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Early pickers Among early pickers in the Willowlee straw- berTpatch this season were Cam and Dorothy Cook of Trenton, who report they have been com- teto the patch "for six or seven years." And they said, the berries this year are tag and bounttfuL Here they display some of their pickings to Kurt • ^*m -*^ Vanclief, (right) new owner-operator of the popu- lar pick-your-own patch. Strawberry growers throughout the area report a much-advanced start to the strawberry harvest in the Quinte area this yearinit> y«ai <*** »•*.-r:~ ~"' „„* gSteESck to famUy roots in a county strawberry gatch By Jack Evans The Intelligencer Willowlee doesn't show up on a map in the Quinte area, but it's a place many area residents are fa- r|iiliar with. And most people tend to equate Willowlee with berries, particularly pick-your-own straw- ' -^~~ ^~ "7-- ing many years as a boy helping his father. And he's learning a lot of things the hard way. Being one of the helping hands was plenty enough work a few years ago. Now, he says, as he | struggles to cope mainly on his own, "I never realized how many things there were to do," as he was taken by surprise by early of his first new plant- have sown corn and soybeans for the commercial market and also is putting in some sweet corn tor the garden trade, plus the straw- berries. He is also reactivating the family's former hog business, stocking the relatively modern barn complex with weaners to ^m&de arrangements to buy Kurt and other family mem- o particularly pick-your-own straw- ripening of his first new plant- nav« berries. It's an operation the Van- ingg of a bumper strawberry crop. ^ clief family have been running for Kurt and other family mem- more than 50 years under that - ^ ™i «r*li« H^rrv riame, and now it is being carried on by a third generation. I Kurt Vanclief is one of the newest and also, at age 20, one of the youngest farmers in the area. * His takeover, in recent ^eant few weeks 14 to 16-hour j\ujn> emu. v/1/j.j.^j- "•-./ bers see the renewal of the berry patch as particularly significant. It was how his grandparents started in 1940, buying plants from a dealer near Streetsville, west of Toronto. Replanting with s , months, of the north side of the family property signals a rebirth of a long-standing farming opera- tion after his parents, Lyle and Sharon Vanclief formally closed the operation a few years ago. For Kurt, it is a chance to do full time what he had always wanted to do every since spend- new plants every two or three years, the Willowlee patch drew regular customers year in and year out. Kurt and his father, Lyle, both agree that if any there was a year to start in farming full time, this is a rare one. Abundant heat units and adequate rainfall have meant early, prolific growth for almost everything. Kurt has .tie mauie «x*«»**e™-v- the property a couple of years ago and operated it around his sum- mer job last year. This year, put- ting his college education on hold" after one year, hes doing full time what he had always wanted to do. Getting back to the berries, now in the midst of a lush har- vest, Kurt recalls that his grand- father never met the grower « the strawberry plants arpun Streetsville, but only did business over the telephone. His grand- mother did the driving every year they needed more to pick up the plants. She also picked up the