Potato gun fun on the farm

A local farm is offering affordable high caliber entertainment to families in Kelowna with its newest attraction.

Kelowna Fruit n Veggies recently added a shooting range with barrel targets and four large custom-made potato cannons.

Despite the name, tennis balls are used as ammunition which can be launched up to 250 yards, and Dominique Coulombe, a junior partner at the farm, said this new addition is great.

“Who doesn’t want to go shoot things, right? This is a little more family fun, it’s not guns or anything,” Coulombe told Kelowna10. “It still blasts out balls and we’re working on increasing our [number of] targets.”

The cannons were made by the farm owner and one of the partners, who is a steel fabricator by trade. They were going to purchase some from Louisiana, but noticed they were pricey and not the best quality, so they decided to do it themselves.

It took about three months to get all the cannons created and they also made sure everything was safe for the public to use.

“We built the fence and put restricted signs up [around the range],” Coulombe said. “No major hiccups, it was pretty streamlined.”

He said they are hoping to get more into agritourism by having activities for families to enjoy.

They already have the 5-acre corn maze and half acre sunflower maze, as well as a wide variety of fruits and vegetables for sale.

“We just wanted more people to have a farm experience, get a little closer to their food and how it’s grown,” he explained. “Next year we’re looking to have a mortar launcher, which will be shooting watermelon and pumpkins.”

An air compressor in the pumphouse powers the four machines, which currently operate at around 75 PSI. Cannoneers feed the tennis ball ammunition into a chamber on top of the barrel, pull the slide stop lever, and fire away.

“Everyone who’s shot it, loves it,” Coulombe said. “We had a father and son who bought 48 balls to start with and then bought another round because it was so fun.”

Tickets for the mazes and cannons can be purchased in the front tent at 2190 Cooper Rd.