Saturday
Pre-tour June 24th -
Quebec, Canada
Registration at Sheraton at 6:45
AM
Busses load at Sheraton at 7:30 AM
Busses depart Sheraton at 8:00 AM
The IDFTA Summer pre-tour to Southwestern Quebec will
start from
Burlington, Vermont. It will get to the Quebec border via the truly
scenic Lake Champlain
island routes. Once through customs, the tour will run parallel to the
New York state
border, one mile north, along the northern flank of the Adirondacks. The
first stop will
be at Lussier Orchards where you will see blocks of trees trained in the
Solaxe method.
Next we will travel to Stevenson's where we tour a maple syrup operation
as well as their
CA storage and juice making plant. Thence onto Leaky's apple processing
plant - Eastern
Canada's largest. The final morning stop will be at Petch's Orchard where
we will have
lunch and then view some of their various varietal rootstock
combinations. You will also
be able to discuss some of their ideas for marketing at the
orchard.
Stevenson
Orchards has 90 acres
of Orchard producing and non-producing. Most of the trees are on
dwarfing rootstocks
including M.26, M.106, MM.111 and some M.7. A few standard trees remain.
Varieties grown
are McIntosh, Corland, Lobo, Empire, Spartan.
The company started very modestly in 1979 in a 4900
square feet
building. Mr. James R. Leahy and his sons Michael and Danny were
its three pioneers.
In the fall of 1980, a dozen seasonal employees joined
the team at
Leahy Orchards, lnc. At the time, the only products manufactured were
fresh apple slices
or cubes. Later on, apple pie and turnover fillings were added. Michael
and Danny worked
in the plant, took care of production, maintenance, staff management,
etc.. Mr. Leahy
attended to apple purchases, contacts with customers and developed new
products.
In 1983, since their work is crowned with success, the
company puts
applesauce on the market under the Leahy banner. A short time after, the
company began
producing applesauce under private label for Steinberg. Gradually,
other private
labels were added so that in 1986 the production line had to be improved
to meet the
growing demand for the Leahy products.
Danny was responsible for the preparation of recipes
and cooking of the
products and Michael supervised the overall production and was directly
involved in the
maintenance and repair of equipment plus in the installation of new
equipment.
In 1988 the company expanded its administrative
structure. They hired
Claude Taillerfer as controller, Doug Anderson as director of sales and
Andre Belanger as
quality control specialist and the individual responsible for research
and development.
Michael was named General Manger and Danny as
Production Manager. Mr.
Leahy was named President and continued in his role as purchasing manager
and customer
relations.
In 1990 the company purchased the Applesnax-Delipomme
trademark and
began production and marketing of individual sized portions of
applesauce. The company met
with continuing success and in 1991 introduced applesauce with fruit such as
apple-strawberry, apple-peach, and apple-tropical. It is interesting that
there is a
greater demand for private labeled products than a national brand name.
In 1996 Leahy Orchards began exporting its products to
the United
States, and the market for Applesnax applesauce has grown rapidly in the
Eastern US.
What was a 4,900 square foot plant has now expanded to
over 100,000
square feet, and the company is continuing to invest millions of dollars
in equipment to
maximize production.
Petch
Orchard
Petch Orchards is a
third-generation operation, with 110 acres of apples and one acre of
pears. The main
varieties of apples are McIntosh and Cortland with lesser numbers of
Spartan, Empire,
Lobo, and Golden Russett. Other varieties are also grown and tested.
Flemish Beauty
comprises the one acre of pears.
Rootstocks consist of EM 7, EM 26, EM 9, Bud 9, Ott 3
and many standard
trees remain. All attempts at using dwarfing pear rootstock have been
winter killed.
Since the family operates a U-Pick operation, many
varieties are grown.
They also have a sales area where apples, their own cider, jellies,
doughnuts, etc. are
marketed.
The Petch Orchard is a family run business. The
original trees were
planted in 1920 so that the orchard contains trees aged 1 year to 80
years.
Quebec Vegetable
Distributors
Quebec
Vegetable Distributors
was started in 1963. Ross McNaughton owns 95% of the stock. Five-hunded
acres of black
organic soil have been developed and 300 more are available for
development. Vegetables
grown are carrots and onions. Previously they grew celery and Napa
(Chinese cabbage which
was sold primarily in New York City and Philadelphia). The company does
all of its own
packing. Marketing is becoming more difficult yearly. The company's
onions are sold in
local chain stores throughout the year, from September to December in
Central America, and
in the US for two or three week niches two or three times a year. Carrots
go largely to
the eastern US seaboard plus limited amounts to Canadian chain stores.
Bob Petch
has planned this
tour and it promises to be great day.
Sunday
Monday Tuesday
Hotel Info Registration
