Family Environmental History
September 20, 2024 By: Josie Bates
Professor Norman Fennema
HIST 3991: Environmental History
Josie Bates
September 19th 2024
I live in Kelowna BC with my husband, our two young children, and our dog. My husband and I were born and raised here, and so were both of my parents. My mother’s parents emigrated to Canada from Holland in 1953 and my father’s parents moved to Kelowna in 1965 from Lister BC. My maternal grandparents were both 21 when they emigrated to Canada from a small village in North Holland; shortly after emigrating, they bought a home on a 32-acre apple and pear orchard, where they raised my mother and her six older siblings. My grandma and opa were born during the great depression, and grew up during World War II, experiencing hardship and violence. Both of them grew up resourceful, and made due with what they had; my grandma was one of 9 and my Opa was one of 13, both families grew up in extremely small houses with small wood fires and limited running water (cold only). My opa was able to utilize a lot of his life experiences with orcharding in Kelowna, having grown up working diligently on an orchard and tulip field in Holland; these experiences gave him a deep connection to the land and great knowledge of agriculture. He enjoyed grafting various types of apples on to one tree. My grandma remained resourceful, she canned and fermented, knit and sewed. My mother remembers getting her milk and eggs delivered, they composted most food back into the orchard and had a “burning barrel” for small loads of garbage.
My father’s parents moved to Kelowna from Creston, BC when they were 19 and soon bought an acreage in which they mainly used to grow a large variety of vegetables. My nana grew up one of 3 kids in the Yukon as her father was helping build the Alaskan highway, and my papa was raised on a 60 acre farm in Lister BC with his 11 siblings. Because their house was so small, the boys had to sleep year-round in a wood shed, where the cold wild blew in through the cracks. Their farm had an outhouse and a pump for water, he had to work hard every day and had a very limited education. Once moving to Kelowna, my papa and nana eventually converted a large portion of their property into a Christmas tree farm. From a young age, my father, myself, and my son have all had the pleasure of help cutting down and replanting the fir trees at my papa’s farm. He had a passion for all living things and growing just about anything.
My father and my papa were both captains at the Kelowna Fire Department, so fire safety was also a major factor in my house growing up. I spent a lot of my childhood at my papas farm were he taught me to plant, carve, drive a tractor, and climb 50 foot trees. I also always looked forward to the annual burn, where we all gathered to clean up the property and enjoy a big bonfire with plenty of marshmallows.
Because of the cities massive expansion due to urbanization, the Kelowna that I live in is drastically different than the one my parents did. My grandma sold her orchard and we lost the farm after my papa passed in 2022, it’s bittersweet to think that my children won’t have the same chance to explore the land I cherished, nor will I be able to share the same wealth of information about working the land as my grandparents did.