Ontario may be known for its bustling greenhouse industry, but growers of field-grown vegetables in the Canadian provience have made their own mark and are providing good volume this summer.
Ontario Potato Distributors Inc. of Alliston, Ontario launched its 2024 season with yellow potatoes the week of July 15, which were soon followed by white potatoes.
Ontario Potato ships year-round mostly to retailers but also has some foodservice and wholesale customers.
Procyk Farms (1994) Ltd. of Wilsonville, Ontario began harvesting in early June, a little earlier than usual because of warmer-than-normal weather.
The firm’s product line includes tomatoes, roma tomatoes, sauce tomatoes, red and savoy cabbage, sweet corn, zucchini and red, yellow and green bell peppers. All commodities were shipping by the second week of July.
Procyk Farms will ship until the first fall frost, which usually occurs by the Canadian Thanksgiving, which will be October 14 this year. Volume will be similar to last year.
Sweet corn is the major crop grown by Rouge River Farms in Gormley, Ontario. The company, which started in Ontario with a few acres in the late 1980s, now may be the largest fresh-market sweet corn grower on the East Coast.
Rouge River also has 8,000 acres of green beans, making it one of the largest growers of green beans on the East Coast. This will be the first year the company is growing green beans in Ontario.
The firm also has sweet corn and green bean programs in Florida, Georgia and Virginia.
Exeter Produce of Exeter, Ontario will have an extensive line of field vegetables this summer. Some of the items include broccoli, sweet corn, hard squash, garlic, rutabagas, green beans, cabbage, wrapped cabbage and wrapped broccoli as well as its new napa cabbage product and several new kinds of chili peppers.
The company grows on about 6,000 acres. Most of the local summer items from Exeter Produce will finish by early October, then the company will turn to squash, cabbage, rutabagas and heartier items until Christmas.
The fourth-generation grower ships most of its product to retailers and foodservice operators, 60% of which are in Canada with the remainder in the U.S.
Scotlynn Group of Vittoria, Ontario kicked off its sweet corn season the second week of July.
The company will ship pumpkins from Labor Day weekend through the end of October.
Sweet corn shipments should continue until mid-September.
The company grows 15,000 acres of vegetables in Ontario, Florida and Georgia and ships to retailers on the East Coast and West Coast of Canada and mostly to customers east of the Mississippi in the U.S.