Community People Profiles are a series on the Salt Spring Exchange featuring local personalities on our island home. These profiles are short interviews, with one answer questions to share with you a little about what each of these folks are thinking about as they go about their lives living on Salt Spring Island.

This weeks featured local people profile is: Harry Burton

Here’s a bit about Harry;

HARRY BURTON runs Apple Luscious Organic Orchard in the south end of Salt Spring near Ruckle Park. With it's over 200 varieties of apples, and the largest collection of red flesh apples in Canada, it is an apple lovers paradise, with all apples raised ORGANICALLY, just as Mother Nature would approve.

I also started and now co organize the Salt Spring Island Apple Festival now heading into it's 17th year, this Sunday, Oct 2nd. Last year we displayed 372 varieties of apples, all raised ORGANICALLY on Salt Spring. That was the largest display of apples in Canada. Locals love this festival. Visitors love this festival.

APPLE HEAVEN, we call Salt Spring.

What brought you to Salt Spring Island?

Within a few hours of my first visit to Salt Spring Island in 1979, the incredible growth of vegetation impressed my so much, I was looking for land to grow apples. Nothing happened that year, but the next year, I bought this beautiful 5 acre parcel that is Apple Luscious Organic Orchard.

Salt Spring also had that beautiful community feel, which I grew up with in Cobalt, Ontario. In addition, Salt Spring was full of characters and colour. So it did have that comfortable feel of home, even though I did not move here full time until 1998, when I retired at age 50, after 25 years of teaching. The best decision of my life.

What one thing about Salt Spring would you tell someone who has never visited the island?

I would tell everyone, that this community is the BEST IN THE WORLD. With all it's caring people, Salt Spring looks after people well. It acts like a net. With all it's creative people, it is very inspiring to enjoy all the projects that people have done. It is a very stimulating place to live. With all it's energetic and dedicated people, there is always someone taking on a worth cause to make the world a better place. There is not the stratification here, that exists in some communities. No one cares any more, when you came here. Much more important, ARE YOU A GOOD PERSON.

If you had a magic Salt Spring wand, what island thing would you change?

I would like to make a rule that everyone living on Salt Spring had to volunteer for some island activity or charity, at least once a hear. That would include picking up hitch hikers. We do have already a large army of volunteers here, but I think that there is a tendency more so now for new comers to hold back and not get involved. I encourage everyone to reach out and MAKE SALT SPRING A BETTER PLACE.

Volunteering as an act of giving is beautiful way to get connected with this GREAT COMMUNITY.

Which well known person, living or dead, do you think would be a good addition to the island?

I would love to have Albert Etter, my apple breeding hero, who worked in the mountains of Northern California, until his death in 1950 at age 72. He was breeding red flesh apples back in the early 1930, at a time when the world was not ready for that change. Now he would be a hero. He did say that his red flesh apples would adorn the tables of the finest restaurants in San Francisco. It did not happen then, but it is certainly true now. The highest end restaurants and hotels in Vancouver, cannot get enough or my red flesh apples. Red Flesh Apples are the biggest and newest trend in apples.

Is there a special project, business or initiative you are working on that islanders should know about?

I am very proud of the way the Apple Festival helps people locally and all over the world. I call them APPLE RIPPLES. We donated over $1000 to SOLID in 2015. We also do little things close to home, where we give a $100 cheque to some Salt Springers, as a thank you for the great work they do here. When some of the locals travel, they take $50 with them to do a Random Act of Kindness in the country they are visiting. On the Apple Festival website (saltspringapplefestival.org) all details are listed under DISBURSEMENTS.

Is there a really good interview question we should have asked you?

What keeps your working so hard?

How would you have answered your question?

I am inspired as I walk around my incredible orchard, by the miracles of Mother Nature, doing such intricate things to create growth. Like most apple growers, I am also inspired by the diversity of apples. There is always another great apple variety somewhere in the world that needs to be planted on Salt Spring. It turns out that the amateur fruit growers, with all their passion are one of the main driving forces in keeping alive all the diversity of nature.