Photo: Vernon Museum A view of Bulman's Limited in 1950 - the version that followed the 1928 fire. The company was located adjacent to the CPR rail line, or on modern-day 37th Avenue. The Okanagan bears many badges of honour regarding its natural beauty and culture, and its abundant produce is a particularly strong point of pride – one that Vernon has certainly lived up to.
But in 1926, one man took action to prevent a serious issue shaping up alongside this source of profit: the needless food waste it created and often promptly discarded. That man was Thomas Bulman, hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Originally operating near Kelowna, his canning and dehydrating company, Bulman’s Limited, moved to Vernon in 1926 to make use of surplus crops otherwise left to rot.
Bulman’s Ltd. achieved wide-spread success over its 50-year reign and quickly kindled affection among locals. Ads for its dehydrated produce claimed that here, at last, was where “Quality and Quantity are Partners” and offered to deliver three pounds of Fancy Dehydrated Apples to your doorstep for $1.
Bulman’s set its sights to international doorsteps as well: in the '30s and '40s, crates of these apples were bound for India, countless pounds of jam stock made their way to Britain, and heaps of dried onions and carrots arrived in Northern Japan to the delight of hungry fishing fleets. One secret to the company’s success was its determination to stand on the cutting edge of technology. Thomas Bulman pushed for new developments and utilized research by the State College of Oregon to optimize his process, although he was not immune to a healthy dose of nostalgia for simpler days – the Vernon News once published his reminiscence of boyhood and the traditional technique of drying apples over a simple stove.
By 1927, nonetheless, he was claiming that Vernon possessed “the most modern dehydrating plant on the American continent.” Keeping with his passion for limiting food waste, the company found a use for every part of their produce. Apples were deconstructed as follows: peelings were used for cider, pomace was dried and converted to strawberry root weevil poison and seeds were shipped elsewhere for stock tonic.
Perhaps it was these strong environmental leanings or simply the usefulness of Bulman’s products that inspired such fondness in Vernonites’ hearts. Whichever the case, no event aroused their loyalty better than the devastating 1928 fire that destroyed the company’s plant, building, machinery, and stock. On the morning of Oct.
24, a horrible blaze brought production to a stop and cost Bulman’s $105,000 in damages, less than half of which was covered by insurance. As the city navigated the aftermath, it launched a campaign to provide $25,000 toward rebuilding the famous dehydrator. After much vocal public support, full-page campaign advertisements, and meetings where (“although the hall was not warm and the benches were hard”) determined locals persevered in their mission, Bulman’s Ltd.
was back on its feet by August 1929. Much praise was reserved specifically for Thomas Bulman himself. From his first debut in the Valley, the Vernon News described him warmly as an enthusiastic, bright businessman, and the reputation did not fade.
Even at his death in 1933, his companions showed nothing but appreciation for him and his enduring courtesy and optimism. The doctor who oversaw his passing stated, in a touching tribute to the beloved businessman, that “Mr. Bulman’s philosophy of life always pointed toward a glorious future.
Death is the gate to life. We must see in death the opening up of a new vision to what lies beyond.” It seems that Mr.
Bulman spurred not only a new perspective on produce, but also profound sentiments about life itself..
