LACOMBE, Alta. – When Santa Claus flew across Alberta, he didn’t miss the kids in the town of Lacombe.
Two acres of the six-acre Doef Greenhouse just west of Lacombe were lit up like a beacon in the night. If Santa and his reindeer touched down, they could have picked a crisp English cucumber right off the vine.
It’s the first time the 35-year-old family greenhouse business has grown cucumbers for the winter market. Light is the key to growing crops in the winter, said owner Joe Doef.
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“It’s impossible to grow a crop in the winter without extra light. Light is the limiting factor in Alberta. Heat you can make.”
The modern winterized greenhouses are heated with a natural gas boiler. When the temperature drops, or the light is low, an energy screen is automatically pulled over the crop to create a warm nest for the plants. Doef estimated the energy screen prevents 30 to 40 percent of the heat from escaping on cold winter days.
The first crop of cucumbers was picked at the beginning of December and will be producing through February.
“We are hoping, with light, we can have our summer and spring product at winter prices,” said Doef. He hoped local consumers would choose the fresh Alberta product over an imported crop already at a higher price than the vegetables sell for in the summer.
“People love a local product,” said Doef, who sells cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes at six farmers’ markets. The product is also sold in grocery stores under the Pik-N-Pak label, a wholesale company established by the Doefs and three other families in 1987.
Pik-N-Pak supplies 20 local stores and other grocery stores across the province. In Edmonton, the produce is shipped to stores through the Sunfresh Farms label.
“In Alberta we always have freshness. We can lay stuff in the stores the same day it’s picked,” he said.
It’s through direct contact with consumers at the farmers’ markets that the family tries out new products from the six-acre greenhouse. They have 15 different varieties of peppers grown under four acres of the greenhouse. The family is also experimenting with different kinds of cucumbers in the other two acres. Cucumbers are their only winter crop so far. On the vines are white, English and salad cucumbers, as well as tiny gherkins. Tomatoes are grown for the local farmers’ markets in smaller volumes.
“We love farmers’ markets,” said Doef.
The direct consumer contact is an important source of feedback for existing or new products.
“We have a good rapport with our customers.”
It’s also where the business can find an acceptable price level that consumers will pay and that still makes it affordable to grow the vegetables during an Alberta winter. Consumers may prefer the freshness of local products, but aren’t necessarily willing to pay the higher price for local produce, Doef said.
So far, there has been a lot of interest from the grocery wholesalers and local grocery stores for the winter-grown, local product.
“They are Alberta grown and fresh picked. The quality will be there but we have to get paid for some of the energy costs.
“They won’t be cheap, but they’ll be a good product.”
