Manitoba fruit pickers surprised by early season
'It's somewhere between two to four or five weeks early this summer,' Wendy Erlinger says
Fruit is ready for picking in Manitoba and it's almost a month early.
"Especially for apples which is the majority of fruit grown of course here in Winnipeg and Manitoba," Wendy Erlinger told CBC News Friday. Erlinger is a coordinator at Fruit Share Manitoba, a volunteer-based organization that connects fruit growers that have surplus fruit, with volunteer fruit pickers.
Fruit Share has been inundated with requests for volunteer pickers ahead of schedule, a change they weren't expecting and can't explain. Erlinger said their busy season is typically in September.
"I'm thinking it's somewhere between two to four or five weeks early this summer. I've had apple requests in July that apparently those homeowners have told me have never been harvested until mid to late August," Erlinger said.