Page 50 - 03-May-2024

T here’s an irony about haskaps that Andrew Rosychuk would
love to change. At any local
grocer you’ll find other — and arguably lesser — berries from far away: South African grapes, for example, Mexican raspberries and, though close for Canada, British Columbia blueberries.
But you’re not likely to find the fruits of Rosychuk’s labour from an orchard just minutes northwest of Edmonton. Every summer, the branches of his 26,000 haskap bushes gently bend under the weight of elongated, bluish-purple, sweet-tart berries.
Since planting his crop at Rosy Farms from 2016, Rosychuk has been driven by that produce-department discrepancy. “How do we make this an everyday berry?” he asks.
In one key way, it should be easy. Nutritionally, those far-flung competitors struggle to compete. Many species of haskaps are native to Alberta’s boreal forest, making them a homegrown super- food — a benefit Rosychuk is enhancing by making his haskap orchard the province’s first to be certified organic.
It’s an unusual crop being grown in an unusual way by an unusual farmer. Now in his late 30s, Rosychuk didn’t grow up on a farm (though his grandparents had one), but “plants have always been my love,” he says. As a kid, he’d scribble down notes from CBC’s Canadian Gardener for future reference.
(top) Intern Sara Mah, University of Alberta crop science student; (right) Kara Cole and Adelle Gascon
50 EDify. MAY.24
Photos courtesy of Rosy Farms