Fifty years of vegetables is a legacy still growing at the farm of Dave and Karen Kellett.
Northern Farm Products, the leading cash crop operation in the region, celebrates its golden anniversary in 2014, and although their history advances one year at a time, it also gets marked each harvest by the millions of veggies.
The operation is about half an hour's drive south of Prince George on Sweder Road. It is marked with signs directing motorists to come down the driveway off Highway 97 to the area's first commercial U-pick raspberry plantation, in the same area as Northern Farm Products, which produces mostly cabbages and carrots.
It is a road that dates back even longer than the massive garden. On the shores of the Fraser River sits the Kellett farmhouse and a number of barns and outbuildings. The first homestead on the property was established in the 1930s by the Sweder family with the MacMillan homestead also on the modern property.
An accountant with a hayseed heart, George Kellett bought the place because he fancied himself a farmer, at least on weekends, and through hard work and dedication indeed became one, as did his whole family.
"We lived on McBride Crescent in the place Dr. Pierre Ducharme lives in now. I was a city boy growing up," said Dave. "We would go down after school and on weekends, bring the turnips back into Prince George, and wash them off in the driveway. The scout troop would come help, or my sister's high school basketball team, to make some money for the group. Over time it got more professional."
A major turning point was when Dave went to agricultural college in Fairview, Alberta, in 1976 to formalize the lifelong training. There he met Karen and together they came back to the family farm and took it to the next level of production while raising their own family there. His brother Stan was also heavily involved but gave way in order to go to university.
"He was the main operator on the vegetable side and we were cowboys who morphed into farmers as well, when he went to law school," said Dave.
"When we first started marketing the produce, there were four wholesalers plus Overwaitea, Safeway, Royal Produce and Woodwards all selling our stuff," said Karen. "We supplied all those places until they disappeared. Now it is all sold to Save On Foods, Shoppers Wholesale and Vanderhoof Co-op. But they take everything we grow. In all honesty we have never advertised the vegetables. When they are ready, they just take it all and it just flies off the shelf."
Kelletts were also active in their industry's associations and other outreach activities. They helped the Ministry of Agriculture, UNBC, and other research parties with some of the science of farming. In 2001 that included growing a number of berry varieties to test their viability in local climates. That evolved quickly into a partner company, Sweder U-Pick, which is now another active commercial arm of the farm.
"On a busy Saturday we will have 100 people at a time here picking berries," Karen said. "We see a lot of families coming with their kids to see where their food comes from, and have a hand in what is on the family table."
She estimates the farm produced about 2,500 pounds of berries this year - mostly raspberries (20 variations) but also saskatoons, blueberries and other delights.
Each year they produce about three million carrots and 50,000 cabbages (they range from five to 12 pounds each) and they could sell more if they chose to produce at higher levels, but they are content with their workload.
"We definitely think there is more room in the current market for more producers," Karen said. "I hear a lot of desire, a lot of interest in food security and close-to-home food supplies, but the opportunities aren't being supported by government and it's a tough thing to start up if you're on your own."
"I see a lot of interest in ambitious gardening, but still not a lot of commitment to large-scale farming, but if the public really commits to buying local produce, and that includes stores and restaurants that will sell it, then that could definitely improve."
