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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • NOVEMBER 2017


Mother Nature to blame for late cranberries A later season has delivered high-quality fruit but smaller berries


by RONDA PAYNE FORT LANGLEY – Cranberry


growers are experiencing a later harvest than recent years have delivered but this year’s fruit looks good according to one industry insider. The late season is raising concerns about yields for some growers, however. Yet uncertainty was


nowhere in sight at the Fort Langley Cranberry Festival on October 7, where Meghan and Joel Neufeld and a helper bagged no shortage of berries for an eager public. Ocean Spray donates cranberries for the event and proceeds from berry sales support the event’s operation each year. One, two and five- pound bags were available for sale and moved quickly from the sale tent. Neufeld, the event’s co-ordinator, estimated attendance at about 50,000 people. “They usually send us 10,000 pounds and they sent us 12,000 this year,” she says. “This crop is a double variety.” Neufeld explained that the berries


came from two different, early ripening varieties. One was larger than the standard berry; the other, average sized. All were harvested


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couple of Langley farms that are currently harvesting.” Carriere says there is less


fruit rot and she feels there is plenty of cranberries for consumers in fresh, frozen juiced or dried form. “No worries about


availability,” she notes. But some growers are less optimistic.


Brian Dewit of Fort Langley


has expressed concerns about the late harvest and cautioned that yields may be reduced.


The hot summer and


relatively dry fall has reduced the size and colour of berries. Some growers may wait longer – to the end of October or even into November – to harvest, but this risks running into frost damage.


A lack of water also limits


Volunteers Joel Neufeld and Emilie Kleine fill bags with cranberries during the annual Fort Langley Cranberry Festival. The festival attracts about 50,000 people. RONDA PAYNE PHOTO


from an Ocean Spray grower in Richmond. Heather Carriere, general manager of the BC Cranberry Commission, notes that the harvest is going as


expected, though a week or two later than in 2015 and 2016. “It’s really too early to speculate on


yields,” she says, “but I have heard the fruit quality is looking really good at a


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some growers' ability to flood and harvest bogs or to water crops to prevent night frosts while allowing ripening. But if the future of the 2017 cranberry harvest is uncertain, consumers aren’t


likely to notice a shortage of sauce on the Christmas dinner table. Rather, it’s likely to squeeze supplies of other products that consumers enjoy, such as dried cranberries.


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