The French region of Brittany has not been spared by the drought and the predictions are mixed for this year’s squash season. “For the moment, the producers have not reported any impact on calibers yet. Only the volumes are lower than expected since nearly a third of the flowers fell due to the lack of water and the high temperatures. This year, we plan to harvest 430 tons of squash. However, the quality looks really good thanks to the amount of sunshine which has allowed the vegetables to fill with sugar,” explains Yoann Morin, communication manager at BioBreizh.
This year, the campaign started early. “We proposed the first squash to our clients on the 15th of August. We started with red kuri squash, as well as other varieties such as the Hungarian blue squash. We have more than 20 different varieties of squash as we really want to offer diversity to our clients in terms of taste and color. The varieties with harder skin will allow us to stretch the season until February/March.” The first arrivals have been rather well received by consumers so far.
As part of a quality approach, the cooperative carries out soil analyses on molecules from the organochlorine family before planting the squash. “About 50 years ago, the use of phytosanitary products led to the presence of these molecules which can still be found in the soil today. We now know that the squash is able to capture these molecules. In order to avoid any risk, we carry out analyses before planting so that we can guarantee our clients a squash of optimal quality.”
For more information:
Yoann Morin
BioBreizh
Phone: 02 98 63 19 03
y.morin@biobreizh.org