The Rural Voice, 1978-04, Page 30area in Quebec and south of Winnipeg in
Manitoba --was above average in volume
and of good quality. In most years, Canada
exports some of its onion crop to the United
Kingdom and Carribbean countries; this
year, exports have been below average and
'this has left more onions for the domestic
market.
Wet, fall harvesting conditions were a
problem for the 1977 carrot crop in eastern
Canada, especially in Quebec where up to
45 per cent of the crop was destroyed.
However, because a large crop had been
planted and exports into the eastern United
States were curtailed by the late harvest,
domestic carrot' stocks are adequate to
supply Canadianconsumers until the end
of April. -
A large rutabaga crop was harvested last
fall in Canada. There have been sizable
exports of rutabagas to the northern United
States, but domestic stocks are still
available in good supply at low retail
prices. Rutabagas should be in good supply
right through to the early spring months.
Consumers should store carrots and
rutabagas in the refrigerator to keep them
crisp. Onions keep best if stored in a dry
place.
"Potatoes, onions, carrots and rutabag-
as are all an excellent buy this year," Mr.
Greene says. "They are not always marked
as Canadian produce in the stores, but
regulations require retail outlets to indicate
the country of origin for imported
vegetables. If there is no indication,
consumers can assume they are buying
Canadian -grown product."
Other fresh Canadian vegetables avail-
able in the winter include cabbage and
parsnips with greenhouse tomatoes and
cucumbers available in the early spring.
Ontario and B.C. greenhouse growers
supply part of the domestic market with
greenhouse tomatoes and cucumbers
between the end of March and early
summer when local field tomatoes and
cucumbers are harvested.
Controlled Atmosphere
apples bring tasty
freshness to spring
It takes years of work and study for an
accountant to earn a C.A. title. An apple,
however, can get a C.A. label in just 90
days.
In the food industry, the letters 'C.A.'
stand not for chartered accountant but for
controlled atmosphere. At this time of
year, all of the Canadian and U.S. apples
bought by consumers are the product of
controlled atmosphere, (C.A.) storage.
Under normal cold storage conditions,
certain varieties of apples picked in the fall
will keep only about five months. Up until
about 15 years ago, consumers couldn't
buy good -quality, Canadian -grown apples
after the end of February. Then, C.A.
storage was developed and Canadian
PG. 30. THE RURAL VOICE/APRIL 1978.
growers started to use it on a commercial
scale.
C.A. apples are stored in a sealed room
with a low -oxygen. high -carbon -dioxide
atmosphere for at least 90 days. The
controlled atmosphere slows the respira-
tion process in the apples, keeping them in
a near dormant state. As a result, the fruit
remains fresh and crisp.
"We now have the capacity in Canada to
store six million Bushels of apples in C.A.
storage," says Reg Greene, chief of the
fresh products section in Agriculture
Canada's fruit and vegetable division.
"That's double the storage we had 10
years ago."
Much of the recent expansion of C.A.
storage has been partly funded under
Agriculture Canada's Fruit and Vegetable
Storage Construction Assistance Program.
Last year, producer groups received about
$1.4 million from the program and the bulk
of those funds were used to build new C.A.
storage facilities.
"Our financial assistance for controlled
atmosphere storage has helped both
producers and consumers," Mr. Greene
explains.
"Consumers now have access to greater
supplies of Canadian -grown apples in the
late winter and early spring. And, the
government has defrayed part of the
start-up storage costs.
"The construction assistance helps
producer groups expand potential apple
sales by lengthening the marketing season.
"With C.A. storage, McIntosh apples
should be available until the end of April
and Delicious apples can be marketed until
early June."
While C.A. storage keeps apples
remarkably fresh, they do deteriorate after
removal from the storage room. Mr.
Greene advises consumers buying apples
at this time of year to buy only as many as
they can use in a week to 10 days.
Consumers should refrigerate these apples
as soon as they get them home from the
store.
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