By Jonathan J. Kalmakoff
Although best known for orchard-growing, the historic Doukhobor colony at Grand Forks, BC also grew large quantities of vegetables. Leading among these were potatoes, which they produced not only for their own consumption and seed reserves, but also for marketing. And by all accounts, they had a record bumper crop of spuds in 1911!
Introduction
The Doukhobors first arrived in Grand Forks in 1909, attracted by the climate, topography, soil and possibilities of large-scale produce growing. Within two years, they had acquired 3,440 acres (1,392 ha) of ranchland west of the city,[1] on which 520 Doukhobor men, women and children from Saskatchewan were settled in communal villages and engaged in land-clearing and setting out orchards and gardens.[2]
By 1911, the Russian-speaking agriculturalists had planted 593 acres (240 ha) in fruit trees and hundreds more acres in vegetables, making them (by far) the largest produce grower in the Kettle Valley.[3] They gained recognition from neighbouring growers, some grudgingly, who spoke favorably of their hard work ethic and progressive methods of cultivation,[4] and who adjudged their orchard and garden operations “the cleanest, the best-kept and the heaviest cropped of any district.”[5] These sentiments were reflective, as much as anything, of their potato-growing.
Role of Potato in Doukhobor Diet
Potatoes – in Russian kartoshka – had long been a staple crop of the Doukhobors, who grew them for their own use and for sale since the 1840s.[6] Hardy and easy to grow in a variety of environmental conditions, the nutrient-rich root vegetable was a customary – nay, essential – part of their vegetarian diet.[7] The extent to which Doukhobors included potatoes in their daily menu can be gleaned from Beulah Clarke, a schoolteacher who lived among them in BC at this time:
“Breakfast – Excellent bread, butter, a glass of milk, soup made of potatoes, onions, butter and a grain something like oatmeal. Potatoes and onions fried in butter. Baked apple or preserves. Dinner – Bread, butter, milk, vegetable soup. Beans, peas and cabbages boiled together. Pancakes, made very thin and usually without baking-powder. Melted butter is poured over them and I ate them either with sugar or jam. Supper – Bread, butter, milk, ‘lapshe’. This is made from flour and water. It is rolled very thin and then shredded and put into boiling water; butter is added, and very often there are small pieces of potato with it. Preserves, turn-overs; these are made from bread-dough, rolled very thin. Mashed potatoes are put in some, and rhubarb and sugar in others. They were put in the frying-pan and baked in a brick oven.”[8]
Potato Cropping
Regarding the type of potato grown by the Doukhobors, the Grand Forks Gazette reported in 1911 that the local colony planted the ‘Early Ohio’,[9] a popular, early-maturing variety known for its light brown skin and creamy white flesh, which made it excellent for baking, boiling and frying. The original seed stock was more than likely sourced from the local Riverside Nurseries.[10]
Based on district average crop yields per acre, it is estimated the Doukhobors planted 96 acres (39 ha) of land in potatoes at the west end of the valley in 1911.[11] Photographs reveal that much of this acreage was intensively double-cropped, with potatoes grown between rows of young fruit trees in their orchards.[12] Village garden plots, road allowances, and marginal, rugged lands made up the rest of their potato acreage. Through these various methods of cultivation, the Doukhobors maximized the use of their land, which had enormous pay-offs in terms of production, self-sufficiency and surplus.
Consumption & Seed Stock
In terms of self-sufficiency, the first priority of the Grand Forks colony was setting aside enough of their potato crop as they required for their own consumption over the upcoming year. If we presume a minimum subsistence amount of 200 lbs. (90 kg) of potatoes per person per year,[13] then the Doukhobors retained an estimated 104,000 lbs. (46 imperial/metric tons) of potatoes for this purpose in 1911, based on their census population that year.
These were placed in hundred-pound gunny sacks and stored in communal storehouses and root cellars, which kept them from freezing during the winter and kept them cool during the following summer without waste or spoilage. They were then distributed to families, as needed, for use in traditional Doukhobor dishes such as those mentioned above as well as baked potatoes, borshch, a vegetable soup, holushki, a potato dumpling soup, kartoshnik, a baked potato cake, and as filling in vareniki, a form of dumplings.
The Doukhobors also set aside enough of their potato crop as they required for use as seed stock for the following spring. If we presume that 10 percent of their crop was used for this purpose,[14] then the Grand Forks colony reserved an estimated 175,600 lbs. (78 imperial/metric tons) of seed potatoes in 1911.
Once they ensured their own needs were met for the coming year, the Doukhobors set about marketing the surplus of their potato crop.
Surplus
Records indicate that following their 1911 potato harvest, the Doukhobors sold a staggering 8,000 sacks (800,000 lbs. or 357 imperial/metric tons) of potatoes.[15] These were pedaled by the wagonload throughout the Kettle Valley and at Phoenix, where they found a ready market among the miners, smeltermen and sawmill workers living there, who paid competitive prices for the fresh, tasty tubers.
