“Are there strawberries ready yet?” That’s the question Ken Hoffman, a strawberry farmer in Heidelberg, started getting as soon as the warm weather hit.
“Earlier areas of the province will have June-bearing strawberries ready for sale two to three weeks ahead of us here at Waterloo, and that’s quite normal. So every season our phone starts ringing because people will see Ontario strawberries in the store at the market, and in their mind it should all be the same, right? But it’s not our area,” explained the owner of Hoffman Strawberries.
Areas like Niagara have warmer temperatures earlier, ideal for fruit and vineyard production.
“There are all kinds of micro-climates in Ontario,” said Hoffman.
“If you go down to Leamington and Harrow, they’re two or three weeks ahead of us. Even the leaves on the trees would come out earlier in the spring.”
While his berries aren’t ready yet, the season is only a week or two away.
“This is our 34th year of picking strawberries here on our farm,” said Hoffman.
“We have seen the season vary from last year when we picked our first ripe berries on the sixth of June, whereas I remember one year it kept us busy just to get open for July 1.”
Hoffman’s farm has been passed down through generations and has offered seasonal strawberry harvests to the community for more than 30 years. The average start date for picking the early varieties of berries is June 15. This year, the opening date for picking is later compared to last year because of the cold nights in May.
“This year we were so cold and so wet, even on [June 3] I was in the field early at 4 a.m. and it was zero on the ground,” said Hoffman of overnight temperatures.
“Even though it was eight or nine degrees on the dash of my pickup truck, it was zero for my thermometer on the ground.”
A week prior, Hoffman said he was out in the field at 3 a.m. to monitor for a frost event. If ice starts to form, he has to turn on the sprinkler system, preventing the blossoms from freezing.
“When the strawberry plants are blooming, those little blossoms cannot take freezing, and the difference between the strawberry blossom and let’s say, like a blossom on an apple tree, is that the blossoms on strawberry plants are on the ground, and the cold air always stays close to the ground – you know how heat rises,” explained Hoffman.
“What we’re worried about for the blossoms on the strawberries is what the temperature on the ground is. One thing we’ve learned is we don’t want to be negligent and allow our blooms or blossoms to freeze, because what happens when they freeze is the centres turn black, and that equals no strawberry in that spot.”
With the cold weather behind us, it’s full steam ahead for Hoffman’s green berries to transform into the delicious ripe, red summer fruit everyone’s excited for.
With the start of strawberry season, there are also strawberry socials to look forward to in the community. Hoffman will be supplying berries for the Drayton United Church’s fourth annual strawberry social on June 23 at the PMD Arena.
Close to home, the Nifty Fifty and Strawberry Social will take place on June 17 at Roger and Darlene Weber’s farm. There will be music and a potluck. Anyone interested can meet at the Emmanual Church in Elmira at 11:30 a.m. Tickets for the strawberry social are $5.
For Hoffman, being able to provide strawberries in the community is an honour, letting him connect with the area and the people who live here.
“It’s been wonderful to see many people enjoying picking their own strawberries or coming to get the fresh-picked berries off of the retail counter, and I think for us it’s really about relationships, and we don’t know the names of all of our customers, but you do remember their faces,” said Hoffman.
“It’s kind of a seasonal friendship, you’d say, but that’s been a real privilege, and I think I use the word honour because you have to earn that right. You have to try to provide quality and value.”
