Apples, My Okanagan Side

I apologize for this week being a bit quieter on the blog, it has been a crazy busy week and I haven't been apple to get on here as much and honestly my husband didn't eat a lot of awesome meals this week. I also didn't overly feel like taking a picture and blogging about tuna melts, that is my go to for when life is busy and I need a quick meal I don't need to think about to make. We did however celebrate my husbands 31st Birthday and our 6th year anniversary! This is the start of our Happy AnniBirthday week seeing as my Birthday is on the 9th! So lot's of celebrating. ​

Anyhow back to what this whole post is going to be about, apples! This week one of our good friends asked my hubby if I wanted a bag of apples from one of their trees, to my shock and amazement they were not crab apples but real honeycrisp apples! So of coarse I was like "Yes please!". I have some major plans for them, Canadian Thanksgiving is next week and I can just smell the pies already!

Growing up in the Okanagan apples are just a part of life there. My Great Grand Father worked at a factory that made the wooden apple boxes and he made about 3 or 4 of those boxes a minute. My Uncle has worked at SunRype for many years now, we enjoyed lots of treats here and there growing up that were testers for them. The house I grew up in till I was 6 was this beautiful farm styled home that was located on top of the mountain that overlooked the valley in a community we called South Kelowna. We lived on a orchard where I spent many days with my brothers climbing apple trees and gorging ourselves on the many varieties that hung from the trees. My parents rented the home and it was the best place to have spent those first 6 years of my life. Those trees were pirate ships, castles, forts, lighthouses and anything else our little minds could think up. 

​One amazing experience I had growing up as well was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints owned a orchard in Kelowna, it was massive and had apple, peach, apricot and pear trees. I am sure there were others as well but that's what I could remember. We as members in the valley had the opportunity to help serve the orchard by picking, sorting and packing the fruit and also cleaning and maintenance of the landscaping. The fruit would be shipped off for humanitarian aid operations, I did probably enjoyed a few bites of things here and there. I have a very vivid memory of putting on the big bag and filling it fuller then I should have and falling forward on the ground from the weight, I don't think I ever learned to only fill it half way. 

I found this image online and it is almost exactly like the ones we used. 

When I go home now it is sad to see the many orchards being sold and houses being built or condos. It's hard to believe that Kelowna used to be almost all orchards, especially when you see all the retail spaces now. It has even changed quite drastically in my 30 years of life, but when we go for drives I like to take my little family up into east and south Kelowna communities that seem somewhat untouched and still have a bunch of the old orchards and farms.

The Okanagan seems to grow fruit and veggies with great ease and abundance. It has often been called the California of Canada and it a big producer for apples and other fruit.

​Some fun facts about Apples and the Okanagan:

• In the world today there are over 10,000 varieties of apples 
• Most of the apple varieties that existed before the 1900's no longer exist. 
• Apple trees need another apple tree of the same variety near by in order to have successful pollination 
• It can take 4 to 6 years for an apple tree to start producing fruit but they can live and produce for hundreds of years once grown to maturity.
• Apple trees are part of the Rose family
• The Apple industry became a commercial industry in the Okanagan in the late 1800's
• 98% of the Apples grown in British Columbia and grown in the Okanagan and Similkameen valleys
• You can find around 15 different varieties of apples in the Okanagan
• The Spartan Apple was created in the Okanagan in Summerland

​
Something I love doing is visiting the packing houses that have these massive coolers that keep the apples fresh for most of the year. When we go to Kelowna we can go and pack bags full of apples and barely pay anything, 39cents a pound for some apples. 
​
What can I say, you can take the girl out of the Okanagan, but you can't take the Okanagan out of the girl.