The best strawberries, available near you

The table top strawberries grown by VanGo Farms are bigger, better and tastier. This year the operation on Rhineland Road is going to expand to include a roadside stand to purchase berries as well as pick-you-own.

A new, innovative way of growing strawberries has turned into a retirement venture for a Norfolk County farmer and produced what he believes are the largest, tastiest, juiciest berries.

Mark VanGoethem, who is widely known in his role working for Gentec selling drip irrigation the past 20 years, recently retired from that role and was looking for something else to do. He had found the ideal property, 28 acres on Rhineland Road, but needed the crop to fit the property.

Mark VanGoethem checks out the progress of the strawberry plants on his farm on Rhineland Road. Although this photo was taken in mid-April, there were already strawberries in bloom. Usually berries are available May or June, dependent on the weather.

VanGoethem grew up on the family farm, which his grandfather started, on the edge of Waterford. Originally a tobacco farm, a transition to horticulture took place when tobacco slowed. He grew peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet corn – literally everything except strawberries.

“I started going to the food terminal when I was 17 for my dad,” he recounted. “Then, when I went on my own, I was still doing the food terminal.”

When the opportunity came to work for Gentec, VanGoethem slowed down on the farming side, growing pumpkins and renting out the remainder of the land. He said pumpkins meshed well with his agriculture sales job as harvest was in the fall when he wasn’t as busy.

Then when he made the move to Rhineland Road, he started operation as VanGo Farms with one acre of strawberries.

Past experiences prepared VanGoethem for the marketing aspect of selling the strawberry crop. Admitting he didn’t know anything about growing strawberries, he hired an agronomist to advice on growing the crop, which he said was a good decision.

Although table top strawberries give the vision of strawberries grown at waist level, this set up is actually at chest level. The strawberries are grown on a special infrastructure that holds trays at chest level, with a plastic dome to diffuse the light above the plants. The trays have dirt and are watered through a drip system with fertilizer.

“It’s unique, it’s relatively new in Canada,” VanGoethem said, adding the system is expensive to install. It’s also labour intensive and he has temporary foreign workers assisting him.

The strawberries aren’t organic as some pesticides are used, but most of the pest control is through beneficial bugs. He described this system as bugs that will eat mites, similar to lady bugs.

“You put them throughout the garden,” he said. “They eat the mites and whatever other bugs are a problem for the berries. If the beneficials don’t keep up, we go in and spray then introduce the good (bugs) again.”

The first year he sold some strawberries through a wholesaler and some direct to retailers. The reaction from retailers was so great, he will stick to direct wholesaling.

“Last year when I went and sold these, no one said ‘No’ to me,” he said. “I got guys calling me already this year.”

There will also be the new roadside stand, where both pre-picked and pick-your-own will be offered. VanGoethem is putting in another acre to prepare enough product for the roadside stand. He believes the berries will sell themselves.

“They’re bigger, they’re brighter, they’re sweeter and they’re firmer,” he said. “Everything about them is better.”

VanGo Farms usually has strawberries from May or June to October or November, dependent on the weather. 