Newly planted apple trees  at the  new Northern Lights Winery – photos 250News

Prince George, B.C. – The rain  stopped, the sun came out, and so did the shovels and rakes.  It was planting day at the Northern Lights Estate Winery, a fruit winery  being developed in Prince George on P.G. Pulpmill Road.

2198 trees, berry bushes and  plants  have to be planted.

(at left, hundreds of berry bushes wait to be planted)

“There are  ten different varieties altogether and six main ones” says Pat Bell,  whose family is  developing the  winery.   “Apple, rhubarb and gooseberry  are the white wines,  and the red wines are black current, haskup or honey berry,  and raspberry,  then we have four others that are minor components.”

The overall plan calls for a  winery  building,   which will now be built on the south side of P.G. Pulpmill Road not the north side as was originally planned.  Bell says the change was made following a geotechnical report which made the north side of the property less desirable for that kind of construction.  Instead, the northside will be the site of more plantings and an amphi-theatre for concerts.

Owned by the Bell family, the  apple trees were  being planted today along the south side of the property along the Nechako River.  The next row  will be raspberries,  “Then there will be a series of other berry bushes along the front” says Pat Bell.

The first  three years of the orchards will be  organic, says farm manager Noemie Touchette. “We will have to use some fertilizer because the land is low in nitrogen, but because we are so close to the river, we are not going to use pesticides.” 

(at right, Nicole Wheele shovels in soil, while farm manager Touchette holds tree steady)

To keep it organic, bees will be called upon to   help in the pollination process and that will also create a spin off “We can make mead wine from  it, the honey wine” says Bell.  He says he’s already had conversations with three different bee keepers in Prince George who would like to place their hives near the winery.

There are challenges,  for starters,  the  new apple trees have  to be  protected with a wrapping of  wire, because beaver activity  is  evident in the area.   The other major challenge?  “Weeds and wildlife” says Farm Manager Touchette “Because we didn’t have time to fully prep the land, we will be dealing with weeds.   Then of course we have to come up with ways to keep the deer out.”

“It’s very, very important to us to mitigate any possible harmful effects to the crops, and any  harmful effects to the wildlife” says Doug Bell.  “We are looking for as many natural means (to keep wildlife out) as possible, but if not, we will be looking to install more fencing.”

It  will be a couple of seasons before the  orchards  are producing  enough  fruit  to  attract  wildlife,  but   Bell says it will be critical that fruit is  harvested  as soon as it is ripe.  

The winery’s license allows it to use B.C. grown fruit for the first while until  its own orchards are   producing  fruit, and  they have already  put deposits on  fruit sources  in the region. Bell says he expects the first bottle of fruit wine from Northern Lights Estate winery to be ready in about a year from now “I would think that if  you are targeting the long weekend in May of 2015 that would  be a good time to be wanting to sit on the patio.”