Follow the bouncing berries. It’s a little-known characteristic of cranberries that the freshest ones bounce. In Ontario, only two farms grow cranberries commercially:  Upper Canada Cranberries south of Ottawa and Muskoka Lakes Farm & Winery near Bala. 

The Johnston family is now into its third generation of cranberry growing in the Muskokas on land that was planted in 1950. The farm, headed by Murray and Wendy, is now in transition to sons North, Quinn, Slater and Rogan. Their 500,000 pound crop harvested in 2024 was the second biggest on record but only 10 per cent bounced onto fresh market retail shelves in time for the Canadian Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons. 

Two years ago, North Johnston, production and sales manager, installed a new packing line to improve the quality of their specialty fresh cranberries being shipped to market instead of the freezer. Modern machinery aside, some cranberry packing concepts date back more than 100 years, when the berries were shipped by the barrel on clipper ships to England. Still today, cranberry growers can be heard talking about yields in terms of barrels grown, each equivalent to 100 pounds. 

“A squishy or frost-damaged cranberry will fall to the bottom of the sorting line,” says Johnston, explaining the progress of the berry as it’s being packaged into either 12-ounce or one kilogram bags destined for retailers. The packages are immediately stored in coolers until they are shipped direct-to-store or on-farm market, and to the Ontario Food Terminal.

“We now have 27 acres devoted totally to cranberries,” shares Johnston. “Climate change does worry us though. If we had access to earlier-maturing cranberry hybrids, we could expand the fresh market.”

But even with new hybrids, expansion is a distant horizon. Cranberries are a perennial crop that matures in five years.  

Spuds to spare

Despite the varied product range, there’s a theme common to all specialty crops:  genetics. No one knows this better than potato grower Shawn Brenn, Brenn-B Farms, Waterdown, Ontario. Several years ago, when a retail buyer accidentally tripped over a hill in a 40-variety field trial to reveal a potato having an unusual oblong shape and colour, Brenn saw an opportunity. The retailer’s instant interest in this red-skinned, yellow-fleshed potato prompted a multi-year breeding effort by Brenn to develop what he calls “Solterra” potatoes.  

“In my view, it’s the most flavourful potato you can put in your mouth,” says Brenn.

But unfortunately, taste isn’t everything. Across the entire produce sector, how retailers manage their shelf space seems to trump all else. Initially, Solterra potatoes were marketed exclusively to a single major chain. Subsequent marketing efforts with several other retailers ended with an unfortunate result common to them all: delisting. 

“It seems like most retailers are on a push to reduce their SKUs to make room for new items,” explains Brenn. “It’s very frustrating to sit in vendor forums to hear the top brass repeat ‘manage your costs’, then say ‘bring us new and innovative items’.”

Brenn shares how difficult it is to innovate in potatoes when there are currently so many potato options. Understanding the matrix of whether your item receives and maintains a regular listing is very complex, and many of those variables are out of his control. 

“Building programs for niche items takes time, resources, and money, and if all your hard work fails, it is difficult to convince yourself to try it all again.” 

Whether he continues to plant Solterra potato seed in 2025 is currently up in the air. He’s weighing options regarding a smaller niche marketplace before committing more money next spring.  

“I’m confident that taste sells,” says Brenn. “There is less food waste when consumers have a good eating experience.”

Planting pears for your heirs

A bit further south near Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, the Thwaites family is well-known for their 160 acres of pears of all major varieties. Fifteen years ago, when they decided to remove their winery grapes, they replanted with Asian pears. Why adopt a pear that’s finicky to grow?  

According to John Thwaites, his sons Graham, Nelson and Corbin had the opportunity to observe Asian pear orchards when they did remote working stints in Victoria State, Australia. There, Asian pears were being used as pollinators for the Bartlett variety. 

Visually, there’s a certain rustic charm in this spherical-shaped pear with patches of textured brown russet. When halved, the Asian pear reveals aromatic, ivory to white-coloured flesh having low acidity and a less sweet taste compared to other pear varieties. From a marketing perspective, they are attractive because they stay firm longer after harvest and store well. 

The family initially experimented with only few trees in their high-density system but soon planted more – 24 acres at 900 trees to the acre in fact. Like cranberries, patience is a virtue with pears since it takes four years to achieve reasonable marketable yields.

While waiting for his trees to mature, Thwaites would host various retailer tours to the farm and inevitably the same question came up:  What are these trees?

“With eyes wide open, retailers were really interested in how we got these trees into production,” recalls Thwaites. “Asian immigrants are interested in Asian pears as are a younger demographic willing to try new foods.”

Given the retailer interest, Thwaites was convinced to invest in this niche market. He quickly found out though that Asian pears require more labour than other varieties. Up front, Asian pears produce a heavy set of fruit, and to date, no chemical thinner is available, so thinning needs to be done by hand. During harvest, workers must break off the stem before placing a pear in the field bin so as not to damage the delicate skin. Then, at the packing shed, a customized Greefa sorting line needs to gently handle the fruit for packing. 

“Asian pears are the last to harvest in our schedule – mid October,” says Thwaites. “In that sense, they extend our season by a couple weeks.”

Thwaites sends his fruit to Vineland Growers’ Cooperative which distributes to major retailers such as Costco, Sobeys and Loblaw Companies.

For many growers, specialty crops quite often become attractive value-add crops …. provided they can hit that sweet spot, an available marketing niche. But as Shawn Brenn can attest, every empty niche is not a permanent home. Sometimes specialty products turn out to be short-term tenants.