B.C. heat wave leads to severe damage to some crops, benefits to others
The heat wave that has scorched B.C. has had a mixed effect on farmers on the Saanich Peninsula.
A week of extremely hot days and warm nights means there may be an early harvest for this year's corn crop.
Staff at Silver Rill Corn in Central Saanich say the heat wave was a welcome change after a cooler than normal spring.
The growing conditions have been ideal. The first crop of peaches-and-cream corn should be ready in the next few days.
"Well, corn likes the heat so it grows faster," said Clayton Fox, co-owner of Silver Rill.
"Days like we had when it was hitting almost 40 there, or 40, it grows double than what it normally would in one day," he said.
The heat, however, has had the opposite effect on other crops.
At Gobind Farms, the heat has left about 50 per cent of its berry crop damaged.
The owner of the berry farm says the early raspberry crop was a loss, and he expects to lose between 30 to 40 per cent of his blackberry harvest because of the extreme heat.
"Plants go into survival mode and everything is going to the plant and not to the fruit," said Satnam Dheenhaw, owner of Gobind Farms.
"So the berries just burn up and you can see that they're all sun-scalded, white, pale-looking. They've lost their colour," he said.
While Dheenshaw says the losses to his berry crops have been catastrophic, he still has a good supply of fresh berries at his farm stand.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Former Air Canada employees among suspects identified in gold heist at Pearson Airport: police
Nine people have been arrested in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year, Peel Regional Police said Wednesday.
MPs summon ArriveCan contractor to the House to be admonished in rare parliamentary display
Enacting an extraordinarily rarely used parliamentary power, MPs have summoned an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon to be admonished publicly for failing to answer their questions.
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
Gas prices across Ontario expected to climb to levels not seen since 2022, analyst says
Ontario is going to see a big jump at the pumps later this week as gas prices in the province hit levels not seen in nearly two years, according to one industry analyst.
Ancient skeletons unearthed in France reveal Mafia-style killings
More than 5,500 years ago, two women were tied up and probably buried alive in a ritual sacrifice, using a form of torture associated today with the Italian Mafia, according to an analysis of skeletons discovered at an archaeological site in southwest France.
10 years in U.S. prison for Canadian man who stole millions with fake psychic fraud
A former Montreal resident has been sentenced to 10 years in a United States federal prison for a multi-decade fraud that manipulated more than one million Americans into sending money to fake psychics.
'Enormous sum of money': Actor Hugh Grant settles privacy lawsuit against tabloid
British actor Hugh Grant has settled a lawsuit against the publisher of Rupert Murdoch's tabloid newspaper, The Sun, over claims journalists used private investigators to tap his phone and burgle his house, he said on Wednesday.
O.J. Simpson was chilling with a beer on a couch before Easter, lawyer says. 2 weeks later he was dead
O.J. Simpson's last robust discussion with his longtime lawyer was just before Easter, at the country club home Simpson leased southwest of the Las Vegas Strip. About a week later, on April 5, a doctor said Simpson was 'transitioning.'
Some of the winners and losers in the 2024 federal budget
With a variety of fiscal and policy measures announced in the federal budget, winners include small businesses and fintech companies while losers include the tobacco industry and Canadian pension funds.