times higher in anthocyanins than saskatoons and
black currants. That is incredible because these other two fruits
are very high. There is no doubt that honeyberries must be
netted. Because they fruit so early in the season, the birds don't
have much else of interest and the birds are all over them. Pay
attention because you may think your plants are not fruiting.
We took a large contingent of DNA staff to the Bruno Cherry
Festival. As always, it was a great experience. We ate cherry
sausage and cherry elephant ears for two days. Yum is all I can
say. The cooking sessions were great and hopefully we will be able
to get some of the recipes on our website for you.
At the request of the nursery industry, we initiated Dakota Pinnacle
Birch. The tissue culture lab was riotously successful.
Just like tissue culture is suppose to be! Check the catalogue
section on line for photos and detailed descriptions. This birch
performs well in Calgary which can be a tough place to grow
things. We have initiated a few other "gems" so keep
posted. You never know what we will be brewing up next.
We keep hearing on the garden talk shows in Calgary that there are no
Swedish Aspens to be purchased. Yikes, we have lovely one gallon
pots that are 5 to 6 feet tall and liners that are 6 to 12 inches
tall.
Nasty, nasty hail in the Red Deer, Alberta area. It hit much of the
black currant crops. There is large acreage planted and
unfortunately much was lost. Good yields of currants were harvested
where the hail missed. At DNA Gardens, we had our saskatoon and
chokecherry crops harvested. We only received two shots of pea size
hail.
June 22, 2006
We are enjoying the Red Deer
farmer's Market. Tamara covers our bases here. Please stop in
and say hello. At the last moment, we were able to attend the Calgary
Farmers Market. We are so pleased to announce that our
daughter Davida is looking after this market.
We have been very fortunate to have several mentions in Garden's West
Magazine. Davida took a stunning photo in an earlier edition all
about currants. Please see July / August edition about Martagon
lilies. We were happy to supply photos.
And how about those honeyberries! Wow! What hardy little
plants. I am always so amazed that they fruit at such young
ages. The fruits are yummy, sweet and tart and very flavorful.
Everyone needs two! (Must have two for pollination!)
Protect yourself this summer with our new product called Nature's
Defense, an outdoor spray with catnip and emu oil. This bug
spray has NO DEET and it works. We can ship and it is available at
the markets and the farm.
We always get questions about how to protect your crops without
chemicals. We have tried Neem Oil and think it is fantastic.
Neem oil is a broad spectrum botanical insecticide, miticide and fungicide
treatment derived from the seeds of the Neem tree. We can ship and
it is available at the market and on farm. Purchase some today.
Both the saskatoon crop and the chokecherries look awesome. We do
UPIK and also sell picked berries. Call us if you would like to be
put on our call list.
We have developed a saskatoon stevia pie which is getting great
reviews. The pies are the best. They are available at
the farm or at the Red Deer Farmers Market.
We now have liquid stevia as well as powdered. I just made rhubarb
compote for yogurt and used zero sugar.
August 12 and 13th we will be at the Bruno Cherry Festival. Hope to
see you there. It is such a lovely event.
July 15th, the farm is participating in the Country Drive 06. Come
on out.
Come have a piece of pie with us and check
out our LadyBug Trail.
April 19th, 2006
Coming soon! Look for our Berry Smart tm
juices. We have started our dormant shipping.
As always, we are planting and will continue to plant till mid-
June. We are so excited about our new Lady Bug Trail. For our
May 1st retail opening, we will have maps our our fields with educational
tips and comments.
March 25, 2006
Coming soon! Look for our Berry Smart tm
juices. Gophers, geese and crows have been seen. The days are getting
longer. We seem very short on sun especially when you are growing in
the greenhouse! We have very good snow cover which we are hopeful
will fill the sloughs and ponds with good, fresh water. Yes, I think
spring is on its way!
March 10,
2006
Many of you are probably not aware
that back in October of 2005, the FDA (American Food and Drug
Administration) sent out a warning letter to 29 companies that market Tart
Cherry products. They were told to remove all claims,
scientific studies, health news and testimonials about cherries.
