TRANSCRIPT

Bob Leighton: Before the fruit trees grew too big, many people grew row crops; canteloupes, tomatoes and later, zuccha melons. These huge gourds are perhaps forgotten. Up to eight feet in length, they were loaded on trucks like corkwood. I am told that the pulp was diced, saturated with fruit juice to become candied peel. Dominion Canneries had a large tomato cannery across the tracks from the packing house. This operated into the late thirties, early forties. Apalled at the tons of prime fruit going to waste, Jim Stowell and Louis Deighton experimented with private canneries. Louis invented apple juice. A brass plaque in the Sun-Rype plant in Kelowna attests to this. Before this, imperfect apples were simply dumped.
(clip has been edited for easier listening)