Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - This started out as a story about the incredible blueberry harvest in the midst of this year’s drought.
One of the seniors picking at Sunnybrae Farm gave Cortes Currents the tip, which Mike Manson subsequently confirmed.
“We are seeing what we think might be the biggest crop ever. In terms of pounds per bush, and the fruit is ripening differently. It's ripening in a more condensed manner, which is good for picking. The big crop is probably due to favourable conditions for pollination in the spring. Whether or not that had anything to do with dry weather, I'm not sure. Maybe the bees were glad it wasn't raining and cold and wet, but certainly pollination was key, without that you don't get a crop. For whatever reason, conditions were favourable for bees to be flying and doing their job,” he said.
“We've never seen a dry year start so early. This year, the dryness started mid May. I remember May 13th was 30 degrees Celsius. I think the early heat this year has affected the way the fruit has ripened. I haven't seen it ripen in this fashion before.”
However, there are three blueberry farms on Cortes island and, as I was soon to learn, they are in different micro-climates.
Linnaea Farm was also having a good year but, according to Tamarra McPhail, conditions there are not the same as in Mansons Landing.
They were even more different a mere 10 kilometres to the west at ‘Nanagumps Berry Farm and Guest House’ in Whaletown, where the crop wasn’t especially good this year.
Everyone agreed that there wasn't much money to be made growing berries. Their motivation was passion.
Donna Behn said, “This is what gives us a reason to get up in the morning.”
She and her husband Tom are supposedly ‘retired,’ and have been running the farm and a guesthouse for 13 years.
The name Nanagumps is a combination of what their grandchildren called them, ‘Nana’ and ‘Gumps.’
