Located about one hour south of Montreal and about 15 minutes from the US border, the garden of Quebec is a key growing region for many different vegetable varieties. “We are one of the major lettuce growers in Canada, harvesting up to 15,000 cartons of lettuce a day in season,” says Arthur Patenaude with Centre maraîcher Eugène Guinois Jr. In addition, the company grows herbs, celery, green onions, and carrots. Yesterday, June 12, signified the first day of the harvest of field Boston, green leaf and red leaf lettuce. In addition, the harvest of curly parsley, flat parsley, and cilantro started that same day. “This is about 10 days later than normal,” said Patenaude.
“April was a very nice month,” he explained. “We had an opportunity to go into the fields a bit earlier than usual.” May also started out nice, but the second part of the month was cold and too dry. “That was when we stopped thinking we would be 15 days ahead of an average year. June came, and the nights were just too cold at the beginning of the month. As a result, we now believe we will be 10 days behind.” Harvest of Romaine lettuce was supposed to start on June 12 but has been pushed back to the 17th. Romaine Hearts won’t start until the week of the 24th, and the harvest of iceberg lettuce will kick off between June 24 and July 1. “Everything is a bit later, but everybody in our region is in the same boat.” A late start in Quebec has allowed US growers to ship product into Canada a bit longer this year.
New iceberg varieties
Patenaude is excited about some new iceberg varieties that were planted for the first time this year. “They are super compact and have a nice, dark green color. I think we’ll have a really good shot at iceberg lettuce this year,” he said. Right now, volumes aren’t high enough to do loads, but by the end of next week, more volume will be available, and Patenaude expects it will be easier to sell the crop.
Centre Maraîcher’s products are distributed across the country to a variety of customers. “From little boutique stores that take a box of product to chain stores that buy two to three loads at a time.” Being located close to the US border, Centre Maraîcher operates in the same market as some US-growing regions. “However, the heat causes US regions to finish up around July 4, and many customers transit to our regions around that time. We will have that business until the frost comes and the season ends, which is usually between October 6 and 12.”
For more information:
Arthur Patenaude
Centre maraîcher Eugène Guinois Jr.
Tel.: +1 450-826-3207
arthur@cneguinois.com
www.cmeguinois.com