Do you ever wonder whether a sacrifice you make is worth it? Do you ever resent having to sacrifice something (i.e., family time) for something else (i.e., work)? If you can identify with either of those questions, you might have an inkling about what James and I have been wrestling with over the past few days. Every year, we try to schedule a couple days away for a post-syrup season/ pre-planting season family getaway, sometime in April. It is getting harder and harder to pin down a time with our oldest now in university. We decided several weeks ago that this weekend would be our time. We arranged for other staff to cover for us and had other commitments covered so we could take time away.
On Monday, after finding some blossoms in our everbearing strawberry patch, we looked at the forecast for the weekend and noted some concerning low temps for both Saturday and Sundays nights (the nights that we were planning to be away). On Tuesday, we confirmed that there were indeed lots of blossoms in the patch; too many to ignore and enough to make it worth fighting to save them from frost.
On Wednesday we warned our children about our concerns and started setting up our sprinklers to prepare for frost protection.
On Thursday we officially cancelled our plans and began thinking of how we could make the best of things and have some family time at home (staycations don’t always work very well when you live where you work!). Our kids have been champs about adjusting our plans. They are disappointed but so understanding.
The current Environment Canada forecast shows a low of -2C on Saturday night and -1C on Sunday night. Often the temperature at ground level is colder than the forecasted temperature, so we keep a thermometer under the row cover as well. James will likely be up every 15 minutes to check the temperature until it hits 0C and will then turn on the sprinklers. As the water freezes, it will release energy in the form of heat (I know, weird, eh?). As long as the water runs continuously and freezes continuously, the blossoms will be protected. We will shut the sprinklers off once the temperature comes back up above 0C.
Will all of this effort and sacrifice be worth it? We never really know going into it. That’s part of the risk of farming. But if it’s evident that without our intervention we would have had significant loss, it will feel like it’s worth it. And if we have excited, happy customers in the middle of May who are so grateful to be able to eat fresh, local strawberries, it will be doubly worth it 🙂 That’s really what it all comes down to. #fieldtotable #dowhatittakes
