Penny Gamble is passing the operation of the orchards and market garden on to her son, so she has a little bit of time to talk about the changes she has seen in the Okanagan farming community since her childhood. Her son, who now manages day-to-day operations, is too busy to take time for an interview during the harvest season. The Gamble Family Farm operates a direct retail stand, has space at the Vernon and Kelowna Farmer’s Markets and still harvests enough to sell fruit to the major wholesale buyers.
All of the fruit and market gardens place them in the Clan of the Saskatoon Berry: all that grow above the ground. Penny even grows some Saskatoon berries on the farm, but she confided the plants originated in Alberta as those varieties are “less seedy” than local plants.
I met the Gamble family at the Vernon farmer’s market and interviewed Penny on September 20th, 2015 at the family farm south of Vernon near Oyama. The roadside farm market was doing a brisk trade as they are beside a busy road. The traffic can be heard in the video as part of the local landscape; the peacefulness of the pastoral setting is still regularly disturbed by vehicles passing. The Gamble family enjoys the popularity of their fruit and vegetable stand, so they accept the noise of regularly passing vehicles.