Edible Notables: Yellow Point Cranberries
Walk into any grocery store and find the juice aisle; you’ll likely find rows and rows of Ocean Spray Co-Op cranberry juice. But do you know where the cranberries used to create that juice comes from? The answer is more local than you might have guessed.
Justine and Grant Keefer own Yellow Point Cranberries, located just north of Ladysmith. Turns out, their first order of business is to provide cranberries for Ocean Spray, most of which are used to make sweetened dried cranberries and, of course, cranberry juice. They produce over 90,000kg of the berries annually, contributing to the fact that B.C. is the largest producer of cranberries in Canada.
Yellow Point Cranberries has been running for 20 years, and their success comes with experience and a lot of hard work. The family farm in Richmond began in 1945, and in 1991 cranberries entered the equation until it gradually took over most of the farm operations. So in 2001, Grant and Justine decided to find another location to build Yellow Point Cranberries, which has also become a family affair. Their daughter, Clara (17), helps in the store and processing kitchen, and their son, Jack (11) is always learning new facets of farm life (aka: “poking around the equipment shed taking things apart!”)
It took three years of field development, planting and growth before the first small harvest in 2004, with yields increasing each year. They begin picking cranberries around the third week of September, continue through October and into the first week of November with the final water harvest. But the work doesn’t end there. “The cycle of growing cranberries is continuous,” Grant explains. In the winter, they conduct field improvements and renovations; April and May require work to protect the cranberry buds from frost; June brings blossoms and bee pollination; and then summer is when the actual fruit grows and they conduct all the field/dike/equipment maintenance to prepare for harvest.
In addition to supplying cranberries to Ocean Spray, Yellow Point also harvests and sells fresh cranberries for Thanksgiving and Christmas. These berries are harvested using a “dry harvest” method, which is different than how the majority of the berries go through the water harvest. “It involves a small machine that combs the fruit off the vines,” Grant explains. “[The berries are] then sacked and carried off the fields to be cleaned and packed.”
For Grant, the hardest part of running the business is also his favourite part. “Growing cranberries is all about constantly learning and changing what you do. It’s not a cookie cutter approach,” he says. “You need to be able to pivot at a moment’s notice and realize when something is wrong.” He loves the challenge, but admits that “sometimes it’s hard to break the pattern and try something different.”
One of the first challenges they faced when opening up Yellow Point on Vancouver Island was the logistics of transporting the cranberries off the Island. “But the reality is, Nanaimo is a true transportation hub,” Grant says, and they’ve been able to efficiently ship their berries to their mainland destinations. “Vancouver Island has all the services [and] equipment infrastructure needed to do many things.”
That being said, is it the best place to grow cranberries? “Probably not,” is Grant’s honest answer. But when they found their current location, they couldn’t pass it up: it has ample water supply, good soil, and “way more sunshine than people give the area credit for.” The electric infrastructure to run their pumps and farm operations was already in place, allowing them get started early and upgrade as time has gone on and production has increased.
But they also found a great community that supports them and has helped them grow their “Bog to Bottle” preserves store and fresh cranberry business. At their farm store, Cranberry Cottage Preserves, they make over 25 different types of cranberry sauces, jams and preserves. Additionally, they have a large selection of dry packaged mixes (like cranberry scones and brownies).
If you stop by their store (open daily 11am to 5pm year-round) to pick up some fresh or frozen cranberries or other goodies, you can also get a closer glimpse into what it takes to run a cranberry farm by seeing their demonstration field and all sorts of unique cranberry harvest equipment.
Running Yellow Point Cranberries isn’t just a job for Justine and Grant—it’s a lifestyle. “A great lifestyle…but it’s a full-time commitment that keeps us going every day all day.”
The Edible Notables Series is proudly sponsored by Beacon Law Centre.
