COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • NOVEMBER 2018


Yields high as cranberry


season runs late Prices down despite good size, colour by RONDA PAYNE FORT LANGLEY – BC


cranberry growers are having a good year. “Things are looking good,


but we’ve just started,” says Grant Keefer of Yellow Point Cranberries in Nanaimo and a board member with the BC Cranberry Growers’ Association. “The fruit that’s coming in is looking good. It’s got good colour; it’s got nice size.” According to the BC Cranberry Marketing Commission, the harvest began September 19. Yields from the province’s 6,500 acres are expected to be up from the nearly 47,000 tons Statistics Canada estimates for 2017, but prices are down, which Keefer notes is a North American trend, a result of high yields. Keefer says new varieties


that have been planted in recent years are not only helping to increase the overall volume of berries but ensuring a “good berry that will make the sweetened dried cranberries properly.” With almost all cranberries going to the processed market, having the right size – 0.5 to 0.75 inches – and colour is important to create Ocean Spray’s Craisin products. Keefer says varieties 9-25 and 9-11 from Integrity Propagation in New Jersey are showing promise and may be of interest to growers next year.


“Every variety is different,”


says Brian DeWit of Riverside Cranberries in Fort Langley. “The field that I harvested last week, the quality is good but it started to get a bit soft from the heat. Other than that, the results I’m getting back are very little rot, pretty good- sized berries, colour is good.” DeWit estimates the smoke


from the province’s wildfires delayed harvest a week or 10 days. Overall, however, he feels it was a near-perfect growing year. “[Harvest] would have been a lot earlier if it hadn’t been for the smoke this year,” he says.


Some growers have seen


exceptional results, like one Ocean Spray grower DeWit heard about who is growing cranberries on a 10-acre field and harvested 45,000 pounds from a single acre. A bog tour at DeWit’s farm is a new and popular part of the cranberry festival this year, according to Fort Langley Business Improvement Association executive director Meghan Neufeld, who organizes the 22-year-old event. “We are shuttling people


for free to and from the farm to witness harvesting,” she explains. Attendance was expected to exceed last year’s estimate of 50,000 people. Ocean Spray donated 10,000 pounds of fresh cranberries which teenaged volunteers from the Leos Club bag into two and five-pound portions. The five-pound bags were almost gone by noon.


Attract Pollinators to Your Farm


Fort Langley Cranberry Fest organizer Meghan Neufeld takes some time out to share the fun of cranberries with seven-year-olds Amelia Danshin and Mason Slobodin. RONDA PAYNE PHOTO


Berry sales generate funds that support the non-profit event. DeWit’s sister-in-law


Lindsay Bisschop manned Riverside Farm’s booth at the event. It was one of about 100


vendors present. “We’ve always been around


the festival,” Bisschop says, “but we’ve never done the tour with the festival.” BC has just 40 acres


designated for fresh berries,


according to Keefer. Yields from these fields are about half that of the processing berries due to the method of harvesting that requires gentler treatment of the plants.


31


We grow a selection of Pollinator Plants and others for reclaiming disturbed land, ditches, and creating windbreaks and hedgerows. It starts with a conversation, call our team.


604.530.9300 24555 32nd Avenue | Langley, BC V2Z 2J5


www.NATSnursery.com


For further info contact: Tel 604.291.1553 Fax 604.688.6525 info@agricultureshow.net www.agricultureshow.net


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44