The Rural Voice, 1999-07, Page 26Their nut grove in ruins, Paul and
Barbara Bennett still hope for a silver •
lining to their dark cloud
Story and photos by Keith Rou1s-
aul Bennett feels sick when he
walks down the rows of his nut
grove near Paisley. The trees
are dying, and with them his dream
of establishing a nut industry in
Bruce County.
But even a bad case of eastern
filbert blight can't completely kill the
dream. Bennett still sees bright
possibilities for the nut industry in
Ontario, and even his own dark cloud
just might have a silver lining.
The nuts are one of two interests
that Paul and Barbara Bennett have
turned into businesses. Their main
income is generated by a gourmet
bird feed business that they run near
Paisley. They call their joint
operation Mill Creek Seed Co. and
Nut Grove.
To understand the scope of the
tragedy in the Bennett's nut grove
you have to go back to all the work
they've done over nearly two
decades.
"We were looking at it in the early
'80s," Paul says. "I couldn't figure
out why nobody was growing nuts in
Ontario." After some research he
heard about the Society of Ontario
Nut Growers (SONG) and through
that group found out enough
information to decide to try growing
nuts. They heard of a disease called
22 THE RURAL VOICE
eastern filbert blight but didn't think
it existed in Bruce County.
In 1984 the Bennetts bought their
farm west of Paisley and planted an
experimental plot of 40 hazelnut
trees. When those trees seemed to
survive the following winter well,
they "jumped in with both feet" and
started planting the first of what
would become their 2,700 -tree
hazelnut grove. It took them several
years to get enough stock from the
nurseries in the Niagara area that
specialize in hut trees.
Because of the cost and shortage
of trees they made a decision that
was to cause them problems later, but
now just might be their salvation.
Some of the trees they planted were
seedlings rather than grafted stock.
The problem with seedlings is that,
like fruit trees, they don't breed true
to their parents because nut trees
must cross-pollinate to produce. That
causes problems with trees that don't
grow at the same rate or mature at the
same time. In the long run, however,
it gives them 2,700 trees with
different genetics.
"If there's any chance I will have
some survive, it will because of that,"
he says. "If I had all grafted tress, all
from the same two or three species, I
would have been out of luck. The
Paul Bennett searches his hazelnut
trees for new signs of blight.
recommended cultivars are all
susceptible to eastern filbert blight."
About four years after they began
planting trees they began to let others
know what they were up to and the
idea caught on with five other groves
being planted in the area. Two of
those he knows of have since caught
the blight but one hasn't.
Eastern filbert blight originated
with native Ontario hazelnuts which
carry the disease but have a
resistance to it. Imported European
filberts, which have a better nut
quality, are susceptible to the disease.
Native filberts give nuts the size of
peas that are completely enclosed in
a tough husk, making them hard to
work with making commercial use
impossible.
The hope some of their trees
might survive the blight comes from
the fact they planted a European
filbert crossed with native filberts in
experiments started by a western
Canadian breeder named Gellatly
who devoted his life to nut breeding
programs.
The Bennetts have been
harvesting nuts since the early 1990s.
Hazelnuts are among the fastest nut