North West region fruit and vegetable producer Ruth Trudeau. (Angela Brown/farm news NOW)

By Angela Brown

Update on fruit production

Higher demand for Saskatchewan fruit produce as more people have staycations

Aug 23, 2020 | 2:24 PM

With more people having staycations this year due to the pandemic, many Saskatchewan producers are seeing a higher demand for their fruit produce.

Forrest Scharf, Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture provincial fruit crop specialist, said u-pick businesses are experiencing a greater interest in particular. For example, he is aware of one u-pick operation just outside Saskatoon where the producer is seeing people line up outside before the gate opens at 8 a.m. waiting to enjoy some time picking strawberries.

“What normally would be the busy traffic of Saturday is happening throughout the week,” Scharf said. “They were quite pleased with the amount of demand.”

As far as the 2020 season for fruit production, Scharf said many crops faired well this season overall, although there were some mixed results.

Among the fruit crops produced in the North-West Region are a wide variety including raspberries and strawberries, Saskatoon berries and various kinds of cherries. There are also newer crops that were developed at the University of Saskatchewan such as varieties of the haskap berry, a cross between a raspberry and a blueberry.

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Scharf said the year started off with a difficult winter. Damage from the freeze impacted some dwarf sour cherries especially.

It also affected some raspberry crops. But they managed to pull through.

“They recuperated and they appear to be producing quite nicely this summer,” he said.

There were challenges for some apple producers this season. One producer near Radisson, around the border of the North West and Central regions, was flooded out due to the impact of ice blockage on the river.

“That backed everything up, and the level rose and flooded out the orchard, unfortunately,” Scharf said.

Hail in pockets of the region has also caused some difficulties for producers as well.

However, on the other side of the picture, Scharf said, “there have been some very successful crops, and things went well this year. So it is a mixed bag of goods.”

In the North West region based on the places he visited, Scharf said Saskatoon berries had very good production this season.

For Ruth and Al Trudeau who farm in the Battle River area in the North West region their fruit crops have been overall quite good this season.

They grow Nanking cherries, red and black currants, haskap berries, raspberries, plums, pears and apples.

The producers also are working on adding a grape crop to their selection. It could be another two years in the works as it is currently in the early development phase.

Ruth Trudeau said their various fruit crops are looking good this year.

“Hopefully, we will have the same results for next season as well,” she said. “With lots of rain and the sunshine on top of it, it just seemed to work together perfectly, and our fruit has been doing quite well.”

She said the farm saw an abundant Nanking cherry production, but many were lost due to high winds. Overall the red currants and black currants had the best production this year.

The family turns all of their fruit on their organic farm into jams and jellies, and sometimes also makes a few sauces and vinaigrettes as well.

Trudeau mentioned because they sell their product to many diabetics in the area as well, they also make jams with half the sugar content.

“We just started that this year and everybody seems to enjoy it. So next year we will make more,” she said.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @farmnewsNOW