MAY 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


41 No summers off for these education assistants


Five-acre orchard and fruit stand keep this couple busy year-round


by SUSAN MCIVER SUMMERLAND –


Summerland orchardists Jacquie and Jerry Pagliocchino are glad Jerry


longer to produce a harvest – at least three years. “We may be retired by then


and have more time to spend in the orchard,” says Jacquie. Both she and Jerry are education


Country Ways


changed his mind about owning farmland. “I always said I never wanted an orchard,” says Jerry. But that was until 1985 when he saw the five acres and house for sale next door to his parents’ orchard in Summerland. The senior Pagliocchinis raised fruit in the town following their arrival from Italy in 1952. “I think Jerry seeing the big garage was what changed his mind,” says Jacquie, whose background includes life on a Manitoba grain farm. Today, the structure serves


as a retail fruit stand and cold storage facility. “Originally the property was a mixed orchard – and still is but we’ve replanted with newer varieties,” says Jerry.


The Pagliocchinis have


three acres of peaches and smaller plantings of cherries, apricots and nectarines. “There’s also 26 Bartlett


pear trees and 15 prune plums,” says Jerry. Looking to the future, the


couple replaced their old apple trees with a high- density planting of Ambrosia. “We planted 3,000 bench


grafts – rootstocks with a few buds – which cost $2 each rather than young trees at $10 each,” says Jerry. The bench grafts take


assistants with weekends and summers off as well as two weeks at


Christmas and spring break. The couple had help with


their replant program from their eldest son, Chris, a technician in the apple and cherry breeding program at the Summerland Research and Development Centre. “Chris knows about varieties and spacing and helped us with the planting itself,” says Jerry. Their younger son, Marcus, who operates a home-based cooking business, helps his folks in the orchard. “He’ll be making a lot of apple pies once all those Ambrosia trees mature,” jokes Jacquie. The Pagliocchinis sell almost all of their produce from their on-farm retail stand. “We’re open 6 am to 6 pm


seven days a week usually, starting in late June,” says Jacquie, who is in charge of sales.


She hires one person to help during peak periods. Building a steady clientele was a challenge the first few years, especially as the Pagliocchini orchard is located on a small road away from Hwy 97, the main thoroughfare through Summerland. However, word spread and


now they routinely attract customers from the Prairies and Lower Mainland as well as


Jerry and Jacquie Pagliocchino show off their boxes of pure apple juice. SUSAN MCIVER PHOTO


many Okanagan residents. “We still have some of our


original customers,” says Jacquie.


She explains that many customers from away do “fruit runs,” taking home large quantities to freeze and can. “It was tough to sell all of our apples by September so in 2014 we started to juice them,” says Jerry.


They enlisted the help of


Vernon’s Mobile Juice Factory to produce five-litre containers of pasteurized juice certified to meet health standards. “It’s 100% apple juice – no sugar or water added,” Jerry says. “Apple juice is a great


Okanagan tradition. People buy it just to enjoy themselves


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