Nova Scotia enjoying strong season for berries so far

A combination of rain and sunshine has produced an abundance of berries in Nova Scotia.

The strawberry fields in Wolfville, N.S., were busy Friday.

“They’re the best,” says Patti Swinimer.

The early season fruit seems especially good when you go to the fields and get them yourself.

“I find that it’s more fun to pick your own strawberries and they just last longer than at the local grocery stores,” Madison Dawe says.

It seems there are plenty of them. The combination of timely rain and sufficient sunshine has produced an abundance of berries.

Jordan Eyamie, president of Horticulture Nova Scotia, says typically the first strawberry harvest yields about 1,000 quarts a day, but this year, they topped more than 6,700.

“The season is exploding,” says Eyamie. “I would think that this season is going to be a good season, fingers crossed, because for strawberries at least, the past two years have been really rough.”

Other provinces have been dealing with a fungus called Neopestalotiopsis (Neo-P). There is no known cure for the disease, which can spread quickly and affect all parts of the plant.

Eyamie says fortunately it has not been found in Nova Scotia.

Cherries are also susceptible to fungus but like strawberries, Peter Elderkin’s crop is looking good.

“It’s like a puzzle and the pieces so far are fitting together quite well and so far so good,” Elderkin says.

Still, he’s keeping a close eye on them after losing half his harvest last year.

“So far, so good, although like last year, we had that one big rain storm, and that came right in the middle of cherries and it just destroyed the crop of cherries,” he says.

Elderkin’s cherries will be ripe within the next 10 days. His attention will then turn to peaches and apples, both of which look to be on the verge of producing quality crops.

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