The Rampone Family Est. 1893
Following the trail of Father Pandosy and the Casorso family, Louis Rampone ( Great Grandfather ) came to Kelowna in 1893. For a number of years he worked for Archie Hardy on a farm that is now Orchard Park Shopping Centre. In 1898 he called his 16 year old son Domenic ( Nonno ) over to Canada from Italy. Five years later he asked his son Camillo to join them in Canada. Louis's wife, Guissepina, and daughter Melania remained in Italy, although Guissepina was in Canada for 2 years.
In 1912 Nonno returned to Italy to find himeself a bride. During this time he was involved in the Italian War ( 1914-1918 ) In 1919 Nonno and Nonna ( nee Guissepina Borgnetta ) were married and in 1920 they began their journey to Canada, arriving in 1921.
Meanwhile Louis was farming on his own on some property he bought on Gordon Road. For a nubmer of years he raised vegetables on a crop sharing plan with a number of Japanese workers. Part of Louis's house still remains on the Gordon Road property.
During the early '20's Louis bought some land on Benvoulin road, where the home farm now stands. Nonno and Nonna were meanwhile residing on St. Paul Street downtown Kelowna. In 1926 Nonno and Nonna moved to the Benvoulin Road farm where they tried their hand at growing tobacco, which was successfully grown here prior to 1920. The British North America Tobacco Company fell on some poor times and this coupled with an early frost marked an end of the tobacco era in Kelowna. Many of the barns are still standing in the Pandosy Mission area, as is the one barn on our farm.
During the '30's and '40's many different crops were grown that were later sold to local packinghouses. This time also saw the introduction of several cows on the farm from which butter was made and sold to local stores. Nonna's butter churn and butter wrappers are still around the farm to this day.
With the addition of "automatic" milkers and Albert Rampone's ( Nonno's son ) involvement on the farm the 1950's saw a growth in the dairy part of the farm operation. During this time the vegetable fields were used mostly to grow the grass and hay for cattle feed.
The '60's saw the return to more vegetables due to the increased size of the family mail order pepper and eggplant business.
Ray and Don were soon "onto" this money maker and soon opened a road side stand, Don - O - Ray Vegetables. With great help from the parents, Albert and Rose, this became more than just a hobby. John was soon to join the ranks as a partner and the business began to grow.
When Ray finished his welding cource at the college he became a junior partner on the dairy farm. During the peak of the Dairy farming there were some 35 cows milking at any one time. 1977 saw the end of the dairy animals and the return of most of the farm to vegetables, although now not sold to the packinghouse but to the public at the road side stand Ray and Linda built beside their house.
Rose and Albert have retired, and are enjoying much of their time traveling all over the world.
Don and Jane are both teaching in Kelowna.
John and Tammy are now living in Nelson, where John is employed with NCR as an electronic technician. John still enjoys his baseball and has started golfing with Tammy.
Lori ( Ray and Linda's daughter ) is still living in the original farm house. She also enjoys riding and training horses.
In 1997, they built a new stand beside their daughter Lori's house which was Nonna's house. Over time some of the land which was not very fertile for growing vegetables was fenced off for horse boarding facilities ( Diamond R Farms ). With both businesses, it keeps Ray and Linda very busy.
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