ALL FOR THE LOVE OF THE LAND

June Driediger

Born in June 1933 to a wheat farming family in Saskatchewan, and having wonderful memories of our family farm, is it any wonder that I fell in love with this land when I came to British Columbia at Christmas time 1952? I had always loved eating strawberries, but never imagined I would spend the next 40 plus years living and raising children on what was to become one of the largest strawberry farms in B.C.

The summer of 1954, my husband, George and I came back to B.C. from the prairies, to help Dad and Mom Driediger harvest their strawberry crop. Dietrich and Paulina Driediger had come with their family to B.C. from the prairies in 1944. They started growing strawberries in the Otter District, on a 10-acre farm on 56th Avenue. At the time, 6 to 8 acres were in berries. We came home to help that summer and stayed on to help during the fall months. That was the beginning of our farming years! We took over the farm the following spring and from then on, strawberry farming in the Otter District began to change.

Between the years of 1954 and 1957, our farm grew from 8 acres to 25. Then, by 1963, we were farming approximately 250 acres, still within a few miles of the original home place. Some of this land was leased and some had been purchased.

George's brother Peter Driediger, and his wife Hilda, joined us in the 1960s. In April 1964, we incorporated Driediger Bros. Farms Ltd.

During those early years of farming everything was done by hand. In early spring we would dig and clean the young plants for planting. First the fields were worked with a hand rototiller, then we would stake out the rows by taking twine and rolling it out from one end of the field to the other. This was a must in order to have perfectly straight rows. Then planting began with a spade and buckets of young plants. Can you imagine how many back-bends one had to do to plant 6,000 plants per acre! After the planting was finished, we fertilized, hoed, cut runners and blossoms - all by hand. We harvested the berries from these plants the following year.

During these years of expansion, we were fortunate to have several hard working people join us including the Suderman family, Elaine "Peppy" Peplow, Irene Warkentin, George "Big George" Wiebe, Anne "Big Annie" Krochmoly, Mike and Olga Dudzak and Mary Jones. Their love of and dedication to the farm was a great part of our success. Most of these people worked for us for over 20 years.

The late 1950s through to the 1970s saw many changes, from hand planting to machine planters, updated tractors and forklifts. In the early 1950s, all the local farms grew the British Sovereign berry. It was tasty but very seedy and hard to pick. We were one of the first farms to try a new variety called Siletz - a bright red, sweet berry and very easy to pick. We grew Siletz for several years along with other new varieties like the Northwest and Puget Beauty. Today's main varieties are Totem, Puget Reliance and Rainier.

With so many acres under cultivation, we now needed hundreds of pickers. Soon, used school buses were purchased to pick up school children and adults from Coquitlam, New Westminster, Cloverdale and Langley to pick on our farm. School would be let out early to accommodate the harvest season. This system also meant paying each picker in cash every night before they boarded the bus for home, as there were no guarantees they would return the next day. For a few years, we had a canteen on the fields selling hot dogs, pop and ice cream - what a circus some days!

During the 1960s, Hilda and I started the "U-Pick" that our farm has become so famous for. It all started out in the fields where the wooden crates filled with strawberries were stacked. People came from miles around with their containers and bought the fruit right off the field. Soon we were letting them pick in the fields after the fruit was no longer economical to harvest. Today, the U-Pick fields are grown specifically for the public to enjoy picking their own fresh berries.

During the early years of farming, George and I had four children: Murray, Brenda, Rhonda and Michael. As small children, they spent many hours in the fields playing in the rows. As they grew older, they learned early the value of hard work, dedication and developed a sense of pride which has served them well in their lives and careers today.

In 1968, we bought the shares of Driediger Bros. Farm from Peter and Hilda, and continued to farm until 1980. In 1981, George and I parted company and I purchased the farm from him.

Since then, we have taken this company in new directions. We have added several commodities to our product line with continued harvest from June to October. With Blueridge Produce, we have constructed state of the art cooling and packing facilities and now ship berries throughout North America and Asia. Today the farm and the packing operations are owned and run by Rhonda and her husband Peter.

Although we have seen good times and bad, we have persevered, for the love of the land and for the love of a family heritage.

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• Driediger Farms
• Blueridge Produce