COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • SEPTEMBER 2018 Cawston market garden looks to the future


Sweet potato, other new crops key as business recharges


by PETER MITHAM CAWSTON – A popular


Maple Ridge produce stand is consolidating its operations in Cawston, a move that sets the stage for a new generation and new crop varieties to take hold.


“Next year will be a full


restart,” says farm manager Erik Knechtel, who with his parents Ken and Elke Knechtel are the team behind Cawston Market Farmer Inc., originally known as Red Barn Produce. “We’ll be still growing the same stuff – maybe less of some things and more of others – just to meet the market demand.” Some of that stuff, however,


is breaking new ground among consumers looking to source more products locally. While buy-local advocates seek to replace imports with locally grown products, families like the Knechtels are branching out from tomatoes, squash and melons to more exotic species like edamame, lemongrass and eggplant. Sweet potatoes have been


a particularly attractive crop for the Knechtels, drawing them into a partnership with researchers at the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre in Ontario. “This is our fifth year doing


sweet potatoes, third year for the trial with Vineland,” says Knechtel. The partnership is mutually beneficial. Knechtel was having trouble sourcing starts early enough in the season for the plants to establish themselves before temperatures started rising and the Similkameen’s famous winds began drying them out. “If you got them in June


here, it was too late,” he explains. “It just gets too hot. There’s a threshold date where nothing really grows very well … they get kinda baked.” Vineland, meanwhile, was


keen to identify varieties that could expand options for growers in Canada as part of its world crops research program, which has also explored eggplant and okra. “Vineland’s world crops


program is all about bringing in crops that are traditionally grown in other parts of the world and optimizing their production here in Canada to benefit local growers, offset imports and provide our diverse population with fresh, locally grown offerings of the fruits and vegetables they are looking for,” says Amanda Moen, business development advisor with Vineland. The participation and


feedback of the Knechtels and other growers has resulted in Vineland selecting an orange- fleshed, brown-skinned sweet potato christened Radiance for commercial release in 2019, Moen said. It promises to address the issues BC growers face with a tightly defined planting window. “The major challenge in


growing sweet potatoes in the Canadian climate is our shorter growing season and the risk of chilling injury if sweet potatoes don’t size up in time to harvest before the first frost,” Moen said. “This is especially challenging in BC due to a late spring planting window.” To prepare for the variety’s commercial launch,


See SWEET on next page o Erik Knechtel manages his family's farm in Cawston. PETER MITHAM PHOTO


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