COLUMNCarillon Flashback August 6, 1965 – Co-op hits jackpot after five-year wait

The first experiment in co-operative strawberry growing ever tried in Manitoba has finally paid off, after a five-year wait. With the close of the strawberry season last week, the Reynolds Fruit Growers Co-op at Hadashville announced to its elated members that for the one-month-long picking season, it had produced 22½ tons of berries.

For a solid month, thousands of householders from Winnipeg and other towns and districts have been swamping to the 16-acre plot to harvest the 45,000 lb. crop of berries.

For the privilege of picking their own berries, they paid 25 cents per pound and poured a total of over $11,000 into the treasury of the 74-member Reynolds Fruit Growers Co-op.

The Co-op’s resounding success this year only came after a series of failures as hail, too much rain and spring frost destroyed three crops in a row. This year’s crop was the first one actually harvested.

In spite of the long wait for a crop, this season’s success surpassed all expectations for the Co-op management, and berry-picking customers literally swamped the Hadashville location day and night, during the month of July.

Promotion the Co-op received on city television stations proved positively embarrassing, as time after time, there weren’t enough berries to go around, when hordes of pickers showed up. Plans to sell to wholesalers and to set up roadside stands never got started. Pickers cleaned up the crop as fast as it ripened.

During the biggest single day, pickers harvested 2,900 pounds of strawberries. Manager Bill Wowk pointed out that even at 25 cents a pound, pickers got a bargain, since most city stores sold their strawberries in the neighborhood of 50 cents a pint, and each pint contained only three-quarters of a pound.

Members of the Co-op credit the success of their berry plantation to representatives of the Department of Agriculture, who have guided the experiment from the start.

Peter J. Peters, fruit specialist with the Soils and Crop Branch, was particularly helpful, spending a lot of time on the project.

In extensive experiments on its small test-plot, the Co-op has proven that Sparkle, Redcoat and Dunlop strawberries are most suitable for the soil and climate at Hadashville, and most of this year’s crop came from these three varieties. The largest of the berries measured up to 2½ inches in diameter.

During the past week, dozens of cars of would-be pickers have been told they came too late, and to try again next year. Most of the shares in the Reynolds Fruit Growers Co-op are owned by local people. All are hopeful that their enterprise will be able to elude this winter’s hazards and that they’ll be able to harvest another bumper crop next year.