Interesting since most of this work is funded and supported by another
American agency - USDA and most of it is University level
research. It seems that the cherry marketing institute and the
cherry growers have not taken this sitting down. Now, a ruling of
the Supreme Court of the U.S. has rebuked the FDA. The searing
verdict: "Bans against truthful, non-misleading commercial
speech...usually rest solely on the offensive assumption that the public
will respond irrationally to the truth. The First Amendment directs
us to be especially skeptical of regulations that seek to keep people in
the dark for what the government perceives to be their own good. The
court further admonished the agency to quit trying to protect favored
markets by suppressing information."
If I read in between the lines, it seems
that pharmaceutical companies are registering far more toxic products
through the FDA. Here is another interesting quote, "The recent
explosion of FDA - approved killer drugs suggests that the agency's
overzealous approach to cherry products might be better directed at
pharmaceutical manufacturers whose products are one of the leading causes
of death in America. Adverse drug reactions cause more than 100,000
fatalities each year and send a million and a half people to the hospital
annually. Those are the documented cases; the actual number of
people who become sick, hospitalized, or die from drugs is unknown.
Visit: www.lef.org/magazine/mag2006/mar2006_cover_cherries_01.htm
to read the amazing story of the Tart Cherry / FDA debate, as well as Life
Extension’s editorial
http://%20http//www.lef.org/magazine/mag2006/mar2006_awsi_01.htm
This is powerful material!
There is a new website www.fruitinstitute.org
that provides scientific studies, health news and testimonials. I would
suggest that you visit this site for more information.
I think this cherry
"notoriety" will create awareness and appreciation for the health
benefits of cherries. This press may in the end be a wonderful
thing. You might call it reverse advertising.
***************
The Fruit Grower's Society of Alberta / Alberta Farm Fresh Producer's
Association put on an excellent school in Red
Deer, Alberta, March 3d and
4th. Headliners included: Dr. Bob Bors (University of
Saskatchewan) speaking on his latest plant breeding projects. Dr. Bob
estimates there is immediate room for 750 acres of Honeyberries for Japanese
markets! Apparently they have industrial buildings on the locations
where they use to grow Honeyberries. They are left with the imprint of
flavor profiles but not enough fruit to fill their needs, Dr. Ken Fry (Olds
College) entomologist, Chocolate Orchard from Creston B.C., Sandra
Purdy of Prairie Berry Processors, Innovative Food Concepts from Medicine
Hat, Lloyd Hausher (Alberta Agriculture), Dr. Ieaun Evans Plant Pathologist
speaking about pruning, Dr. Quinn Holtslagg speaking about his
entomosporium prevention model, Liz Pallas and Arnie and Susan Meyer grower
profiles. This berry school attempted to match growers with processors
and the outcome created a lot of enthusiasm. Let's turn it into sales,
folks.
We just installed a state of the art computer
system in the greenhouses here at DNA Gardens. Only two individuals at DNA Gardens can run it. Lisa was
sick and so I needed to look after the greenhouses. We did send two
excellent staffers who came home quite animated and full of Berry School reports. Generally
speaking the mood was very positive with the market for fruit looking
good. Conferences are very motivational and a great way to network
with others in the industry.
Alberta validated the Tri-provincial initiative so that means all 3
provinces agree on the necessity of working collectively for the
development of the industry. Alberta wishes to see the initiative
involved in promotion; not buying and selling of fruit.
Collaboration of research work was sited as good and desirable.
Improved communication between all players was another desired
outcome. Both processors and growers are needed to be at the
table. It remains to be seen whether the model to be followed will
be similar to the Pulse group in Manitoba or WABANA (Wild Blue Berry
Association of North America) Another issue addressed at the Alberta
meeting was their wish to encompass prairie fruits but target saskatoons
initially since saskatoons have the greatest acreage and most interest
internationally.
March 1, 2006
Finally, finally we have posted the article from PFRA about
their newest, near thornless Sea
Buckthorn plants. You will find this file in the article
section and there is also a link from the catalogue section in the Sea
Buckthorn section. We are scanning and then making PDF
files. Beats the heck out of typing a 25 page article!
February 27, 2006
Very serious horticulturalists, apple orchardists and nursery people may
want to read about Vee 3
apple root stock. We just scanned and pdf formatted 5 articles
and placed them in the article section.
