Change is a welcome challenge


The ability to adapt and diversify has been key to success for this year’s top young B.C. farmers.


By Susan McIver T


roy and Sara Harker have been named British Columbia’s Outstanding Young Farmers


for 2013. The Cawston couple received their


award from Lieutenant-governor Judy Guichon and Canadian OYF president Derek Janzen in front of more than 400 people at the annual B.C. Agriculture Gala in Abbotsford early this year. The Harkers will represent B.C. at


the national OYF competition in Saskatchewan in November. “We were thrilled and humbled by


the award,” said Troy. Selection of the Harkers, both aged


30, was based in large part on their ability to achieve success through meeting the challenges of changing circumstances. This ability, now often referred to


as sustainability through diversification, is a characteristic Troy and Sara inherited from previous generations of their families. “My great-great grandfather, William James Manery, settled in the Similkameen in 1888, just 17 years after British Columbia became Canada’s sixth province,” Troy said. Over the years, his family has


raised dairy and beef cattle, and grown ground crops and various fruit trees. One of the first fruit trees planted


on the property in 1914, a Snow apple (Fameuse) tree, still stands today. Troy’s grandparents, Ken and Marjorie Harker, added a roadside market in 1961 and his parents, Bruce and Kathy, who took over the farm 12 years later, expanded the market, now known as Harkers Organics. Bruce and Kathy also established a wholesale packing facility and achieved the farm’s current certified


SUSAN MCIVER


Troy and Sara Harker toast their being named BC's Outstanding Young Farmers for 2013 with glasses of their own Rustic Roots fruit wine.


organic status during the 1990s. Sara’s grandparents left Hungary


in 1956 as a result of the revolution and purchased an orchard in Kaleden. Later, they also had a ground crop


farm in Oliver where Sara spent much of her childhood. In 2006, Sara and Troy married


and joined the family operation. Currently, they are in the midst of


a several-year transition period of taking over from his parents. The couple quickly recognized the


need to expand and diversify the family business in order to sustain it, not only for themselves, but also for future generations. “I’m the fifth generation of my


family to farm and we’re encouraging the sixth,” Troy said, referring to Kaydence, 7, and Akaya, 3.


Sara and Troy responded by increasing the wholesale packing business, participating in the B.C. Agriculture in the Classroom program, establishing a fruit winery and adding a restaurant delivery service. They also recognized the importance of updating the orchard with high-density plantings of new varieties of fruit. The 18-acre Harker orchard contains varieties of apples, peaches, pears, nectarines and cherries. The new plantings include two


acres of Honeycrisp apples in a two- foot by 10-foot super-spindle production system. Troy is primarily in charge of the


farm, which also includes eight acres of ground crops ranging from 40 varieties of heirloom tomatoes and


British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Summer 2013 19


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