The Rural Voice, 1993-04, Page 25Gordon Scheifele shows an evening
primrose plant in full flower in the
college' s greenhouse.
was put on development of new
varieties that are early enough to
produce enough bio -mass, perhaps
there is a long-term future for the
crop.
Likewise stevia proved an
interesting possibility whose time
hasn't come for Ontario growers. It's
a high -elevation, near -tropic crop that
is a perennial in its native Andes
Mountains in Peru and Columbia. In
Ontario, however, it can't survive the
harsh winters and must be an annual
crop.
"The leaves are unbelievably
sweet," he says, giving the potential
as a natural sweetener. The sweetener
would be non caloric, non-
cholesterol, very ph -stable and very
heat stable. Some countries are
already using stevia as the source of a
natural sweetener to replace sugar but
in Canada and the U.S. there hasn't
been any company show an interest
in it. Perhaps, he speculates, this is
because of the strong commitment
they have to other sweeteners.
Research continues at Delhi, he
says, looking at different varieties of
stevia for better adaptability. Several
varieties from Delhi have been grown
at Ridgetown and have performed
well except that they can't overwinter
outdoors. Samples of the plant really
like being brought into the
greenhouse, he says, responding to
the shorter days by producing flowers
(short days trigger mountain plants to
produce flowers and seed). He
doesn't know how far north stevia
might be grown as a field crop. "At
the moment we're just exp:oring and
hopefully some food-processing
industry, especially in the natural
food industry would become
interested."
Meanwhile people can grow their
own stevia at home. The plant has
been in many herb catalogues for
years and can be grown like
geraniums in pots and brought
indoors in winter. The plant can be
trimmed back to produce lush new
growth. "You just take a couple of
leaves and add them to your pot of
tea and you get a sweetener that is
nicer than even sugar. You can also
incorporate it in other baking
processes."
The third of the original group of
alternative crops studied shows the
greatest potential. Most of us know
evening primrose as a weed but it is
developing as a profitable niche crop
because of the quality of the oil that
can be made from its seed. The seed
normally contains 20-25 per cern oil
and eight to 10 per cent is gamma
linolenic acid (GLA), a rich oil.
marketed principally as a health food
to treat various medical ailments.
Ontario, Scheifele says, has been
identified around the world as the
point of origin of the evening
primrose plant. Seed produced in
Ontario has the highest quality and
highest yield of GLA of any place in
the world. Pharmaceutical companies
in B.C., England, Holland and North
Carolina are interested in evening
primrose seed from Ontario. "There's
a growing interest and demand in this
whole idea of GLA for medicinal and
health uses," he says. In 1991 there
were perhaps 300-400 acres produced
in Ontario, many of these by the
Indian Agricultural Program of
Ontario, a co-operative set up to help
native farmers. Wayne Martin,
Program Manager of the co-op said
last fall that demand for evening
primrose has been so heavy that he
has had to look for growers outside
his group.
Back in the 1980s there were up to
500 acres a year grown, particularly
in Haldimond-Norfolk and
Wellington. In 1992, Schcifele says,
100 acres were grown in Kent County
and this year he expects several
hundred acres will be grown in Kent.
There are many barriers to greater
APRIL 1993 21