February 26, 2006
We have added several new products -
peas and stevia.
We really believe in Stevia from a health perspective. I am just not
convinced that aspartame and other artificial sweeteners are the
safest.
Check out the powdered stevia
in the catalogue section. We will gradually add some stevia recipes
as time permits. I often make a cup of cocoa for Dave and I in the
evening. I microwave a small amount of milk and add about a teaspoon
of cocoa and a pinch of stevia powder. Dissolve with the heat and
stir vigorously. Top up cup with remaining milk and microwave till
hot. No calories! Can't beat it.
Stevia is a very popular sweetener in Japan where it is used for over 30
years in many foods such as candy and soft drinks. Aspartame
has been banned in Japan. The health conscious Japanese used
the equivalent of 700 metric tones of Stevia leaves in 1987. I
think the health conscious Japanese are on to something and perhaps we
should sit up and pay attention. With the rampant weight problems
and associated health issues in our modern society, now is the time to
make some serious life choices.
The peas originate with Dr.
Evans. He bred the purple podded ones. It is funny how we all
are planting dwarf peas without knowing it. Really, with the space
constraints that most people live with, it is a natural to go up!
These peas are 8 feet tall and who doesn't love fresh peas?
February 24, 2006
Thank you to Jim Luco of Lethbridge, Alberta for calling in and
reporting a broken apricot link. Check it out, Jim, I think it is
fixed now!
I want to thank Thean Pheh of Alberta Food and Rural Development for the
descriptions of apricots
that I have posted in the article section. I have had many inquiries
and I hope this will answer some of your questions! I also have put
in several links to descriptions of raspberries under the article
section. These originate from the University of Saskatchewan.
February 8, 2006
Had a nice visit with a fellow interested in growing black currants in New
York state, today. He was kind enough to share some wonderful
information about Black Currants, their antioxidants and how they help
with Alzheimer. Please check the article section or click
this link.
What's happening?
- Direct Farm Market Conference,
February 24, 25, Royal Oak Inn, Brandon, Mb
- Interactive Prairie Fruit Industry
Round Table, Feb 24 in Brandon discussing
an
Interprovincial group similar to WBANA (Wild Blue Berry Association of
North America)
- Joint AFFPA and FGSA (Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Association) and
Fruit Growers Society of Alberta
Berry School, March 3,4 at the Black Knight Inn in Red Deer,
AB
February 7, 2006
Just added a pdf copy of the 2006
catalogue and order form. We are having an exceptionally warm
and dry winter in Alberta. Let's hope that March and February brings
us some snow!
January 27, 2006
Attended an awesome Saskatchewan Fruit Grower Berry School in
Saskatoon. The information was great and always good to meet up with
old friends. There is a strong desire to form a tri-provincial
umbrella group to help market saskatoons. The present market seems
very strong with interest coming from Germany and England. There is
tremendous interest in the new Romance series of cherries just named by
the University of Saskatchewan.
We are busily preparing for the new planting season and Teresa, our lab
manager is creating very fine plants in the lab as we speak! We are
improving our transplanting capabilities and also installing new equipment
in our fog houses. Thank you for your patience. Our new catalogue is
coming out next week. We are a bit behind with the catalogue because
Dave and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary with a 2 week holiday
in Costa Rica.
Meanwhile, we are back in the saddle. We just can't help ourselves! We are always busy locating and trialing
new and exciting plants. Sometimes it takes years to bring new items
to market. Keep posted!
April 9, 2005
Please check the recipe section. I just added 3 recipes developed by
Shona Pearson. Shona presented at the Bruno Cherry Festival last
year. It was most enjoyable and tasty.
DNA Gardens attended Garden Scape in Saskatoon April 1st, 2nd and
3d. This is billed as one of Canada's largest garden
shows. 25,000 people attended and 330 exhibitors showed.
There is lots to take in and see. Thank you to those that stopped at
our booth and said hello. I met a lot of interesting people.
Some traveled 17 hours from Thunderbay, Ontario to take in the show!
