Unusually extreme temperature changes this year have put a strain on B.C. cranberry farmers, who are now working overtime to achieve that perfect red colour.
Brian Dewitt, a farmer with Riverside Cranberries in Fort Langley, said he’ll be lucky if he gets an average crop at best.
“Most guys are probably going to be pushing into the end of October, even November, before they can get their fruit off the field,” Dewitt said.
Dewitt and the rest of the team at Riverside are lucky because they produce many different varieties of cranberries, some of which have already been harvested and sold to stores.
But many other farms don’t have that luxury, and are slaves to Mother Nature.
The lack of rain and high temperatures this summer have made it difficult for those producers to ripen their berries, with some predicting a delay of up to two or even three weeks.
That means farmers could soon be fighting off frost from settling on their crops, which can only be done by continuously spraying the berries with water.
Source: globalnews.ca
