Velma Casorso and Bert Sperling

On April 14, 1929, Velma Patricia Casorso was born, in Kelowna, BC, to Pete and Alice Casorso.  She has spent the majority of her life in the family home on Casorso Road. Velma attended Mission Creek School for seven years before quitting to stay home and help look after the younger children and feed the hired hands. While home  her Aunt Peg helped her learn cooking, baking and preserving, skills which would be an essential part of her success in her later life.
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Engelbert (Bert) Harold Sperling was born on January 21, 1928, in Sedley, Saskatchewan to Pete and Agatha Sperling. During the 1930s depression years the Sperling family left everything behind and found acreage in McKinley Landing, BC. Bert attended Central Elementary and then Kelowna High Schools. He was a sports enthusiast, spending much time with hockey, baseball, rowing and the local Boy Scouts troop. Bert spent one year with the airforce in Regina, Saskatchewan. He returned home when his mother passed away.

During the 1940s, Bert spent much time fishing in Mission Creek. One day, he stopped by the Casorso house to clean his fish where he met the young Velma. They were married on April 29, 1948.  Son, Doug, was born in 1950 and daughter, Susan, in 1952. After working in the sawmill, operated by his father in law, Pete, Bert and family moved to Port Alberni, BC, where he went logging and then started his own trucking company, MacSperl, with his brother-in-law Neil MacDonald. Daughter, Karen, was born in 1956.  In 1959, the family moved back to Kelowna. Bert continued with his trucking company before taking over the full time operation of the farm with Velma’s brother, Ken Casorso. Children, Marie (1960), Ann (1962), and Joan (1964) were all born in Kelowna.

Velma’s father, Pete, grew a large garden and Velma spent many hours canning and preserving. She won many awards for her work at the “Armstrong Fair”. She was also a hospital volunteer and Catholic Women’s League member. For many years she boarded local and International students.  Working with the Summerland Experimental farm, Bert was one of the first to grow a commercial quantity of Sovereign Coronation grapes. Bert was also president of the Grape Growers Association, Chair of the Catholic School Board and was also caretaker of the Immaculate Conception Cemetery.

In 1985, Velma and daughter, Karen, started Pioneer Market. This market fulfilled Pete’s dream  that “someday we are going to have a place where we can sell what we make and grow, other than from the back door.” It started with the selling of produce and grew to preserves and baking. Pioneer market expanded with a commercial kitchen which made it possible to produce the first wine jellies in the Okanagan. Locals and tourists alike enjoyed stopping by and having a home cooked lunch outside, before making their way through the museum of Casorso artifacts. A local favourite were “Spudnuts”, available on Saturday’s only. Velma prepared the dough, Bert did the frying and the girls did the icing. Spudnuts were a specialty of Bert’s Aunt Rose Glover, from Saskatchewan.  On every visit to Kelowna, she would make a large batch of them for the family and soon became part of the Pioneer market. After 32 years, Velma retired and the business was closed. The building now houses the Sperling Wineshop, started by daughter Ann.

Bert passed away in 2012 and Velma has recently become a resident of the Vineyards Residence. Along with their six children, they have nineteen grandchildren and thirty-two great grand children.   
    
D. E. Rampone, Kelowna Canadian Italian Club