A heat wave gripping southern Ontario has ushered in a wave of ripe strawberries in Haldimand and Norfolk.
“The crop, with this heat, is progressing really fast,” said James Richardson from Richardson’s Farm and Market in Dunnville.
“So we’ve abandoned our early varieties, and our later varieties are starting to come on heavy, with good size to the fruit.”
After an unseasonably cold and rainy spring, this month’s blast of heat has berry plants bursting with colour.
“We fought the frost,” Richardson said on Tuesday. “I believe it was 12 nights during May that we were either monitoring or watering for frost, which was excessive.”
The overnight weather never got “extremely cold,” he added, but neither did it warm up during the day, which stunted plants’ development. But the June sunshine brought welcome growth.
“And now we’re rolling,” Richardson said.
At Wholesome Pickins in Delhi, the intense heat is “accelerating ripening” of field crops that needed a push, said farmer David VanDeVelde.
“It’s definitely been cooler throughout the whole spring, which pushed everything behind schedule,” he said.
“Up until two days ago, we were lacking any sort of heat all year — really since October.”
On Tuesday, the local health unit declared an extended heat alert for Haldimand-Norfolk on account of prolonged high temperatures, with the mercury topping 35 C on Sunday and feeling more like 45 C with the humidex.
That has meant changing when farm workers are in the fields, with farmers keeping their employees indoors during the hottest hours of the day.
“We’re doing half days just to not have anybody out past noon,” said Ryan Schuyler of the Norfolk Cherry Company.
The rainy spring and current heat wave will likely have little effect on next month’s cherry harvest, Schuyler added, explaining high temperatures or rainfall in the few days closest to harvest have the biggest influence on the quality of the fruit.
“They’re only just starting to turn red, so we’ve still got time,” he said.
VanDeVelde said his field vegetables “seem to have come alive” after the “cool, cloudy, drizzly” spring gave way to the early summer heat. As a result, Wholesome Pickins will likely have asparagus on offer until July, with raspberries about a week behind schedule.
Most plants are “pretty receptive” to added heat, so they should be fine as long as the mercury does not plunge again, VanDeVelde noted.
But past years have seen temperature spikes bring a sudden end to strawberry season.
“That is a concern,” VanDeVelde said. “If we get too much heat too fast, then all of a sudden everything gets ripe, and a week later there’s nothing.”
At Meadow Lynn Farms in Simcoe, farmer Sarah Judd said she has spotted some sunburned berries in the fields. But she hopes the relative cooling expected to start midweek will help extend the harvest.
While watering strawberry plants to keep them cool, Richardson has his fingers crossed there will still be fruit to pick come July.
“It was late opening, and here we feel we’re already nearing the end,” he said.
“Hopefully we can make it through till Canada Day, which is just a week away. But this heat just pushes those berries along so fast.”
