Some Kingston, Ont. farmers experiencing unpredictable harvest season

They say April showers bring May flowers, but sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.

“That’s farming,” says Christine Paul, co-owner of the Fruition Berry Farm.

“That sums it up, there’s good years and there’s bad years.”

For some farmers, like Paul, a wet spring and the drought the area has dealt with have both led to a less-than-ideal harvest.

“We’ve got pumpkins and squash coming up to harvest, and even though there are lots of them, they perhaps aren’t as big as they could have been,” she says.

“We had quite a spell without any rain — it was hot and dry, so there was quite a lack of water.”

However, in an ironic twist, their spring harvest was also damaged due to an abundance of rainfall.

“Our spring season, where we grow and harvest strawberries, was bombarded with water,” says Paul.

“And unfortunately, the ripe fruit and combination of wet on the field did not produce a good combination for lovely strawberries.”

Paul isn’t the only local farmer that is making this claim.

“If it rains really hard at once, it just soaks the ground and flushes everything out,” says Hirem Summers, a foreman at Salt of the Earth Farms.

“But it doesn’t really soak into the soil, so then as soon as it dries, it just turns into concrete.”

The harvest at Salt of the Earth Farms tells a different story than the harvest at Fruition Berry Farm.

“This is probably one of the best years yet for vegetables,” says Summers.

“Maybe some things haven’t been as great, but for the most part, everything else is great.”

According to Summers, a significant contributor has been the heat.

“Plants love it,” says Summers.

“Plants love the hot, hot, hot — I don’t, but plants do.”