British Columbia's cranberry harvest has started early and strong, with growers expecting higher yields after favourable pollination conditions in spring and a temperate summer, Country Life in BC reports.
"We'll probably have our largest crop to date," said Brian DeWit of Riverside Cranberry Farm in Langley, who expects to harvest just over a million pounds from 34 acres. That works out to about 29,412 pounds an acre, against last year's provincial average of 21,273 pounds an acre in Statistics Canada data.
DeWit, who grows Crimson Queen from the Rutgers breeding programme, began harvesting in mid-September, 10 to 14 days earlier than in previous years. "We had some pretty beneficial rains when we needed them," he said. He prunes his fields to expose the berries and help them ripen, which suits the fresh market.
Most BC cranberries go south to Ocean Spray for processing into sweetened dried cranberries or juice, but Riverside has adapted to sell fresh, and DeWit says the fresh market is "really strong" this year as retailers see shoppers boycotting American products and buying Canadian where they can. Getting fresh-market quality is hard work, he said, which is why few growers do it.
Stephanie Nelson, chair of the BC Cranberry Marketing Commission, said in a statement that a few more weeks of sunshine and cooler evenings should help bring the crop to its full potential.
Photo: Keith Weller, USDA-ARS / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Source: Country Life in BC
Comments
(0)