A & L Peterson Orchards is a family orchard on 35th Street NE in Salmon Arm. Allan and Laura Peterson run it. They grow 57 varieties of apples, plus cherries, apricots, peaches, plums, prunes, pears, and grapes. They also make Laura's Pies and press their own apple juice.
A family story that starts in 1911
In 1911, Ed and Ivor Peterson, Eric Westman, and Anton Swanberg left Saskatchewan for Salmon Arm. They had heard there was work. When they arrived the work was gone, so they traded labour for a place to live.
The next year they made a deal with Sam Greenwood. They would clear 40 acres on what was then called the Limit, and earn 40 acres of their own. Each partner got 10 acres in 1913. The first fruit trees went in that year, and one of them is still growing.
Peterson Bros
Ed married Eric Westman's sister, Mina, in 1914, and they raised eight children. Ed was mostly a logger, but he planted a small orchard and bought up his partners' land over the years. By the 1930s he was farming more, and his older sons were buying orchard land of their own.
In 1948 Ed and his five sons, Hubert, Elmer, Alf, Floyd, and Hjalmar, formed Peterson Bros Co-Op. It became Peterson Bros (Salmon Arm) Ltd in 1952 and kept that name for more than 50 years. The brothers also ran the John Deere and Homelite dealership in Salmon Arm from the 35th Street NE property. Floyd and Alf ran the orchards.
Allan and Laura
Alf's son Allan and his wife Laura took on one of the family orchards. In 2007 they started A & L Peterson Orchards and bought Scafri Farms Frozen Pies, which became Laura's Pies. Later they bought a juicer, and now they press fresh apple juice every week.
Laura's Pies
Laura makes more than 10 kinds of frozen pie in 8 and 10 inch sizes, using fresh apples and her own fillings. Year-round flavours are apple, blueberry, bumbleberry, peach, strawberry rhubarb, apple raspberry, and apple crumble. Cherry comes in summer, pumpkin and cran-apple in fall, and mincemeat in winter.
What we carry
Yellow plums come to Nature Delivered in a short window in late summer. They are grown with no spray, but they are not certified organic.
