Putting vegetables on the table

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This article was published 06/07/2015 (3927 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When you chop up broccoli for a stir fry or cook up a pot of corn on the cob this summer, there’s a chance the vegetables you’ll be eating came from a farm close to home.

Itzke River Farm is located on Highway 26, about 20 kilometres west of the Village of St. Francois Xavier, next to the Assiniboine River. The farm’s proximity to the river is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because of the richness of soil, a curse because of the possibility of severe flooding.

Originally established by Johannes and Hedwig Itzke in 1972, the farm is now run by siblings Johnny, Uwe and Astrid, Astrid’s husband Gerry Meilleur, their sons Mats, 27, and Lars, 25, and warehouse manager Denis Rivard. Johannes Itzke died in 2013, but Hedwig still lives in the family home and is involved in family business meetings.

Astrid is general manager and looks after sales and marketing, a responsibility she’s gradually handing over to Lars, who looks after the company’s social marketing.

Astrid said that, to the best of her knowledge, Itzke River Farm is the largest family-owned-and-operated vegetable grower in western Canada. With about 1,200 acres of land under production and 23 greenhouses, in which all vegetable crops except sweet corn are started, the company ships lettuce, cabbage, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, salad cucumbers and sweet corn to large retailers in western Canada, wholesalers in Ontario and Quebec, and to companies as far south as Minneapolis.

According to the company’s web site, limited quantities of Chinese eggplant, kale and okra will also be available this year.

Astrid said Uwe tests various types and varieties of vegetables, but they are cautious about adding to what they produce on a large scale.

“We don’t like to grow a lot of items unless we grow them well,” she said. The company prefers to concentrate on quality rather than quantity.

As with other agricultural ventures, Itzke River Farm’s owners are at the mercy of Mother Nature. They aim to get seedlings started inside their greenhouses at the beginning of March, then transplanted by the end of April. A long, cold winter means higher heating bills for the greenhouses, and can make the spring planting a gamble.

“We prepare for the worst, and hope for the best,” Astrid said.

For example, a substantial snowfall this past May long weekend covered fledgling plants in the field.

But that was nothing compared to the trouble caused by Assiniboine River flooding in 2011 and last July.

“We lost half of our acres in 2011,” she said. “Last year we lost about one-third but it was a worse scenario.”

She explained that the 2011 flooding happened early enough in the season that they were still able to plant most of their fields while last year’s flooding covered mature crops that were almost ready for harvesting, totally destroying them.

The family hasn’t greatly changed what it grows but it has invested in new technology to ensure maximum yields. No herbicides are used, and pesticide use is kept to a minimum.

“The least amount is the best amount,” Astrid said.

While the majority of their produce is sold directly off the farm and shipped out by the company’s trucks or buyers’ trucks, they have experimented with selling some of what they grow at farmers’ markets.

Astrid said shoppers at farmers’ markets are willing to pay a higher price per head of lettuce or kilogram of broccoli compared to what they would pay at a grocery store.

Some large grocery retailers are starting to promote and advertise locally-grown produce so shoppers will be made aware of where the items on the shelves come from.

“It’s their way of competing with farmers’ markets,” she said.

About 130 employees work at the farm during the summer months; harvest begins with lettuce at the end of June and ends with cabbage in mid-October.

“It’s a very intense season,” Astrid said.

The day’s work usually starts at 6 a.m. and can run as late as 9 p.m.

“There’s not a day off,” she said.

Itzke River Farm plans to have a table at Shelmerdine Garden Centre’s farmers’ market on Sat., Aug. 15 and Sun., Aug. 16.

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