Lorne Metropolit
Lorne Metropolit grew up in a small town in Saskatchewan and got the horticulture bug from his father and grandmother. He became known as the one to call if you needed good landscaping work. After he came to the Yukon, he took courses and brought in experts and transformed a block of solid bush.1)
Metropolit started Yukon Gardens in 1985 to show southern Yukoners what could be grown in the region. He has delivered many gardening courses including programs at the Whitehorse correctional facility, and communities and schools across the Yukon. His business grew from a nursery to a greenhouse operation that supplies quantities of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and lettuce for sale in local grocery stores.2) Lorne’s youngest daughter Kelsey has a kinesiology degree but then switched to Olds College for the horticultural program. She works hard at the business and plans to take over the business if and when Lorne retires.3) Lorne’s team includes his daughter and up to two dozen employees, depending on the season, and they struggle to keep up with local demand.4)
The greenhouses are allowed to freeze to get rid of some bad bugs and the business does not use insecticides. Tomatoes are seeded in growing chambers at the end of December and bees pollinate their flowers as they grow.5) When needed, the greenhouses are heated with a biomass boiler system fed by wood chips from Haines Junction and produces almost zero pollution.6)
Yukon farmers are supported by the Yukon government through a multiyear program with funding from the federal government. Lorne has used innovation, resilience, and hard work to improve Yukon’s agricultural sustainability. For these reasons, Lorne Metropolit was awarded the 2022 Yukon Agricultural Award.7)