Help us Build a Family Dream!!
Donation protected
My name is Collin De Ruyck and Pure Country Organics Fruit and Garlic Farm was started in spring of 2013 after my family and I moved to a small acreage 20 min south of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Our first winter we spent hours and hours researching what we could do with our new property. Then one day it hit us!! Lets see what kind of fruit trees we can grow here.
We didn't want to do the normal and raise a pile of animals, though we had plans to raise some for ourselves. We wanted something new and exciting. We discovered so many different types of fruit trees we could grow in our growing zone. Then my wife Carla one day said hey, why don't we do garlic as well!! We have the space she said! After researching that a bit more it was clearly a no brainer for us to add that to the list of projects we now had lined up for our 11 acres!!
We had no idea we could grow dozens of many different varieties of fruit. We were shocked what we could grow. We then formed a plan, a realistic plan that would take us 5 years to get everything planted which would then put us 8 years before we had enough product to sell to other families from the first date we planted. We had so much to learn, and had to find out exactly what types of fruit we could grow here. More research needed to be done and we found the help we needed in Quebec from a family there who has spent over 25 years developing fruit trees to grow in our northern climate. So off we went and started down our path to becoming Manitoba’s first multi fruit organic orchard.
Above is a beautiful photo my wife Carla took of our Nova Raspberries after we planted them our first season.
We started planting small with a few Evans Cherry plants and 40 Saskatoon plants to see how things went. We even planted 2 Pear trees called Paul’s Pear. Everything went good and all went dormant when it was supposed to and woke up the next spring and grew, then we decided to plant more. In January though 2014 the beginning of season 2 we hit our first major roadblock. I broke my spine while at work as a plumber and developed sciatic nerve pain down my left leg. This injury was extremely painful and left me only able to walk, but with a strong limp. My wonderful family stepped up to the plate and worked extremely hard on planting everything that second spring. We got close to 100 fruit trees and over 300 berry shrubs planted after the second growing season. Again, almost all went dormant and woke up in spring 2015. In March of 2015, almost a year and a half after the injury date I had to have my spine fused to ensure I would be able to walk again. I also developed partial foot drop in my left leg from nerve damage. Like the spring before my family, who at this point was starting to really see my vision for the property pitched in and planted again this spring! I am around 9 months post op and still can't sit for very long or walk for that matter before my pain levels start increasing to the point I have to lay down. The surgery has helped to prevent me from being in a wheel chair but has not helped much with my levels of pain!! Bending, which is very important for me to be able to do is one of the worst things I have to do, and the fastest way for me to be forced back onto pain meds and have to lay down to ease my symptoms.
This x-ray was taken on my spine in June 2015!
Not only does my current condition come with the added issues of not being able to do much around home. Thankfully my family has helped out tremendously here again but it has also added a financial hurdle that is ending up to be a major road block for us to try and move forward with what we are finding out is a very important project we have under way here. Our 5-year plan was based off of me being able to work full time to earn the money to grow this farm and our plans to help local families. Now, I have a massively reduced income, which leaves us wondering if we can still get everything planted. I am not to worried about getting things picked when the times comes, we can always do a "you pick" fruit farm but having the funds to carry out this family dream, well, lets just say we are feeling the pinch.
Above is a Honey Crisp Apple Tree
Now, after three years of planting we are sitting close to 225 fruit trees and 500 berry shrubs. To date we have planted the following:
Asian Pears (5 Varieties)
Plums (6 Varieties)
Apples (8 Varieties)
Sour Cherries (4 Varieties)
Raspberries (3 Varieties)
Pears (4 Varieties)
Apricots (1 Variety)
Peaches ( 1 Variety)
Saskatoon’s (2 Varieties)
Blueberries (2 Varieties)
Haskaps (3 varieties)
With many more varieties to come!!!! Including nut trees!! Currently at harvest once our trees mature we will have close to 22,500 pounds of tree fruit plus 10,000 pounds of berries just off what we have planted right now that’s growing, if the weather is perfect I might add. Our goal is to double that amount!!!
This is a picture of our main orchard which was taken mid summer of 2015. In fall my wife and son got all the wood chips and compost and composted chicken manure spread so we were ready for winter and for next spring.
We have also started a small vineyard for table grapes and small arctic kiwi!! Yes, that’s right, Kiwi! They do grow here in our area. They are small like a grape, have a smooth skin and taste like a Kiwi!! Yum!!!
Our plans with this Orchard is to be able to not only grow all different types of fruit and have lots for sale, which we will, but also in time be able to sell fruit trees no one ever thought would grow here in Southern Manitoba, which our orchard is proving you can. This is so other small landowners could start their own orchards at there own homes. In time we will be not only be selling organically grown fruit of all different types but will be a full fruit tree nursery and will have the experience and expertise behind us to teach other families to do the same at there own homes and build a strong fruit market here in Manitoba. There has been so much research done and we felt it was about time to put that research to good use for Manitobans.
Finish off buying our tree and shrub stock;
Obtain a spreader to spread organic material used for ground conditioning and fertilizing;
Commercial grade lawn mower with suspensions as I can not even mow the orchard very well with the pressure it puts on my back:
Hire labor to finish off planting orchard:
Level off a section of land that needs fill so we can build or garlic beds;
Build seed beds for growing Korean nut pine trees which grow in our growing zone
Expand the orchard into growing hazel nuts (goal is 300 nut trees over our 500 fruit trees)
Casino Apricots which were planted spring 2015!
We are also open to corporate donations.
As you can tell, we have a lot still to go before we have this dream for our community and our family built and with the rising costs of importing fruits and nuts and our low Canadian dollar for buying such imports, the need for Manitoba to start growing it's own fruit and nuts is huge!
