FEBRUARY 2020 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Black walnuts are an option for


water-logged land Processing capacity critical to scaling up new venture


by MYRNA STARK LEADER KELOWNA – After 10 years


in the growing phase, a Kelowna agro-forestry producer is gathering the seeds of her labour and looking at increasing processing capability for herself and others. Twenty years ago, Brenda


Dureault, then a nurse, moved to a 26-acre property owned by her father to raise her children. Curly Frog Farm, as she named it, was a pasture with a natural pond. After purchasing the land in 2009, she increased her farming focus and searched for products she could self- manage and were tolerant of water because the creek flowing through her land regularly submerges a sizeable chunk of the farm. “We’ve canoed over this


land,” Dureault says, pointing to logs water-lifted from pond areas and deposited among her trees. The creek is classified as


environmentally sensitive, so there’s little opportunity to block or divert the water. Determined to find a workable crop, she planted black walnuts, a native North American species suggested by the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. After


germinating the seed herself, she planted the first rows in 2009-10.


Black walnuts have long


taproots. In addition to their ability to draw up water, the nuts have a unique flavour


and nutritional qualities, as well as producing high-value hardwood lumber if the trees are straight and free of defects. Dureault has continually


collected seed from the best trees and conducted selective breeding in the small greenhouse attached to her home to improve the quality of her nuts and the potential for the trees to eventually be logged for timber. She also wants them to be resilient to climate change.


Optimum land use Making the best use of the


land, she interspersed the walnut trees with Christmas trees, which will be ready for cutting in 2020. She also grows berries, herbs, willows for crafts (which she sells at markets and online), as well as pawpaw trees. She’s planted 400 pawpaws, many on chinampas, an ancient Aztec way of growing on land with high water tables. “Mine were built a few


years ago in a wetlands co-operative project with the BC Wildlife Federation. We excavated soils two feet to create long narrow canals with mounds adjacent. The canals fill with water creating wetlands and the strips of higher ground brought more land for productive agriculture,” says Dureault, who’s still waiting for the pawpaws to bear fruit. Waiting is not the case,


however, with the nuts. Her maturing trees yielded about 600 pounds of hulled black walnuts last year; full


39


Brenda Dureault with her new nut cracking machine designed by a team of UBCO engineering students last year as their capstone project. Capstones enable students to use their knowledge to design and prototype a solution to a real-life issue. MYRNA STARK LEADER PHOTOS


production can be up to 1,500 pounds per acre. Unlike the English walnuts most people are familiar with, black walnuts are encased in a hull and have an extremely hard shell. With smaller


quantities, Dureault used a hand-cracker as well as an electric nutcracker made by a local friend to break the nuts apart and harvest the meat. It works well with softer shelled nuts but the black walnuts


had to go through the electric cracker four to five times to sufficiently break them, a time-consuming process producing about 8 to 12


See NUTS on next page o


Spring Planting/Removal 2020-2021


The Hazelnut Renewal Program provides funding to remove infected trees to mitigate the spread of Eastern Filbert Blight and to incentivize the planting of new disease-resistant hazelnut trees in British Columbia.


Types of Program Funding


• Hazelnut Renewal: Funding to incentivize the planting of new Eastern Filbert Blight (EFB) resistant hazelnut trees in British Columbia.


• Removal of EFB Infected Hazelnut Trees: Funding to remove infected trees to mitigate the spread of EFB and protect new orchards.


Eligibility Criteria


For the purposes of this program, eligible hazelnut trees are de昀ned as hazelnut varieties released by the Oregon State University hazelnut breeding program that have resistance to Eastern Filbert Blight (EFB).


Applicants must meet the following criteria:


1. The applicant must be a new or existing hazelnut grower in the province of British Columbia. 2. The applicant must be the owner (or lessee) of the land to be planted. 3. The minimum eligible acreage for new planting new orchards in 2020/21 is one acre. 4. The maximum eligible acreage for 2020/21 planting is 10 acres for double (maximum 269 trees/acre) or single density planting and 20 acres exclusively for single density planting (maximum 134 trees/acre) per farm operation (NEW).


5. Approved applicants must plant EFB-resistant varieties, and must obtain planting stock according to the instructions of the CFIA Directive D-00-03.


For complete eligibility criteria, including a list of resistant EFB Hazelnut varieties, please consult the 2020/21 BC Hazelnut Renewal Program Requirements (PDF, 413 KB).


Completed applications will be accepted by email until 11:59 pm February 7, 2020, and by mail, post-marked no later than February 7, 2020.


Please send mail applications to ATTN: Hazelnut Renewal Program AGRI.HazelnutRenewal@gov.bc.ca


or Abbotsford Agriculture Centre 1767 Angus Campbell Road Abbotsford BC V3G 2M3


Black walnuts have a bold, earthy flavour that’s different from an English walnut. Uses include snacking, as a cooking ingredient and liqueurs but they are a very hard nut to crack, with the meat deep in the shell.


BC Hazelnut Growers Association PO Box 586 Agassiz, B.C. V0M 1A0 info@bchga.ca


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