1 of 2
Granny's Fruit Stand
2 of 2
The Lutz Family
The Lutz family from left to right Conrad Lutz, Gary Lutz, Maureen Lutz, Derek Lutz.
Granny's Fruit Stand in Summerland has been a local and tourist favourite for years. Started by Don Cameron and his late wife, Josie, in 1992, Granny’s is now leased by Derek Lutz.
The Lutz family has a long history of farming in the Okanagan Valley. “We’ve farmed in Summerland for 35 years now,” said Derek, “and starting in the 1940s, my grandparents were farming in the Oliver area.” When Derek learned Granny’s was up for lease, he saw it as a perfect fit with his marketing plan for the family farm produce.
"It's a great facility,” he said. “We’ve been here since May of 2013 and business is great. Having a background in farming, and knowing what you are growing and selling helps. When it’s your own product you aren’t paying someone else to grow it and mark it up, so a profit can be made.”
Having Granny’s gives the Lutzs another venue to market their produce. Back in 2000, as a way to make a little extra money for University, Derek bought an old refrigerated truck and went all over Alberta and Yellowknife selling his family’s produce. He developed a following at farmers’ markets, and in 2003, his brother Conrad, now an accountant, joined him. Conrad now runs Sun Best Produce out of Edmonton.
“Thinking outside the box is important when marketing your produce,” explained Derek. “Thirty-five years ago my dad decided to market his own fruit and that’s how we grew up and learned about selling our product. When he passed away three years ago, it was time for me to come home and take over the family farm. One important thing I learned from him is you can’t be afraid to try different ways of getting your product to market. That could be through a value-added product or a fruit stand or filling up a truck with your produce and driving out to the prairies.”
The Lutzs sell about 150,000 lbs. of cherries overseas each year, 30,000 lbs. through Alberta and another 10,000 lbs. at the fruit stand. The smaller cherries that aren’t sold overseas, in Alberta, or at the fruit stand, were a value-added product waiting to happen.
“This year we had the mobile juicer come in and we made cherry juice out of the smaller ones that we didn’t want to sell in the market. They came out to the farm and juiced a few thousand pounds of cherries. It’s quite sweet and strong, so we tell people to mix it with a sparkling water to make a nice non-alcohol drink, or you can mix it with alcohol if you like.”
Derek is happy to be back home in Summerland with his new family. “We already grow, market and sell fruit here. Granny’s is a great facility and a great fruit stand and it enables us to sell here instead of having someone else do it. Plus we’ve always done our own preserves and stuff like that. We use my mom’s recipes for pie and we also make pickled beans and carrots. We have a fair bit of ground crop area where we do tomatoes and cucumber and peppers as well as lettuce and kale.”
Derek’s mother, Maureen, is in charge of three-quarters of an acre of ground crops grown specifically for Granny's. "The vegetable garden is my mom’s domain, I stay out of her way," he laughs. “It really is a family run, multi-generational business. My brother Conrad looks after Alberta. My grandmother Caroline is 99 now and she still helps out by cracking and packaging our walnuts. My wife Leanne, a nurse, helps out in the store when she can, and our daughter, Coraline, who is not quite two, is in charge of quality control. Anything that looks good, she puts in her mouth!”
What isn’t grown by the family is purchased from other local growers, such as melons and apples from The Apple Barn and Ogopogo Meats and Sausages. Blueberries are brought in from the lower mainland. Even their gelato is made locally by Artisto Gelato. Everything sold at Granny’s is a product of British Columbia.
Granny’s is a very popular spot for lunch, thanks in part to Swiss-trained baker Markus Hunziker, who subleases the bakery. “The bakery is a huge draw," explained Derek. “He creates delicious food daily including fruit pies, breads and pastries. People come in for coffee and for lunch. We offer light lunches, sausage rolls and that type of thing and of course we have dessert. We’ve been working more and more on building up the local clientele by having quality produce and good prices.”
With harvest time drawing to a close and tourist season over, Granny’s will close at the end of October. Locals and tourist alike will count the days until it opens again in the spring.
Granny's is located at 13810 Highway 97 in Summerland, BC.