June Flanagan spoke about native plants and her newly published book,
"Native Plants for Prairie Gardens," was available to
purchase. Donna Balzer of Calgary spoke on various subjects ranging
from "Gardening 101 for Beginners" to "Fine Tuning Your
Almost Perfect Garden," to "Landscape Basics". Dr.
Bob Bors and Linda Mathews each had many sessions speaking to the new
University Cherries. There were more excellent speakers on pruning,
composting to floral arranging - something for everyone!
Our raffle winner from GardenScape is:
Lorie Powell of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. We will be shipping to
Lorie a free University of Saskatchewan Dwarf Sour Cherry Package.
Thanks to all that entered. 470 names in the raffle box. I had
to count them!
We are getting prepared to go to Spring Time Serenade in Calgary so come
on out to the booth and say hello. I am anticipating having another draw
box there as well.
We are getting excited about the joint DNA Gardens / Fruit Grower's
Society of Alberta Berry Festival held this summer, August 7th. Put it on
your calendar and come on out and help make it a great day! Click
here for a preview.
It is a busy time of the year for the nursery. Orders are coming in
steady and we will begin shipping next week. The lab is busy cutting
potatoes - about 65,000. We have a terrific crop coming out.
We have never had such nice lab plants as this year. The
efficiencies we are gaining is wonderful. Congratulations must
go to Theresa Bellerive, a local mother of three that runs the lab for
us. She has found her calling! We have just finished one big plant
in the greenhouse and have several more coming. We have some newly
initiated material in the lab coming along nicely and we are excited about
the prospects.
March 23/05
A group of USDA scientists have
stated that black currant, chokeberry and elderberry have 50 percent
higher antioxidants than some of the more common berry varieties (even higher than blueberries and
cranberries) and have the potential to provide more health benefits, such
as protection against cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's. We just
love the whole, frozen black currant fruit in smoothies. The black
currants have such a great flavour. fruit.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/12/041220012512.htm.
March 11/05
I added a photo
of Dave and Arden on the bottom of the home page. Faye
Bayko took the photo for an article she was writing about DNA Gardens for
the Red Deer County news. Thank you Faye.
I just added an article
on the FGSA Berry School held at Nisku March 4th and 5th.
It was a great berry school.
DNA Gardens Hours Regular season:
Monday to Friday 8:00 am to 4:30 pm.
To accommodate our customers in the shipping / pick up season, we are
extending our hours of operation.
Effective April 15 to June 15th Mon, Tues, Wed 8:00
to 4:30
Thurs, Fri
8:00 to 8:00
Saturday
8:00 to 1:00
Please call for an appointment if you can't fit into these hours.
February 16/05
Just spoke with Dean Kreutzer in
Regina who has been buying and planting University Cherries from us.
Look at the innovation and getty up and go here! Check the links
page to visit his new website featuring his Carmine Jewel cherry
chocolates.
February 6/05
I have added a lot of pictures in
the catalogue section. Please let me know if this slows down the
site too much. mailto:office@dnagardens.com
I have a lot more pictures I can add but I think I will wait till I get
some feed back. Too late. I'm adding. Check out the
picture gallery and also 2 new articles about the Bruno Cherry Festival
and the DNA Gardens/FGSA berry festival.
I have heard the Fruit Estate Winery is passed in Alberta,
now.
Dave and I got engaged February 14th, 30 years ago. Yikes!
Time flies when you are having fun. I want to wish Dave another
happy 30. "Happy Valentine's Day to my Valentine!"
January 31/05
Please call us if you have any chokecherry
fruit for sale. I have a very interested person making some
interesting product. We can't believe how much frozen chokecherry
fruit we have sold ourselves. Needless to say, we are all sold
out.
I saw an interesting quote in the paper I would like to share with you -
"Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that
where the fruit is?" Frank Scully
We really appreciate the interest we are presently receiving from our
American friends. Due to the amount of paperwork we are only able to
ship orders State side that are greater than $500.00 Hope this
doesn't create too much inconvenience.
January /05
Order form has been fixed. Please print it out and phone or fax your
order to us. Thank you for your patience. Catalogues have been
mailed out and the phone is ringing.
December 2004.
Dave and Arden plus the staff of DNA Gardens would like to extend
warmest wishes for everyone to have a safe and happy holiday season.
