It’s one of the sweetest tastes of summer – watermelon! And while we’ve all had that juicy red fruit on a hot summer day, many of us don’t know how or even where they are grown. It’s a good thing we’ve found Pete! Pete and his family are Ontario farmers that grow watermelons. While a lot of watermelon is also grown in the United States and Mexico, there are parts of Canada that provide the warm and sunny summers a watermelon needs to develop. So, whether it’s the planning stage in February or handpicking in the summer, we’ll walk through the entire process of getting delicious and very safe food to your table.
I didn’t know watermelons could be grown in Canada. How long have you been doing it? What’s the process for growing watermelons?
We’re at the very northern fringe of the growing area for watermelons in North America and our family has been doing it for 14 years. We got started because we were getting out of the tobacco business and we needed a new crop to grow. We chose a crop that suited the sandy soil and water availability on our land. We already had experience with hiring foriegn workers, so it met all our needs and it was a good crop to get into.
Why do you like growing watermelons?
The challenge: it’s not an easy crop to grow. It is considered one of the hardest crops to grow.
Really? Why?
Disease pressures. You can’t look inside a watermelon and know what’s going on inside. We know so little of this plant still. Especially in Canada, you can’t go to your neighbour and ask for advice because you don’t have neighbours growing it.
What does a growing season look like? How and when do you plant them? What do you do throughout the season? We’re in August now, so this is harvest time.
It all starts in February by just ordering the seed and securing contracts to sell the watermelon at the end of the season. In March, we get everything propagated at a local greenhouse.
When April comes around, we’re doing our soil tests. In May, we work the land and lay all the plastic mulch with all the drip irrigation underneath so that this whole field can be irrigated in one single shot. Our workers arrive at the beginning of May from Mexico and we start planting around the 23rd of May. From there, it’s just a process of finishing your planting and weed control is also a major emphasis here. We have weeds now, but you have to start right from the beginning to control the weeds. Once harvest starts, there is no time for weed control anymore.
And then it’s harvest. How does harvest work?
Harvest work is done with a great group of workers from Mexico, as well as Canada. I employ 40 people all together and 14 of my workers are from Mexico. We employ quite a few students and some retired people from the city also work for us. Everything about this crop is hand work. There’s no automation to this crop; it’s all done by hand. Planted by hand, picked by hand, the plastic is picked up by hand and removed every year so we need a dependable and knowledgeable workforce each year.
Is the grading all done by hand, as well?
Sorting it, stickering it, and packing it is all done by hand. My biggest cost is labor.
The other part about filling your contracts is your food safety audit. You’re going into a food safety audit in the next few days. What’s involved with the audit and why do it?
The audit is designed to make sure that all the food that a consumer buys at Loblaws or Costco (where I sell my product) is a hundred percent safe. The food audit starts in February with picking the right seed varieties from a reputable source, like Stokes or a Seedway. Then the seeds need to be started in a greenhouse that has their own audits. All pesticides and fertilizers are recorded. Water tests and tissue tests are also all recorded. This audit is provided to the stores that purchase my product to prove I’ve done everything to make sure that this food is a hundred percent safe for the consumer.
You keep track obviously of every box of watermelons. What other kinds of records do you have to keep track of?
Every time the watermelons come out of the field and into the barn, we have to write down the variety, the date of harvest, the code that goes in the box and what we pack them in.
You keep track of everything from fertilizer you apply to every time you do an oil change on a tractor. Food safety must be a big deal. I think that’s probably a big surprise to a lot of people that this just isn’t planting something and then picking it out of a garden. There’s a lot that goes into proving safety and ensuring safety of food along the way to consumers.
Yes. A lot of the standards are the same in the United States and Mexico too so we could basically sell our watermelons anywhere in the world.
You’ve got your family working with you too.
That’s right. My wife does the majority of the books and payroll. She’s the glue that holds us all together. I’m doing more of the outdoor work and then my daughters all work grading watermelons and recording in the books. They’re a great big help.
The last thing I want to talk about is what kind of an impact the weather can have on your crop. You were telling me this hasn’t been the most ideal year for growing watermelon.
It started in the spring, we had so much rain and it was cool. Then it was overcast in June and July.
And watermelons don’t like cold, do they?
No. What they need is sunny, hot days and warm nights. We haven’t recorded a decent rain all summer. It rained last week, our first one since the end of June. The soil is sandy, so we’re irrigating everyday. Basically what happened is because of the cool weather, the bees did not pollinate the flowers, which in turn produce the watermelons. So I’m short on watermelons this year. Then the watermelons will not ripen because there’s not enough sun to turn it red inside. The cool nights keep the plant from growing. So basically the melons that I do have never reached the target weight.
That means they are not nearly as big as they should be.
That’s correct. So, if you’re doing a big melon for Costco, it only takes 45 watermelons per box. This year I need 80 melons to fill a box.
So this year’s watermelons are half the expected size.
Yes. And 80 melons doesn’t pay nearly as well as 45. It’s going to be a real shortfall this year.
That’s something you don’t necessarily think about: how much work you put into food safety, into planting, all of that. And then you’ll leave it up to Mother Nature and she decides.
Mother Nature is the great equalizer. We also really emphasize buying local and selling local. For every person that’s working in Ontario or Canada, they’re paying taxes. It all makes us better. We try to source everything we do locally for this crop. That starts with the stickers, the boxes, even buying the tractors locally. I’m hoping that the people in London, Toronto, Montreal see these watermelons and buy locally.
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