BROOKS, Alta. – Finding a juicier carrot and a bigger onion are Chris Neeser’s challenges.
Working at Alberta Agriculture’s crop development centre in Brooks, fruit and vegetable scientists like Neeser are looking at old crops in a new way.
“The emphasis is on crops that do have potential for value adding,” Neeser said.
The most recent statistics reported that total field vegetable plantings in 2001 reached 14,000 acres, with crops as varied as asparagus and zucchini on mostly irrigated land in southern Alberta.
With the advantage of irrigation and grower know-how, Neeser believes Alberta vegetable acreage could triple by rotating the crops with commodities like sugar beets and potatoes. Alberta producers already grow 42,000 acres of potatoes for seed, processing and the fresh market.
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Others at the provincial agriculture department agree.
“There’s room for growth,” said horticulture and irrigation specialist Rob Spencer.
“We can’t meet the demand because we have to import a lot of our vegetables.”
Part of Neeser’s field work this year is looking at carrots that can be processed into juice. He is also measuring carrots’ beta carotene content for human health benefits.
Another project will start onion transplants from a greenhouse, which will give the plants a head start and hopefully bigger bulbs at harvest time.
“When they are destined for the fresh market, the larger they are the better the price,” Neeser said.
Researchers are also looking at increasing vegetables’ calcium content for human health benefits. Calcium is already present in vegetables like broccoli, which grows well in Alberta’s cooler summers.
Higher calcium content also increases vegetable shelf life.
In 2001, Alberta producers grew 580 acres of onions, 900 acres of carrots, 5,000 acres of sweet corn and 3,000 acres of table peas. Crops like peas are grown under contract almost exclusively for Lucerne Foods, the processing arm of Canada Safeway.
The Alberta government also commissioned Serecon Management Consultants of Edmonton to study the potential of carrot processing, which could include canned, frozen or juiced carrots as well as carrots added to fresh vegetable packages.
