Lucie Fortin and her family have been growing apples at the Verger de Tilly since 1993, but about 10 years ago, they decided they wanted to branch out into other fruit.
“We started with the apples, then we added the blueberries, the raspberries, and we tried to find something different that was not growing in Quebec,” said Fortin, co-owner of the orchard in Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly, a town southwest of Quebec City.
Her husband, Denis Maltais, flipped through their plant catalogue in search of a new plant, and landed on something they’d never considered growing — kiwis.
Arguta and kolomikta kiwis, also known as the hardy kiwi or Arctic Beauty kiwi, are well-suited to colder climates and first originated in parts of Asia and Siberia.
They’re smaller than other kiwis and are smooth to the touch, and they grow on vines, planted in rows at the Verger de Tilly.
“The fruit is delicious. It’s more sweet than the New Zealand kiwis that we know, and we can eat it without peeling it because it’s like grapes,” Fortin explained. “Because it’s rare, we have a lot of people from all around Quebec… just to see how it’s grown and what does it taste.”
But when it comes to growing the fruit, Fortin says patience is key. It took three years before they were able to start harvesting their kolomikta plants, and seven years before they could touch the arguta variety.
“It is difficult because we didn’t have anything to build on. Nobody was growing kiwis in Quebec, so it’s a trial and error kind of thing.” said Fortin. “Ten years later, we have a good production of kiwis, but it takes a lot of years to get good at it.”
While extreme heat and torrential rain made it a tough year for the apples, the kiwis appear to have gone unscathed. They’ll be ready to harvest later this month and into September.
“We were a test bench and now other producers are seeing that it’s working and they want to try it,” said Catherine Maltais, Fortin’s daughter and the orchard’s marketing director. “There are a lot of different factors that can make them grow or not… It may not work everywhere, but it works here so it encourages others to try it and see if they like it, if they can make a business out of it — of just kiwis, and I think we’ll see more and more.”
The Verger de Tilly now has 100 kiwi plants, which yield around 1,500 pounds of the fruit every year. They sell them in small batches on their farm every fall, only selling them at the Marché public de Sainte-Foy in Quebec City if they have a particularly bountiful harvest.
With the rest, the family uses the fruit to make jams and jellies, and to brew their own beer. In fact, the family’s microbrewery is the reason why they hope to keep experimenting with different types of fruit, adding a new kind to the orchard every three to five years.
“The schisandra fruit is growing just beside me. It’s brand new and it’s a fruit that has all five flavours: sweet, acidic, tart and umami,” said Fortin. “We want to have different kinds of tastes in our beers.”
Michel Larocque, co-owner of O’Kiwi in St-Ambroise-de-Kildare, Que., believes the owners of the Verger de Tilly are pioneers of the industry.
O’kiwi sells thousands of kiwi plants to Quebec businesses and residents every year.
“You can grow them on a fence, on a trellis, on a pergola — anywhere,” said Larocque. “We have a lot of customers from the last year that already grow some apples, grow some other fruits and they’re starting a business now with the kiwi. It’s one of the fruits they say is émergeant. In 10 years, we will see kiwis everywhere in the grocery store.”