Fruit/Vegetables & Production Tips

Canola, Columns, Fruit/Vegetables, Practical Tips

Canola in the U.S. South

Practical Research: Introducing massive acreage of new crops in established growing areas can put both new and established crops at risk

By Ieuan Evans September 2, 2024

Every so often I hear about how farmers in the southern states of the U.S. will soon be growing millions of acres of canola. Of course, what would be grown would be winter canola, since crucifers such as cabbage, collard and broccoli all can survive the Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee winters. They get […] Read more

Grated and diced apples can add texture to muffins.

Apples, Columns, Farm Life

Winter fruit, part 3: The versatility of apples

Apples add character to a dish, even when not the star ingredient

By dee Hobsbawn-Smith February 29, 2024

I first saw Meryl Streep in 1979 in Kramer vs. Kramer and then in Sophie’s Choice. Both earned her Oscars. A wonderful string of movies followed: Manhattan, Silkwood, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, The Hours and Out of Africa, to name a few. In 1990 at the Screen Actors’ Guild national women’s conference, Streep spoke out […] Read more

What’s now known as the Evans cherry likely had ancestry in Siberia and was brought to Alaska by Russian immigrants.

Apples, Columns, Fruit/Vegetables, Practical Tips

Fruit growing on Prairie farms

Part 5 of a series on Prairie farm gardens

By Ieuan Evans February 23, 2024

Fruit growing on the Canadian Prairies is much easier and more rewarding than most people ever imagine. I am an avid fruit grower on my Alberta acreage, growing everything from plums, pears, grapes, apples and cherries to currants and raspberries. You name it, I am growing it. I am familiar with backyard Prairie gardens all […] Read more

Peaches in progress at what's now Wild at Heart Organic Orchard near Keremeos in British Columbia's Similkameen Valley.

Farm Life, Fruit/Vegetables

Winter fruit, part 2: Peaches

By dee Hobsbawn-Smith February 21, 2024

Every summer, whenever Mom and I go to one of the small-town farmers’ markets in our neighbourhood, she pulls out a pot when we get back to her house and sets a simple syrup to simmering. She doesn’t ask for help — her vision is failing, but she knows her way around her bungalow — […] Read more

Crops, Potatoes

Potato wart survey comes back clean

Fungus-fraught P.E.I also gets clean bill of health

By Geralyn Wichers, GFM Network News February 20, 2024

Fungus-fraught P.E.I also gets clean bill of health

Blueberries from last summer, when it was too hot to even consider canning, were kept frozen until the arrival of better jam-making weather.

Columns, Farm Life, Fruit/Vegetables

Fruits in a Prairie winter, part 1: Blueberries

Picked fresh or cooked into favourite foods, those purple berries leave their mark in memories

By dee Hobsbawn-Smith February 16, 2024

Last week I made jam from blueberries I had frozen last summer, when it was just too hot to consider canning. Stirring the pot reminded me of other lovely ways and words with the blue fruit. “The way the night tastes” is how the U.S. poet W.S. Merwin described blueberries. Another poet, Mary Oliver, wrote […] Read more

Growing potatoes in Prairie farm gardens should be relatively easy if you’re able to anticipate and avoid the usual problems.

Columns, Potatoes, Practical Tips

Let’s meet the potato family

Part 4 of a series on Prairie farm gardens

By Ieuan Evans February 13, 2024

The potato is a member of the solanum or Solanaceae family, made up of thousands of wild and cultivated species that range from deadly nightshade to tomatoes. Commonly cultivated in farm gardens are potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and tomatillos. Members of this family also include petunias, lobelias, tobacco and common weeds such as black nightshade […] Read more

Crops, Fruit/Vegetables, Potatoes

Canadian potato output rises in 2023

Alberta vaults to first place in provincial potato production

By GFM Network News January 24, 2024

At 32.063 million hundredweight of potatoes this year, Alberta vaulted from third to first place as it improved on the previous year’s crop of 26.813 million. Manitoba moved into second spot from third with its harvest of 29.760 million cwt. following last year’s 26.139 million. Prince Edward Island saw its output reduced in 2023 to 25.813 million cwt. from 27.789 million. In 2023, the trio combined for 68 per cent of Canada’s total potato harvest of 128,801 million cwt.

Columns, Fruit/Vegetables

Vegetable crop production on the Prairies

Part 2 of a series on Prairie farm gardens

By Ieuan Evans January 15, 2024

At the countless farm sites I have visited over almost 50 years from coast to coast in Canada, from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island, I have come across outstanding crop growing innovations and excellent crops as well as abject crop failures. To deal logically with the extensive range of crops, I put them, as described previously, […] Read more

Andrea Borodenko and Antoine Casimir have acquired Quebec’s Production Lareault.(CNW Group/Production Lareault)

Crops, Fruit/Vegetables

Major strawberry plant producer changes hands

New owners get funding to buy Lareault business

By Dave Bedard, GFM Network News December 4, 2023

The Quebec company billed as Canada’s largest producer of strawberry plants has picked up new ownership after nearly 70 years. Production Lareault, based on just over 450 acres at Lavaltrie, Que. — about 40 km northeast of Montreal, in the province’s Lanaudiere region — has been acquired by investors Antoine Casimir and Andrea Borodenko for […] Read more

GFM Network News

U.S. corn and soybean yields revised down by USDA

JBS profit falls amid still-challenging US market environment

U.S. grains: Soy hits 17-month high, corn to four-month top as trade braces for U.S. data

Fruit/Vegetables