About Us
Our Journey
This is how we got to where we are today:
In the spring of 2011, 50 Haskap plants went into the ground. We didn't know much about how to care for them, but they didn't die, so that was good. We had a lot to learn. During the next few years, a number of trips to Saskatchewan were made; some trips were with family, one with friends, and one by myself. Attending Haskap Day at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon was quite helpful and fun to attend.
In 2013, our "harvest" consisted of a cookie sheet full of berries. It was so exciting! My wife was carrying the tray into the house, couldn't see the step, and tripped. The entire berry harvest spilled onto the front porch.
In 2014, there were more berries. We used kiddy pools cut in half to catch the berries as they were tickled off the bushes. They were added to oatmeal, ice cream, pancakes, and other delicious combinations. That was the year we purchased our first dedicated berry freezer.
As the years went by, better ways to harvest, process, and store the fruit were made. Additional cultivars were added to the orchard. All the cultivars we grow originated from the University of Saskatchewan’s fruit program. Haskap royalties were paid when we purchased them.
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How did you end up growing Haskap?
Having grown up on a dairy farm and spending decades working with software, I always knew I wanted to get back to my farming roots and return to a rural setting. I also knew I wanted to grow some sort of specialty crop and was thinking blueberries. But it turns out the farm's soil wasn't acidic enough for blueberries so something else would need to be found. There were some June berries I had planted years before and they were growing well. So, in December 2010, I called a Saskatoon/June berry propagator in northern Michigan. I told him my story and he said to me. "If I was just starting out and could choose a fruit crop to grow, I'd look into Haskap." I said, "What's a Haskap?"
What about the farm name? How did you decide on Walking Plants Orchard?
In 2011, I was working on a mobile phone data collection application. People using the application were walking around plants entering data. That triggered the Walking Plants name.