Kale at a crossroads: small farms in Lower Mainland struggle with cold snap

Small farms growing winter vegetables in the Lower Mainland are holding out for warmer weather to see if the cold snap has ruined their crops. 

"I've gone to go look at them numerous times since the first snowfall and right now it's a bit hard to say what's going to survive and what isn't," said Andrea Wilkons y Martinez, farm manager for Sole Food Street Farms. 

"I don't think it's going to look very good. I'm hoping that I'm wrong."

The small, urban farm based in Vancouver has about 2,500 plants like kale, collard greens and chard it grows over winter. But it's the chicory Wilkons y Martinez is the most worried about.

If Sole Foods does lose its crops, the outcome could be hard on the 15 to 20 farmers the social enterprise employs — the business aims to hire people with addictions and chronic mental health issues. 

Wilkons y Martinez says last year, 45 per cent of its income came from selling its produce to local restaurants and at farmers' markets. 

"We'll have to find a way to like make up for the loss ... I don't really know how we would," she said. 

"If we don't have the production to support that employment then we have to come up with a plan B."

'We pushed the boundaries'

In Abbotsford, B.C., Sharmin Gamiet with Olera Organic Farms is also wondering what will happen with her crops.

Gamiet says her cabbages are safely nestled under a blanket of snow, but she's not as optimistic about her kale. 

"They're not doing very well right now," Gamiet said. 

"But kale ... is a crop that when you go out in the middle of winter it looks like it's dead, and then for some reason in the spring it might come back."

Gamiet says although there have been a few cold spells over the past 20 years, she's gotten used to warmer winters. 

"They have been so mild, we were harvesting in end of January," she said. "And so we pushed the boundaries."

"And then, you know, Mother Nature reminds us that we're in Canada."

Still, Gamiet says her mainstay crops like raspberries are winter-hardy varieties she doesn't take chances with. 

All the same, she says she wouldn't mind a return to more seasonal temperatures.

"It is unexpected, and we have had enough of it now. It's time for the temperature to come up," she said.