Rick Neilson
With the cost of produce having shot up more than 25 percent in the past year, it was no surprise to see the Emo curling club filled to capacity when the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs presented a production information meeting last Thursday evening (April 16).
The majority of the 40 or so on hand were home gardeners, but most of the market gardeners from the district also were there looking for tips on vegetable production and storage methods.
Local ag rep Gary Sliworsky, who arranged the event, introduced OMAFRA vegetable crop specialist Elaine Roddy from Ridgetown prior to her talk on cucurbits (cucumbers, squash, and pumpkins).
Roddy goes against conventional thinking by advocating that growers use transplants instead of direct seeding cucurbits.
She suggested that before planting, growers wait at least two weeks after tillage to spray or torch weeds because most weed seeds germinate immediately after tilling.
She also talked about the merits of various season-extension plastic covers and mulches.
A video on varieties and growing methods of carrots and onions then was presented, after which Hugh Fraser, extension engineer with OMAFRA, gave a PowerPoint presentation via speakerphone on ideal storage conditions for nine separate crops from asparagus to broccoli to potatoes.
Fraser stressed the importance of cooling vegetables as soon as they are picked and outlined some of the options, including picking them while it is still cool in the morning and keeping them out of the sun, pumping air through them, and spraying with well water or plunging them into ice water.
He also explained the produce handlers’ term “half cool.”
If muskmelons, for example, are brought in from the field at 32 degrees Celsius and put in ice water, they would be half cool when they are at 16 degrees.
He said if it took half an hour to get them half cool, it then would take another half-hour to get them to eight C and another half-hour to get them to four C, and so on.
If vegetables are piled together without air circulation, they begin to produce heat almost immediately and can be ruined very quickly.
Susan Irvine plans to try growing her carrots and cucumbers in beds rather than rows in her home garden north of Barwick.
“That way, when we get a heavy rain, it will keep them out of the water,” she reasoned.
“I grow my garden to feed my family,” Irvine added. “I give it to the neighbours and then donate what I have left to the seniors at Golden Age Manor and the staff at Tompkins.
“I give lots away.”
Still, Irvine is open to the idea of selling her produce, and has sold some in the past.
Local market gardener Mark Gerber, who sells produce at farmers’ markets in Fort Frances, Kenora, and Sioux Lookout, was surprised at the simple, down-to-earth methods that were being suggested last Thursday evening.
“A large culvert dug into a hill or a root cellar are not high-tech, but they are good ideas. These are things that I grew up with,” noted Gerber, suggesting the course would have been especially helpful to the younger growers.
“I’ve been doing this for 45 years and I already know a lot of these methods, but you always learn something,” he remarked.
Gerber was intrigued by the idea of using barley to protect carrots and onions from the wind, and speculated it also would act as a mulch to keep the weeds down.
