Eunice Gorman

Sawmill operator Gorman Group is going back to its founding family’s farming roots with the development of a vineyard on an Okanagan Valley hillside destroyed by a forest fire in August last year. It’s next to the company’s West Kelowna sawmill and is being planted with vines as something of a tribute to one of the company’s founders, Eunice Gorman. The matriarch of the Gorman family passed away at home, surrounded by hymn-singing family members, on Sept. 16 last year at 100 years of age. She was the widow of Ross Gorman, who founded the company in 1949 with his brother, John Gorman, and she had been the company’s first bookkeeper. Now, 47 000 vines producing eight varieties of organic European grapes are being planted in her honour on a portion or a 28 acre property in the agricultural land reserve. The first harvest is expected in 2024.