By Louis Belcourt, CKTZ News, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

Sara Stewart, a local produce farmer on Cortes Island, has been running her market garden called Wildflower Produce for years, but recently, with unpredictable weather patterns, she says she could be in for a difficult year.

“During last year’s heat wave, the cherries literally cooked on the tree,” Stewart said.

“Last June 15th, I started picking cherries. And then this year, they’re at least a month away from being ripe. And I don’t actually know if they’re going to ripen because we’ve had such a wet season,” she added.

Stewart’s issues growing during this year’s unseasonably cold and wet spring have been echoed with by other local farmers, she said, and small scale and large scale fruit producers have reported a lag in production or a total lack of production entirely across the province.

Running her business out of Reef Point Farm, Stewart also commented on how the economic situation is having an effect on her work.

“The inflation as well has affected a lot of farms this year” she said. “It’s been challenging to try and balance the higher cost for farmers. Like all of my supplies went up and the quality of them also went down for a lot of them. And then unfortunately we have to pass it on to the consumer in the same way.”

Top image credit: Reef Point Farm has been an established farm for decades on Cortes Island and Sarah has taken up the mantle of working the land. Photo courtesy of Weaver Films