Almond or peach? New Brunswick gardener produces unexpected harvest

Brenda Tremblay has been an avid gardener for the last 40 years, but this year’s harvest in Colpitts Settlement, N.B., is a hard nut to crack.

Brenda Tremblay's 10-foot tall tree in New Brunswick grew a special harvest in 2024. (Source: Alana Pickrell/CTV News Atlantic)

“I told everybody it’s not going to produce anything, it’s just an almond tree that’s not going to produce, but obviously it did,” she said. “It bloomed for the first time when I was looking out my office window. I said, ‘What is all over my tree?’ It looked like popcorn, so I come out and investigated and it was all blooming.”

It all started about seven or eight years ago and Tremblay says it was by accident.

“I had Christmas nuts and I put them in my cupboard and then I was cleaning my cupboard out and I said, ‘They’re going in the compost in the garden.’ The next spring, voilà, there’s an almond growing in my garden,” she laughed.

She says the seedling sprouted out of an almond casing and she thinks that produce is now filling the branches.

Almond trees are not native to New Brunswick or even Canada.

“I kept asking around to people and they said, ‘No, that’s not supposed to grow here,’ so I don’t know, it’s just new to me,” said Tremblay. “It is shocking. I don’t know if anyone knows anything about them, but I sure would like to hear about it.”

Experts are divided on whether or not her unique harvest could actually survive and thrive in Maritime climates.

“My thought is she doesn’t have an almond, she has a peach tree and they’re very, very similar,” said Bob Osborne with Corn Hill Nursery. “The pits look similar, but an almond has a smoother pit or actually the shell, I guess we would call it, with little sort of pinhole air pockets if you will, as where the peach tree is more of a convoluted shell.”

Brenda Tremblay's 10-foot tall tree in New Brunswick grew a special harvest in 2024. (Source: Alana Pickrell/CTV News Atlantic)

Osborne founded Corn Hill Nursery in Corn Hill, New Brunswick, more than four decades ago. He says they grow roughly 1,000 different species and varieties, and almond trees are not one of them due to New Brunswick weather and growing conditions.

“They have been grown up to Zone 5 hardiness, but right here we’re in Zone 4 and if you get down to temperatures like we used to have, -35 C or even -40 C occasionally, that will wipe out an almond tree,” he said. “While it’s technically possible, I’ve never seen one growing here, especially one that would be producing fruit.”

Green Barn Farm near Montreal, Quebec, has found a way for almond trees to thrive in Canada.

"It's really not hard. It requires the right genetics,” said Ken Taylor. “If you can grow a peach or a nectarine – the hardy ones like Reliance and some of the others – almonds should be an easy go. They don't like, you know, minus 35 centigrade winters, but how often do you get those in the Maritimes?"

Brenda Tremblay's 10-foot tall tree in New Brunswick grew a special harvest in 2024. (Source: Alana Pickrell/CTV News Atlantic)

Over the years, Taylor says he tried to plant trees developed in Texas or California, but they froze during the winter. Since then he was able to create the “Canadian Taylor,” which is hardy enough to grow in Canada.

“I've been selling all kinds of similar trees, which would be peaches and nectarines, too. I just have a fella in Moncton, New Brunswick, that's placed about 15 orders with us,” said Taylor. “I'm sure in there he's got peaches, nectarines, and maybe even almonds, and he says he's having great success with them.”

He says it would be very hard to tell the difference between an almond and a peach tree in the spring because they have extremely similar characteristics like vigorous shoots, pink blossoms and identical leaves. He noted the almonds aren’t typically ready to harvest until October.

With this being the first summer that Tremblay’s tree has produced any type of harvest, only time will tell exactly what comes from the produce. 

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