Marketing their surplus potatoes at a reported $16.00 to $25.00 a ton,[16] the colony earned approximately $10,000.00 ($275,000.00 in today’s dollars) in 1911. This was in addition to the sale of other surplus vegetable crops such as cabbages, tomatoes, onions, carrots and cucumbers that year. These produce sales were a vitally important source of revenue for the Doukhobors, particularly at a time when most of their orchards were still years away from coming into full bearing.
Based on their estimated consumptive and seed stock needs and their known surplus, the Doukhobors at Grand Forks grew an estimated total of 481 tons of potatoes in 1911. And if the volume they grew that year was impressive, so was their size and quality.
Size and Quality
On September 16, 1911, the Grand Forks Gazette reported that the Doukhobor colony had grown an enormous potato measuring two feet (0.6m) in circumference that season.[17] The newspaper outlet triumphantly displayed the stupendous spud in its office windows as “another evidence of the possibilities of the soil of Grand Forks district” to the amazement and delight of passers-by.[18]
While the weight of this stunning specimen was not reported by the Gazette, a conservative estimate would be 20 lbs. (11 kg) based on its circumference. If so, it would have easily eclipsed the ‘world’s largest potato’ as recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records, being a mere 10 lb. 14 oz. spud grown in England in 2011![19]
Later that month, the Doukhobors were among 2,000 exhibitors at the second-annual fall fair of the Grand Forks Agricultural and Poultry Associations, held on September 29 and 30, 1911. Evaluated by a panel of judges based on written published criteria, the Doukhobor displays took home several prizes.[20] Among these were their potatoes, which received first prize ($1.00) for ‘Largest’ based on weight, and second prize (50 cents) for ‘Ohio Early’ based on quality, color, size, uniformity, condition and freedom from blemish and pack.[21] These prize-winning exhibits proved to be a tremendous opportunity to showcase the Doukhobors’ produce-growing expertise to the Grand Forks public.
Conclusion
As has been briefly outlined here, the Doukhobors at Grand Forks grew a record potato crop in 1911, in terms of volume, size and quality, for which they received considerable public attention. This was part of a wider recognition of their rapid success, through their industry, communal organization and progressive agricultural methods, to develop mountain valley wilderness into productive agricultural land. In that year, and the years that followed, they demonstrated the possibilities of the Grand Forks district for large-scale, intensive fruit and vegetable growing.
End Notes
[1] These acquisitions included the 900-acre Coryell Ranch in February 1909; 320-acre Newby Ranch in March 1909; 1,200-acre Vaughan Ranch in November 1909; 480-acre Macey Ranch in May 1910; 60-acre Collins Orchard in July 1910; 160-acre Hoffman Ranch in April 1911; and 320-acre Pettijohn Ranch in April 1911. By September 1912, Doukhobor Society landholdings in the Kettle Valley increased to 4,182 acres.
[2] 1911 Canada Census, Kootenay District No. 9, Grand Forks Riding Sub-District No. 53, page 5; No. 54, pages 10-20; No. 55, page 7; No. 56, page 1.
[3] According to a crop census taken by local orchardist W.A. Cooper in June 1911, the Doukhobor Society was the largest fruit-grower in the Kettle Valley with 400 acres planted: Grand Forks Sun, June 2, 1911. Based on crop statistics gathered five months later by W.J. Bonavia, Crop and Labour Commissioner of the B.C. Department of Agriculture, the Doukhobors had become the largest fruit-grower throughout the Boundary Region with 593 acres planted, and second only to the Coldstream Ranch at Vernon (with 650 acres planted) in the combined Okanagan-Boundary Region: W.J. Bonavia, Crops and Labour Commissioner, “Orchard Survey in Okanagan and Boundary” in Twenty-Second Annual Report of the B.C. Fruit-Growers’ Association for the Year Ending December 31, 1911 (Government of the Province of British Columbia, Victoria BC: 1912) at 22.
[4] Royal Commission on Matters Relating to the Sect of Doukhobors in the Province of British Columbia, Transcript of Proceedings, Vol. 1: Honsberger, J.D. at 197-207; Traill, Walter J.S. at 207-208; Ross, W.T. at 214-215; Kirby, F.M. at 231-239; Powers, T.R. at 268-272; Collins, A.W. at 276-279; Herrick, E. at 301-306; Magitt, C. at 307-309.
[5] W. Blakemore, Report of Royal Commission on Matters Relating to the Sect of Doukhobors in the Province of British Columbia, 1912 (Victoria BC: King’s Printer, 1913) at 31.