November 28th, 2004
So much for winter being our slow time...
Arden attended the Saskatchewan Fruit Growers
Association conference, "We Grew It, Now what?" in
Regina, November 13, 2004. As always, a great conference full of
enthusiastic individuals. The key note speakers such as Bob Creasy
from The Stonemill Bakehouse Ltd of Ontario, Paul Martin representing the
Regina Regional Ecomomic Development Authority Board, Sandra Purdy of
Prairie Berry wearing her SAFRR hat, Bruce Hobin along with Bob Bors
covered off the successful Bruno Cherry Festival and of course, Clarence
Peters of SAFRR addressing the culture of saskatoons and cherries.
All did an excellent job! Folks, you really need to attend these
conferences! Also heard the jingle commissioned by SFGA by Doug
Campbell of Saskatoon. He came in live to sing and strum his guitar.
We have to get on that one. What a great concept!
Attended Horticultural Congress in Edmonton, Alberta. As
always, this is an event to take in. There are always informative
sessions and the opportunity to network with other likeminded growers is
valuable.
Arrived home to
the fantastic news
that Dr. Bob Bors (professor and fruit researcher at the University of
Saskatchewan) will be receiving tenure and therefore will be staying in
Saskatoon. A big thank-you to everyone who wrote letters on his
behalf. It is so important for the prairie fruit industry to have
quality research and improved varieties. Plus the co-operators
program and the amount of extension work Bob does is invaluable.
Unofficially, we have heard that the Alberta Estate Winery has been
supported by the Alberta Liquor Control Board and that it needs to be
ratified by government. Then it will be sent back to the FGSA for a
final proof. The details remain to be announced but it sounds like
estate wineries will have to produce 75% of their own fruit.
The
2005 catalogue is hot off the presses and will be mailed to all of our
customers and associations very soon. If you would like a copy of our
free mail order catalogue. Give us a call toll free
1-866-687-5268.
There
has been a ban on Saskatoon berries sold in Europe
stemming from a ruling by the British Food Standards Agency earlier this
year. This agency classified saskatoon berry as novel food.
This novel classification applies to any food not substantially consumed
in Europe before 1997. Effectively, saskatoon berries have
been blocked from European shelves. Arne Strom, president of the
SFGA is quoted in the article as saying that saskatoons are not a novel
food. To help the saskatoon berry cause, the SFGA agreed to split
the legal bill of $3900.00 to hire a lawyer in Germany. Arne
claims they have been accepted under regular food regulations now.
Arne says they were accepted in Germany and if Germany is open, then
Europe is open. A Moose Jaw company - Prairie Berries headed
up by Sandra Purdy has an export deal with a German company. Sandra
Purdy expects to fill the first order of 20,400 kilograms of frozen
saskatoons early next year. There are 16 growers contributing to the
container-load of frozen fruit.
Since the article appeared in the Regina
Leader Post, we have heard conflicting reports about the status of
saskatoons in Europe. Speaking to growers involved in the industry,
we hear that nothing has changed. Not sure what to believe.
One thing is for sure, it certainly is in the news in Canada and in Europe
and even notoriety is advertising and increasing consumer awareness.
We hope the issue is cleared up as soon as possible.
November 4th, 2004
The nursery is busy packing and grading all our plants for dormant spring
shipments. Soon the plants will be safe in the confines of our new
cold storage facility. Fall came a little bit early with 4-5 inches
of snow in mid October. Still we will manage to get all the fall
work done. Just in the final stages of producing our 2005 mail order
catalogue. Looking forward to Hort Congress in Edmonton Alberta,
always a good opportunity to learn new things and catch up with old
friends.
August 2004
Hosted
our 2nd annual berry festival in conjunction with the FGSA. It was
billed as a Fruit Sunday and Field Day. Approximately 250 people
were in attendance. The most popular activity was the guided
tour/hay ride. Guest also enjoyed speakers, a marketplace, pancake
breakfast, wine tasting, and live fiddle music. The weather
threatened to rain but it held off. Please plan to join us Sunday
August 7th 2005, for more fun for the whole family.
