![]() When it comes to crop protection, Algoma has been using an approach called Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for more than 30 years. Trickle irrigation is used throughout the orchards instead of overhead watering, a system that drastically reduces water usage by applying the water to the soil where the tree can absorb it instead of spraying it overhead where large quantities are lost to evaporation. “We have a milli on trees in the orchard that are scrubbing a pile of carbon out of the atmosphere every day,” says Kemp, adding that a consultant study completed several years ago when Algoma only had about two thirds as many apple trees as they do today showed the orchard removing the equivalent of 250 cars off the road daily. Sustainable practices abound in every aspect of their business, in everything from how they manage their orchards to their juicing and apple packing facilities. Overall, according to Algoma’s President Kirk Kemp, the company produces between nine and 10 million litres of apple juice every year. Through their own juice plant they make cider under the President’s Choice label that is sold across Canada other sweet cider customers include Sobeys, Metro, Walmart and Costco, and they also press juice for the Tropicana apple juice sold in cartons. Their apples, and those they buy from other Ontario growers, are packed and sold to Loblaws, Walmart, Costco and Longos from their packing facility – about two million boxes of apples annually. That kind of longevity comes with a commitment to sustainability that is at the core of everything Algoma Orchards does – sustainability of their land, soil, and air, and of their business, their customers, their suppliers and their employees.Īlgoma has 1,200 acres of orchard, where their four main varieties of Gala, Honeycrisp, Ambrosia and McIntosh account for two-thirds of their annual apple production. Their apple roots go back much further than that, though, with the Gibsons growing apples since the mid to late 1800s and Kemps since the early 1900s. Family business started with apples, pies and a little red wagonĪlgoma Orchards a sustainability leader in Ontario’s apple industryįor more than 50 years, the Gibson and Kemp families have been growing apples at Algoma Orchards near Newcastle in Durham Region.New owners at popular Goldsmith's Orchard Market.Future looks bright for young Ontario apple farmer.Quality fruit and service are key to family fruit farm.Ontario cider pioneer leading craft apple cider renaissance.Innovations protect fruit crops against weather and predator damage.Family apple business expands into value-added processing.Canadas most southerly orchard is at the forefront of new fruit varieties.On the lookout for new technologies, techniques and ways of doing things.How new apple varieties come to our local markets. ![]() Algoma Orchards a sustainability leader in Ontario’s apple industry.Reconnecting Ontarians with the apple orchard.
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