[6] Potatoes were first brought to Russia by Peter the Great in 1698, however, they were not widely cultivated until the 1840s: N. Ries, “Potato Ontology: Surviving Postsocialism in Russia” in Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 24, No. 2, at 181-212. Doukhobors in Russia were early adopters of the potato, having been introduced to them by their Mennonite neighbours in the Molochnaya region: see J.R. Staples, Cross-Cultural Encounters on the Ukrainian Steppe: Settling the Molochna Basin, 1783-1861 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003) at 121, 145-146; Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe: Letters and Papers of Johann Cornies, Volume II: 1836–1842, H.L. Dyck & J.R. Staples (eds.) (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020) at 394, 466-467, 492, 552-553. By 1841-1842, each Doukhobor village in the Melitopol district grew a potato plot at least one desiatina (2.7 acres or 1.09 ha) in size: ibid at 341, 533. By the second half of the 19th century, potatoes were a staple agricultural crop of Doukhobors in the Caucasus, who grew large volumes for their own consumption and for sale: Vassili Verestchagin: Painter-Soldier-Traveller, Autobiographical Sketches” (F. H. Peters, trans., London: R. Bentley & Son, 1887; Russkago Geograficheskago Obshchestva, Zapiski Kavkazskago Otdela, Vol. 18 (Tiflis: Tipografiya Gruzinskago Izdatel’skago Tovarishchestva, 1896) at 331; I. Dzhashi, “Obshchestvo Slavyanskoe, Elisavetpolskoy Gub.” in Sbornik materialov dlya opisaniya mestnostei i plemen Kavkaza, Vol. 27 (Ripol Klasik, 1900) at 12, 17, 25; S. Khomiakov, Dukhobory (Knigoizd-vo Delo, 1912) at 142; N. Breyfogle, Heretics and Colonizers: Forging Russia’s Empire in the South Caucasus (Cornell University Press, 2011) at 108, 114, 140, 208.
[7] Potatoes played an especially important role in the Doukhobor diet since, besides containing a variety of nutrients and minerals, the skins and flesh offered iron and zinc, two of the greatest deficiencies in a vegetarian diet: Potatoes in a Vegetarian Diet: https://lovepotatoes.co.uk/health/potatoes-in-a-vegetarian-diet/.
[8] Blakemore, supra, note 5 at 55. Note Clarke taught at the short-lived Brilliant school held in the Belyi Dom at Dolina Utesheniya (Ootischenia) in 1912.
[9] Grand Forks Gazette, October 7, 1911.
[10] Although there is no record of seed stock purchases, Grand Forks Doukhobors purchased their nursery stock almost exclusively from the local Riverside Nurseries: Grand Forks Sun, September 4, 1908, March 13, 1909; Winnipeg Free Press, April 25, 1911. The nursery is known to have stocked ‘Early Ohio’ potato seed: Grand Forks Gazette, May 10, 1902.
[11] According to crop statistics gathered by W.J. Bonavia, Crop and Labour Commissioner of the B.C. Department of Agriculture in November 1911, the average potato crop in the Grand Forks district was 4 ½ to 5 tons per acre: Grand Forks Gazette, November 18, 1911. Therefore, as the Grand Forks harvested some 481 tons of potatoes that year, the estimated land area base to grow them was 95 acres (481 tons / 5 tons per acre).
[12] See for example: “A Bird’s Eye View of the settlement at Grand Forks, B.C. This view embraces about 1000 acres, and represents the result of about 3 years’ work.”, BC Archives, GR-0793.5; “Community Property, Grand Forks, B.C.”, BC Archives, C-01718. The practice of double-cropping, whereby small fruit and vegetables were grown between young fruit trees, enabled the Doukhobors to use the same land to produce more than one crop a year. This significantly increase the productivity and revenue potential of the land.
[13] This is probably a low estimate, given the prominence of the potato in the Doukhobor diet, and given that during the same period, the average consumption of potatoes per capita in the United States was 226 lbs.: G.H. Holmes, Potatoes: Acreage, Production, Foreign Trade, Supply, and Consumption (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1918) at 15; and in Russia, 370 lbs.: H.S. Sherman, “The Food Supply in Russia” in Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 2 (June 1918) at 221.
[14] Generally speaking, farmers in the 1910s retained about 10 percent of their potato crop for seed: see for example Holmes, ibid, at 16.
[15] T.R. Powers, supra, note 4 at 269. Note other Grand Forks growers complained that the enormous supply of Doukhobor potatoes in 1911 glutted the local market, lowered the price per ton from $25.00 to $16.00, and resulted in substantial wastage among them. These complaints were a precipitating factor in the establishment of the Royal Commission on Matters Relating to the Sect of Doukhobors in the Province of British Columbia in 1912.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Grand Forks Gazette, September 16, 1911
[18] Ibid.
[19] According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world’s largest potato was grown by Peter Glazebrook and was weighed at 4.98 kg (10 lb. 15 oz.) at the National Gardening Show at the Royal Bath & West Showground in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England on 4 September 2011: www.guinnessworldrecords.com.
[20] The Doukhobor colony won a number of prizes at the 1911 Grand Forks fall fair including Grapes – Best Collection (1st prize), Potatoes – Largest (1st prize), Potatoes – Ohio Early (2nd prize), Pumpkins – Largest (2nd prize), Watermelons (1st prize) and Musk Melons (1st prize): Grand Forks Sun, October 6, 1911; Grand Forks Gazette, October 7, 1911. Note this was the only year on record of the Doukhobor colony having entered exhibits at the fall fair.
[21] Ibid.