It’s autumn and that means harvest time at the historic Gellatly Nut farm– the Westside’s newest regional park. If you haven’t visited yet, treat yourself to a stroll among the nut trees, a picnic on the beach, and some nut collecting.

The Heartnut is just one of many unusual varieties of nuts grown here. Appropriately named, you’ll find a beautiful heart-shaped nut inside. The taste is reminiscent of a walnut but without the bitterness. The Buartnut is another curious nut; a cross between a Heartnut and a Butternut and an original creation of Jack Gellatly, nut breeder extraordinaire.

The Gellatly family didn’t begin as nut farmers. In fact, David Erskine Gellatly, patriarch of the clan, was known as the Potato and Tomato King. Originally from Scotland, he arrived in the Okanagan at the turn of the century. The family purchased 350 acres of waterfront land on the westside, what’s now known as Gellatly Point, and proceeded to turn it into thriving agricultural land. The fruits and vegetables were shipped all over from their packing house at Gellatly Landing Wharf where the steamships picked up their cargo. The family thrived too with 9 children, including the two eldest sons David and Jack who began the Nut Farm story.

In 1905 the brothers were each given 10 acres of the family homestead. Wanting to try something different, David Jr. began growing nut trees on his parcel of land. Soon he was shipping nut trees all over the world and so began the first commercial nut nursery in Canada.. Brother Jack joined him and together they experimented with crossing trees like the Chinese Chestnut and the Black Walnut with hardier local varieties. Luckily, the boys were very successful in this new enterprise. Things weren’t going so well for their father.

David Sr. encountered a string of bad luck starting with a terrible gale that destroyed the family’s 250 ft commercial greenhouse. In 1920 a fire wiped out his barn, machinery, packing house and dock. Although the fire began aboard the S.S.Sicamus which was docked at Gellatly Landing, the family never received compensation from the C.P.R. who ran the steamship. Financial hardship followed. Unable to make their bank payments, the family had to give up the farm they had worked so hard to build.

The remaining 9.88 acres of nut trees represents a last vestige of the pioneer Gellatly farm. In 1997 when a waterfront development was proposed for the property, neighbours and concerned citizens banded together to try to save it from the bulldozers. Ferne Jean, neice of Jack Gellatly, joined the Gellatly Nut Farm Society and worked tirelessly to preserve the farm, raising public awareness and funds. Their efforts paid off when the Central Okanagan Regional District purchased the property, in May 2002.

Gellatly Nut Farm Regional Park opened to the public in 2005, appropriately marking the farm’s 100th anniversary. The park will remain a working nut farm, with ongoing research into rare nut varieties. Visit the Nut Farm on Whitworth rd off of Gellatly Rd which runs along the Westbank waterfront.