Fact is, according to Wally’s columns, cherry picking is in progress June 18th 1936 as well as June 24th 1937. Yes, those were years before I came along to grace the Smith family, but none the less the harvest was happening in June.
Then I came across a column dated June 29th 1961 indicating the cherry harvest is in full swing, which verifies my memory, sort of.
I contacted the Summerland research centre and they told me that the hybrid varieties of cherries are so developed now that they can be harvested from mid June to September.
The rest of Wally’s column from July 8 1982.
“Many years ago it was established that walnuts, heartnuts, and filberts(hazelnuts), could be grown successfully in the Okanagan Valley.
We planted two walnuts and two filberts during our first spring in the Okanagan, 1935. One of the walnuts was winter killed a few years later, but the other is thriving and bears a crop every year. The filberts are doing as well.
We also had an almond but the nuts were so hard to crack we lost interest in almonds and removed the tree.
It does not follow that commercial production of walnuts and filberts can be a viable enterprise, but it does establish the fact that the backyard gardener can grow plenty of nuts for his own use.
What about peanuts? The peanut is also known as the earth nut or ground nut from the fact that after the flower has withered, the stalk of the ovary bends down and thrusts the pod from two to three inches beneath the soil, where it matures.
We grew a few peanuts one summer in our early days but they were not a spectacular success; perhaps because of lack of experience. However, peanuts will grow in the Okanagan, and also in certain areas of Ontario where commercial production amounts to about 600 acres.
Only certain varieties lend themselves to the new once-over harvesting equipment that makes peanut growing commercially successful in Canada. However, the backyard gardener may find his little plot just as interesting and just as profitable.”
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