Built in the 1920s as a tobacco-drying barn, the building was financed by the British Columbia government. The purpose of the government's having financed the project was to create a temporary local tobacco industry to provide income for orchardists until newly planted fruit trees matured and came into production. Begun in 1896, tobacco growing continued in the Okanagan Valley until 1927.
This barn is one of the few survivors of that government sponsored program, and certainly the best preserved. We know not what uses the barn was put to in the intervening years, but in 1994 the barn and several acres of land were donated to the
Okanagan Gleaners Society for use as a food processing facility. The non profit society processes fruit and vegetables that would have otherwise gone to waste and processes them into various food products for distribution to hungry people the world over.
Food from Okanagan Gleaners has been distributed in: Greenland, North Korea, Bosnia, Mexico, Mongolia, Ecuador, Ukraine, Philippines, Ghana, Romania, Albania, Uganda, Colombia and many parts of Russia, including northern Siberia. Okanagan Gleaners also provides food to local soup kitchens, food banks and street ministries.
Okanagan Gleaners Society was founded in the autumn of 1994 by a small group of Christian believers in the South Okanagan Valley, out of a growing concern for the hungry people of the world. Fruit and vegetable prices in the Okanagan were sorely depressed. Meanwhile, they saw good food being wasted, unharvested in the fields and orchards. Confronted daily by media images of people starving in other countries they felt a responsibility to salvage this God-given abundance of food.
Thus the vision for Okanagan Gleaners was born. With God’s leading they could save the surplus food and send it to the poor and needy! The gift of food would help extend the hands of missionaries reaching out to a hungry and dying world. The Gleaners’ vision quickly became a reality. Many people joined the society. A local orchardist offered a small acreage with an old 1920’s tobacco-drying barn. Soon this building was painted and renovated into a food-processing plant. Production began in July 1996.
Our society produces mainly dried vegetable product that may contain cabbage, onions, tomatoes, carrots, peppers, beans, peas, split peas, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, turnips, eggplant, zucchini, pot barley, split peas, lentils, potatoes and salt. In addition, Okanagan Gleaners produces dehydrated apple and pear chips.
From Okanagan Gleaners
Okanagan Gleaners
Description of Historic Place:
This red, gable-end Folk Victorian barn with white accents is located on Road 3 near the South Okanagan Lands Project canal. This site consists of the barn only, and may be found at 10103 Road #3, (District Plan 1728) at 49 degrees, 9’ 48.6” N, 119 degrees, 34’ 16.7” W.
Heritage Value:
Social:
This site is a reminder of the commitment of the Provincial Liberals under John Oliver to the success of the South Okanagan Lands Project, which was the major social engineering project in this part of the Province. At a time when trees had not yet matured for a significant crop, and transportation of soft fruits out of this portion of the Valley was suspect, a ground crop that was stable and minimally affected by transportation was sought as a source of transitional income. The Provincial government responded by financing the construction of tobacco curing barns like this throughout the area. While anticipated returns were not realized, this barn is the best preserved survivor in the Okanagan Valley for the processing of a foundational crop grown throughout the Okanagan and Similkameen from 1896 to 1927.
The site has redeveloped its character as a social engineering location as the headquarters for the operation of the Okanagan Gleaners. The Gleaners are a non-profit cross-denominational group which takes discarded fruit and vegetables grown in the area, and creates dehydrated foods for distribution to disadvantaged groups throughout the Province and around the world. The cross-denominational nature of the Gleaners provides an outlet for social cooperation towards a common goal.
Character-Defining Elements:
Key elements that define the heritage character of the CN Railway Bridge include its:
- The appearance of a Folk Victorian Tobacco Barn as evidenced by:
- Moderate pitch side gabled roof
- Patterned stick work on walls
- Roof ridge roof ventilator extending nearly the entire length of the building
- Slight eave overhang
- The presence of charitable social engineering projects in using the site
From the RDOS Heritage Register