Strawberry season ramps up at Simcoe County farm

The summer tradition is upon us and growers are ready for their strawberry picking season to begin.

Despite a bit of a rocky spring, it all worked out in the end for strawberry growers this season.

One Simcoe County farmer is certainly breathing a sigh of relief as strawberry season is getting off to a prompt start this year after all.

“Right off the start, I thought that the strawberry season was going to start possibly five to 10 days a little later because it was such a cold and wet spring, very delayed spring and planting and everything else that we do outside on the farm, but it turns out strawberries are still going to be here for Father’s Day weekend,” says Kevin Ward, one of the owners and operators of Fernwood Farms Market in Stayner.

These cooler days and nights are prime weather for strawberries. The long-range forecast will continue with temperatures in the high teens and low 20s.

“That really helps strawberries because they’re so perishable. So they’re just going to ripen up at a nice slow pace,” Ward says.

He says the worst kind of weather for strawberry growers is extreme heat and humidity, like 35-degree heat that tend to ripen the fruit to quickly.

He recalls a week of hot weather last year, which Ward says can “rot the field in just hours.”

“They ripen almost overnight and we just can’t pick them fast enough,” Ward says. “Once strawberries start ripening, it’s like a banana. It doesn’t slow down.”

The little bit of rain the region got on the weekend helped as well. During dry weeks, Ward says the farm will irrigate the strawberries.

“We can make it rain out here,” he says. “We’ve had some good, timely rains also and with this cooler weather, just bringing them on nice and easy – it turns out it’s going to be a good crop after all.”

Frost control was done on the crops earlier in the spring with farmers staying up through the night. Ward says irrigating strawberries is important as it puts a layer on the strawberries to help insulate them. Much like the humidity, the opposite extreme with weather that’s too cold and involves frost, can wipe out the whole crop.

Staying up all night to irrigate the strawberry fields proved to have paid off in the long run though.

Now that the frost is out of the way and the team at Fernwood hasn’t had to do any frost control for a couple of weeks now, they’re not only getting sleep again, but they’re getting ready for business.

The farm will have a solid supply of strawberries both in its store and on the farm, ready to welcome strawberry pickers from all around.

“It’s a beautiful experience,” says Ward. “You come out, you and your family get to see how the strawberries are grown, you get to eat some, and take home the first fruit of the season and they are just so fantastic when they’re fresh.”

Fernwood Farms plans to open on Wednesday, just in time for Father’s Day weekend.