We sent a small crew to attend the Bruno Cherry Festival August 14th to
take in the event and man a booth in the trade show. 1700 people
attended a great event. Talk about a concept! Education,
fun, great people and good food. Mark your calendars for August
13-14th 2005! Watch for an article to follow. We have great
pictures of Dr. Bob Bors in the cherry pit spitting contest! It is
so hard to be dignified! He does terrific horticultural extension
and breeding work however!
June 4th, 2004
June is one of the busiest months
here at DNA Gardens. We are in the midst of planting Black Currants
for Prairie Natural Processing. Transplanting new nursery
stock. Getting ready to propagate a crop of 140,000 softwood
cuttings from the stooling beds in from the field. Spring in general
was cool and dry. We are still waiting for more moisture to fall
from the sky. Spring shipping will conclude next week (June
18th). We will continue to take orders all summer long and will
start Fall shipping mid August. Honeyberries and Saskatchewan
cherries were our best sellers this spring, so get your orders in
soon. Sunday August 8th, DNA Gardens will be hosting FGSA's Alberta
Fruit Festival, please plan to join us for a fun filled day of food, demos
and tours.
Please look at the summer issue of "Gardener for the Prairies"
for an excellent update on Cherries written by Bob Bors.
March 13, 2004
The lab is just a humming away full of plants. It is a great time of
year for tissue culture because there are not a lot of contaminants in the
air and our climate is naturally very dry. (Unlike tropical climes
that are teeming with spores, fungi bacteria, Margaritas and humidity!) We are always
initiating new things into the lab. Courtesy of Dr. Evans we have
many Martagon lilies we are having success with. You might say it is
a break from our cherry extravaganzas. These beautiful, extremely
hard to find lilies can take 5 to 7 years to bloom by conventional
propagation. We are excited to think we will be able to short
circuit this process. We are still in the trial stages with many
years to go, but it is an example of the interesting items we experiment
with.
Interesting tidbits we picked up from the various seminars we have
attended: Ben Lomond is fondly called Typhoid Mary by Dr.
Evans. It seems Ben Lomond has a great knack for becoming infected
with powdery mildew. That is why originally we did not get on the
band wagon with Ben Lommond as years back Ontario was reporting they were
having problems of this nature. In fact, Dr. Evans suggest it be
removed so it doesn't break the resistance of other Ben's. We are
also finding Titania black currant to be very susceptible to spider
mites.
We believe we are seeing the benefits of cross pollination on our black
currant orchards.
Many thanks to the Canadian Gardening Magazine for their article by
Suzanne Zwarun on pg 129 entitled "Sweet on Sour Cherries"
February 28th, 2004
Staff attending Fruit Growers Society of Alberta meeting in
Nisku. Winter has been kind with not a lot of minus 40 degrees and a
bonus...we have snow cover! Grateful for that. Getting excited
about spring coming and all the potential moisture from the snow. We
have tested plants coming out of our new over wintering underground
storage and all samples are leaved out nicely. Huge sigh of relief
there! Lovely one year old dormant plants of SK Carmine Jewel
available for spring planting. Great for UPIK and mechanical
harvest. Reserve yours today.
December 4th, 2003
Returned from a very successful Hort Congress
in Edmonton, visited with many old acquaintances. All and all a great
networking opportunity. There are so many information sessions it
is hard to take it all in. Many of you have just received our 2004
catalogues and we have been inundated with calls and orders as people begin
dreaming of next season during these short cold winter days. May all
of customers have a safe and happy Christmas season.
September 22nd, 2003
Had a very successful field day for
the Fruit Growers Society of Alberta www.albertafruit.com
, August 14th, with over 100 people in
attendance. Busy with fall orders and our thoughts are turning
towards winter. We have not had a killing frost as of yet. Please visit
our catalogue section for an updated version including the U of S
cherries. For our friends and customers in Quebec, please take the
time to read the french translation of Dr. Bob Bors article on Dwarf Sour
Cherries, see link above "En Français - Growing U of S
Cherries".
July 28th, 2003
In the process of adding pictures and descriptions of the new U of S
cherries. Please be patient. Check out the saskatoon nutritional
recently completed by the Saskatchewan Fruit Growers
Association www.saskfruit.com . These fruits are super charged with Iron and Calcium.
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