DON-O-RAY celebrates 60 years
In 1960, the concept of selling produce at the roadside (in front of our Benvoulin Road house) was hatched. That year, my grandmother’s apricot tree provided us with more fruit than we could use. I took a small box full of fruit, borrowed a small table (built by Uncle Valentino Rampone in the 1940s) and set up at our roadside. I sold a small basketful for 25 cents to Nan Berard, a neighbour, who asked if she could have the rest of the box delivered. By the end of year one, a total of $1.25 was achieved.
The following year, my brother Ray and I thought we could make some extra money by taking an old “democrat,” a four-wheeled horse buggy, load it with vegetables from Mom’s vegetable garden, pull it to the edge of Benvoulin Road and start a business. On one of our Sunday afternoon drives, we came across a fruit stand in the North Okanagan that had two names joined by an O. Our minds started racing on the possibilities . . . Ray-O-Don or DonO-Ray.
Despite Ray being the elder, it must have been agreed upon that DON-O-RAY had a more audible appeal, and so our business was named. We soon learned that the vegetables needed some sort of sun cover to remain fresh throughout the day. An old tobacco cold-frame cloth was fashioned into a chuck wagon type cover, opening towards the roadside.
By the second year, Mom suggested that we plant our own vegetables if we wanted to continue. Onions were our first endeavour. We bought one hundred sweet onion seedlings, for fifty cents, from our neighbour, Ben Greening. We seeded numerous other vegetables that ensured we had enough produce for the whole summer. We placed a sign at the stand that read “Please honk for service” and one of us would run to the stand from the nearby fields, house or our outside play area. Later, we replaced the cloth cover with a plywood canopy.
By 1964, business was starting to exceed the capacity of the old farm buggy. That winter, an actual produce stand was built in part of our hay barn. During construction, I recall one of the ceiling joists falling on my head. Hard hats on the farm were not in vogue at the time. The stand was moved adjacent to an irrigation flume so we had a steady supply of fresh water to keep our vegetables fresh looking. It had a very unique closure system that allowed us to pull two ropes from the inside to open up the front window. The closure became a canopy that shaded the produce.
Being that Benvoulin Road traffic was light, we were able to be in the garden, yard or house and still be able to serve our customers. To signal the arrival of a customer, we ran a wire through the trees to the stand and hooked up a small bell outside our kitchen window with a push button at the stand.
In 1967, our original six-foot by eight-foot stand had doubled in size. In 1969, it doubled again and had turquoise colour added to the outside. I recall that while I was painting this, the City Park Aquatic Centre burned down.
Our brother John was now part of DON-O-RAY although we never did add his name to the sign. In September 1968, I was off to university and helping out whenever I came home for the summers. In 1972, Ray married Linda Lang who became a major part of the business over the next few years.
By 1974, Ray had become a junior partner with Dad on our dairy farm. I was to become principal of the Wells-Barkerville School, and John was entering Grade 12. A decision was made to expand the business. With Linda’s help, Don-O-Ray moved from Mom and Dad’s house on Benvoulin Road to Ray and Linda’s place on Rampone Road.
In 1977, John graduated from Okanagan College as an electrical technician, joined NCR, and moved to the Vancouver area. With the selling of the dairy cows, Ray and Linda committed to making DON-O-RAY a full-time job. A larger, arch-shaped stand with an upper floor staff room and storage was built.
In 1995, Ray and Linda built their new house on Benvoulin Road, south of our grandparents’ house. This led to the creation of a new DONO-RAY, now a market style. Their wholesale business was built up, supplying numerous venues with fresh produce. This is the current location and format of the stand.
Ray and Linda sold the property and business in 2002 to the Sanghera and Basran families. They have taken DON-O-RAY to another level with the addition of prepared foods such as pies, jams and sauces, using local produce, and carrying unique food and grocery items, making it a one-stop shop.
Today, you can get fresh local produce, milk, cheeses, free-range meats and more!
Over the years, the “DON-O-RAY Vegetables” stand has evolved into a full DON-O-RAY Farms market experience with the addition of new attractions. These include: the DON-O-RAY Farm Adventure featuring a petting zoo and a hedge maze, an ice-cream station with 24 flavours of ice-cream, and fresh “spud nut” doughnuts every week. These are the same spud nuts that neighbouring Pioneer Market made famous during its many years of operation. This makes it an ideal stopping spot, not only for tourists, but also for local families.
DON-O-RAY Farms continues to be a familyowned and operated business. The DON-O-RAY family concept is all about nurturing the seeds they planted in the fields and watching them grow, just as we do with our children. They hope to instil the importance of knowing where our food comes from in our future generations.