Extreme heat and heavy rainfalls have turned a sweet strawberry season sour.
Typically, Hewitts Farm Market sources strawberries from Barrie Hill Farms this time of year. Now, owner Trevor Hewitt is sourcing them from anywhere he can in Ontario.
"Barrie Hill Farms closed their pick-your-own and had to cancel the strawberry festival this weekend," Hewitt explained. "The heat and the moisture just killed everything."
The crop failure marks the first time since the 1970s that Barrie Hill Farms won't have a strong stock of strawberries heading into Canada Day weekend.
Hewitt says the strawberry season started almost two weeks earlier than normal this year.
"Most of our suppliers have finished," he said. "We will have strawberries for most of the year, but now we are waiting for the 'everbearing' strawberry season to begin."
Everbearing strawberries will be ready in a week to ten days, Hewitt says.
"Strawberries used to be just in June," he explained. "Now with technology and different growing methods, we have strawberries almost year-round."
Shortly after the everbearing season ends in October, greenhouse strawberries will keep local grocery store shelves fully stocked.
"They are grown in a greenhouse where they can control the climate and everything else," Hewitt explained. "Honestly, I think those are even better taste and quality-wise."
Hewitt says strawberries aren't the only crop that is ahead of schedule. Peas, asparagus, beans, dirty potatoes, and wild blueberries will be ready any day now, he explained
"I bet you will see sweet corn in a week to 10 days, too," he said. "I'm thinking mine will be done around the 19th."
Hewitts has a stand set up in town this year in the Home Hardware Orillia parking lot on King Street. They are open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. until Labour Day weekend.
"Almost everything is two weeks earlier this year," he said. "So, keep an eye out. You may miss out if you wait too long."
Morris Gervais, who owns and operates Barrie Hill Farms — the more than 200-acre farm located just a few minutes outside of Barrie — said the combination of recent weather events has left the farm unable to host its popular strawberry festival.
“The season started off really nicely. It was a beautiful crop and beautiful picking,” he noted, adding the season came early which likely resulted in people not being ready to come out and pick yet. “When school is not out, people don’t think of strawberry picking as much.”
Gervais says the extreme heat that lasted for several days ripened all of the strawberries out in the fields faster than normal.
“We couldn’t pick them fast enough because it was so hot and people weren’t coming to pick, either. Then it started to rain and rain and rain,” he said. “The rain just turned everything to mush.”
“Mother Nature is a tough business partner,” added Gervais.
-- with files from Nikki Cole