We want to thank any and all for helping us with this dream!!
Best Wishes!!
The De Ruyck Family and Pure Country Organics Fruit and Garlic Farm!!
We didn't want to do the normal and raise a pile of animals, though we had plans to raise some for ourselves. We wanted something new and exciting. We discovered so many different types of fruit trees we could grow in our growing zone. Then my wife Carla one day said hey, why don't we do garlic as well!! We have the space she said! After researching that a bit more it was clearly a no brainer for us to add that to the list of projects we now had lined up for our 11 acres!!
We had no idea we could grow dozens of many different varieties of fruit. We were shocked what we could grow. We then formed a plan, a realistic plan that would take us 5 years to get everything planted which would then put us 8 years before we had enough product to sell to other families from the first date we planted. We had so much to learn, and had to find out exactly what types of fruit we could grow here. More research needed to be done and we found the help we needed in Quebec from a family there who has spent over 25 years developing fruit trees to grow in our northern climate. So off we went and started down our path to becoming Manitoba’s first multi fruit organic orchard.
Above is a beautiful photo my wife Carla took of our Nova Raspberries after we planted them our first season.
We started planting small with a few Evans Cherry plants and 40 Saskatoon plants to see how things went. We even planted 2 Pear trees called Paul’s Pear. Everything went good and all went dormant when it was supposed to and woke up the next spring and grew, then we decided to plant more. In January though 2014 the beginning of season 2 we hit our first major roadblock. I broke my spine while at work as a plumber and developed sciatic nerve pain down my left leg. This injury was extremely painful and left me only able to walk, but with a strong limp. My wonderful family stepped up to the plate and worked extremely hard on planting everything that second spring. We got close to 100 fruit trees and over 300 berry shrubs planted after the second growing season. Again, almost all went dormant and woke up in spring 2015. In March of 2015, almost a year and a half after the injury date I had to have my spine fused to ensure I would be able to walk again. I also developed partial foot drop in my left leg from nerve damage. Like the spring before my family, who at this point was starting to really see my vision for the property pitched in and planted again this spring! I am around 9 months post op and still can't sit for very long or walk for that matter before my pain levels start increasing to the point I have to lay down. The surgery has helped to prevent me from being in a wheel chair but has not helped much with my levels of pain!! Bending, which is very important for me to be able to do is one of the worst things I have to do, and the fastest way for me to be forced back onto pain meds and have to lay down to ease my symptoms.
This x-ray was taken on my spine in June 2015!
Not only does my current condition come with the added issues of not being able to do much around home. Thankfully my family has helped out tremendously here again but it has also added a financial hurdle that is ending up to be a major road block for us to try and move forward with what we are finding out is a very important project we have under way here. Our 5-year plan was based off of me being able to work full time to earn the money to grow this farm and our plans to help local families. Now, I have a massively reduced income, which leaves us wondering if we can still get everything planted. I am not to worried about getting things picked when the times comes, we can always do a "you pick" fruit farm but having the funds to carry out this family dream, well, lets just say we are feeling the pinch.
Above is a Honey Crisp Apple Tree
Now, after three years of planting we are sitting close to 225 fruit trees and 500 berry shrubs. To date we have planted the following:
Asian Pears (5 Varieties)
Plums (6 Varieties)
Apples (8 Varieties)
Sour Cherries (4 Varieties)
Raspberries (3 Varieties)
Pears (4 Varieties)
Apricots (1 Variety)
Peaches ( 1 Variety)
Saskatoon’s (2 Varieties)
Blueberries (2 Varieties)
Haskaps (3 varieties)
With many more varieties to come!!!! Including nut trees!! Currently at harvest once our trees mature we will have close to 22,500 pounds of tree fruit plus 10,000 pounds of berries just off what we have planted right now that’s growing, if the weather is perfect I might add. Our goal is to double that amount!!!
This is a picture of our main orchard which was taken mid summer of 2015. In fall my wife and son got all the wood chips and compost and composted chicken manure spread so we were ready for winter and for next spring.
We have also started a small vineyard for table grapes and small arctic kiwi!! Yes, that’s right, Kiwi! They do grow here in our area. They are small like a grape, have a smooth skin and taste like a Kiwi!! Yum!!!
Our plans with this Orchard is to be able to not only grow all different types of fruit and have lots for sale, which we will, but also in time be able to sell fruit trees no one ever thought would grow here in Southern Manitoba, which our orchard is proving you can. This is so other small landowners could start their own orchards at there own homes. In time we will be not only be selling organically grown fruit of all different types but will be a full fruit tree nursery and will have the experience and expertise behind us to teach other families to do the same at there own homes and build a strong fruit market here in Manitoba. There has been so much research done and we felt it was about time to put that research to good use for Manitobans.
Finish off buying our tree and shrub stock;
Obtain a spreader to spread organic material used for ground conditioning and fertilizing;
Commercial grade lawn mower with suspensions as I can not even mow the orchard very well with the pressure it puts on my back:
Hire labor to finish off planting orchard:
Level off a section of land that needs fill so we can build or garlic beds;
Build seed beds for growing Korean nut pine trees which grow in our growing zone
Expand the orchard into growing hazel nuts (goal is 300 nut trees over our 500 fruit trees)
Casino Apricots which were planted spring 2015!
We are also open to corporate donations.
As you can tell, we have a lot still to go before we have this dream for our community and our family built and with the rising costs of importing fruits and nuts and our low Canadian dollar for buying such imports, the need for Manitoba to start growing it's own fruit and nuts is huge!
We want to thank any and all for helping us with this dream!!
Best Wishes!!
The De Ruyck Family and Pure Country Organics Fruit and Garlic Farm!!
Organizer
Collin De Ruyck
Organizer
Landmark, MB
