Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit Prairie Perfect Orchards, just outside of Innisfail (12km off Highway 2, turn on Road 354 and then at RR15). An hour’s drive outside of Calgary, Prairie Perfect Orchards is a u-pick farm owned and run by Pete and Jan Wasylyshyn.

Prairie Perfect Orchards is a new cherry farm. Last year they produced 270 pounds of cherries, whereas this year they are expecting over 2,500 pounds. The u-pick farm is opening to the public on August 15.

The cherry trees are from Saskatchewan because of the similar weather. These cherries just need to be watered in the first year. After that they just need what nature is offering. Being able to grow with little water, these cherries are thriving in Alberta.

I had no idea cherries grew in Alberta. When I heard that cherries were grown in Alberta my first thoughts were of super yummy BC cherries. With a different climate, Alberta cherries are also different. BC cherries are much larger, darker, and have much tougher skins. The fruit texture of Alberta cherries are more like cooked vegetables, rather than the more meaty BC cherries. As Pete says, his cherries ‘explode in your mouth’.

The colourful and passionate Pete Wasylyshyn

The u-pick farm has a variety of different cherries to choose from – Juliet, Carmen Jewel, Cupid, and Crimson Passion. The latter two are the larger and sweeter varieties (less so though than BC cherries), whereas the two former are smaller and are sour. Loving both sweet and sour foods, I liked the taste of all of them.

I hadn’t been to a u-pick farm since I was a little kid so I had to learn the proper picking etiquette. This kind of picking you can do with friends and family. You want to pick the dark red cherries, for once these kind of cherries are picked they do not ripen any further. Also, just pick the fruit, not the stem. It was recommended to leave your pail on the ground and toss the cherries in. You can sample the cherries, but Pete said he appreciated for you not to spit the pit on the ground.

The sweet Juliet cherry

It is best to pick in the morning and to refrigerate the cherries as soon as you get home. You can also freeze cherries for up to 15 months. I was told that once thawed, they taste the same as before they were frozen. Therefore you should freeze cherries right after picking.

If you are planning on coming out to Prairie Perfect Orchards, call before you do to make sure they are open. Pets are not allowed in the u-pick farm.

The cost is $3.50 a pound and a pail holds about 5 pounds worth of cherries. Of note, you can also purchase a cherry tree for $12 (one year old) or for $25 (two year old) and plant it in your yard to become a local food producer yourself. They start producing fruit when they are 3 years old. Cherry trees grow quickly, much like raspberry bushes, so as Pete says be prepared to contain these ‘suckers’.

There is a gift shop where you can buy jellies and sauces. You can also stay for coffee, tea, soup, and dessert. I had the delicious potato leak soup and the cherry loaf. The cherry tart and the vanilla ice cream covered in cherry sauce, all made by Jan, also looked really good.

Though the Prairie Perfect Orchards is not organic, it is local. If you are attempting the 100 mile diet you are in luck for you can add these cherries to your list. Pete says that the 100 mile diet is now on the radar around Innisfail. He says this is sweet music to his ears.

“Local food”, says Pete, “is the future of us and the world, for one day we are going to run out of oil, but we are always going to need food”. My political ears perk up and I start probing. My wiser friend gives me the look that says ‘don’t go there’. I know it isn’t polite to talk politics, or religion and sex for that matter when eating, but I can’t help it – this is the good stuff. And hey, I don’t have a car and don’t get out and talk to rural folk much, I just want to know what is on their mind these days.

Pete, the affable salesmen, then gets a little sour. “The Alberta government is not interested in local food, except beef and canola. I knew why the Liberal Ralph Klein was trying to destroy Alberta agriculture, because he was in the pocket of big oil, but Ed Stelmach is a farmer. He is no better than Ralph”. Unlike Saskatchewan, Alberta is not encouraging the development of local food.

I then ask Pete about whether the Wildrose Alliance is making any inroads around Innisfail. He says that people aren’t budging and will always vote Conservative.

Then Pete went off the rails. Pete began bitterly complaining about the cost of Calgary’s Peace Bridge, while also praising the new community orchard in Sunnyside that will have apples, honeyberries, gooseberries, strawberries, cherries, and even pears and apricots. It was funny when he found out they were put forward by the same city councillor.

I was listening like a kid in a candy shop when Pete started trashing the Calgary Herald, calling it an eastern rag. He just reads the Calgary Sun. I was about to tell him that the Calgary Sun is owned by Quebecor, a firm based in the eastern province of Quebec, but thankfully my friend had the insight to redirect the conversation to Prairie Perfect’s new apple orchard.

At the end of the day, though it was cold and cloudy, the cherry picking was sweet, but the highlight was picking the brain of Pete and getting a glimpse into the sour rural political landscape.