OUR CROPS
Our fields and number of crops started small but continues to grow each year as we strive to better serve our customers
RASPBERRIES
After selling raspberries for a few seasons, Bre & Kyle quickly realized how delicate and temperamental these sweet little berries are and the importance of selling them the DAY they are picked. Kyle decided the only way to sell these beauties as fresh as possible was to grow a small plot himself.
Now when you come mid-season to the market, you are most likely to see a summer student in the raspberry canes picking away and bringing pints during from the field to the market store.
PUMPKINS
Who hasn’t always wanted a pumpkin patch in their backyard? … The remarkable orange popping through the thick leaves in the early fall is breathtaking. As we started to expand our season from August into September and now the end of October, adding pumpkins to our product list was an easy next step. You may see that our field looks a little bit like a treasure hunt with different varieties and sizes scattered throughout the field… this adds to the fun during your Pick-Your-Own experience.
SQUASH
Come fall, after we have all eaten fresh salads for 12 weeks, the first of the squash that comes out of the field just screams comfort food! At Bre’s we grow an array of squash varieties to meet many different tastes. Our soil type at Bre’s is perfect for squash; however, we must admit (and our staff will attest to this), the heavy clay soil can be a challenge to hand wash before it hits our market shelf and later your kitchen table.
BEANS
Bre’s father, Eric has grown beans for processing for decades now so sitting on the side of the field picking beans by hand before the harvesters arrived is a distinct memory for Bre. The heavy clay-loam soil in Ostrander fosters good bean growth, flavour and health. Both yellow and green beans are grown so mixed medley’s are available. You can purchase them by the bushel or the handful… the choice is yours! Beans are a Gillespie family favourite (along with corn of course) at their dinner table!
SWEET CORN
There’s nothing better than Bre’s famous sweet corn! It all started with primarily sweet corn and we’ve learned to perfect it from there. Concentrating on sustainable farming practices, we’ve been able to produce the highest quality and best tasting sweet corn possible.
We start by selecting varieties that thrive in our climate and therefore have the best chance to mature properly and develop the highest sugar content. In any given year we grow 4-5 different varieties in a single growing season all with characteristics of their own. For example, our earliest variety needs to have good cold soil vigour to push through in those cold spring temperatures. It also needs to mature fast, in as few as 66 days. Our late variety needs to have good disease protection to fight against disease pressure that comes with shorter days and colder fall weather. Without a doubt the most important characteristic in any variety is the taste. We select varieties that are the sweetest and most tender available.
To ensure this level of freshness we plant every 3-4 days from late April until mid July. We do this so that we are able to harvest fresh hand picked sweet corn everyday from July until Thanksgiving.
Enjoy our famous sweet corn at your next barbeque, we guarantee it will be a hit!
