The soggy summer of 2014 was tough on everyone, but especially people who depend on agriculture for their livelihood or supplementary income.
However, many local farmers say 2015 has seen a drastically improved growing season.
Colleen Chabot grows produce at her farm on Government Road in the west end of Timmins.
“I had a good growing season. Everything I planted, I was very amazed with. They all did very well. Turnips, beets, potatoes, pickling cucumbers, celery, dill,” she said.
“I had four varieties of carrots that I grew this summer. No pesticides or herbicides used in my gardens, it's all natural.”
Despite last summer's conditions, she decided to increase her output this year and has been rewarded.
“Last year was wetter. I expanded my gardens this year. Everything grew fairly well last year too, but I had them in raised boxes, whereas this year I had field gardens as well and everything did very well,” said Chabot.
Brianna Humphrey and the team from Radical Gardens get much of their produce from her farm on Dalton Road.
“The growing season was interesting. Very cold at the beginning with some late frosts which caught us in a few issues first thing in the spring, however I would say this summer is remarkably better than last summer for us,” she said.
It was a frustrating summer in 2014 for certain crops but most have rebounded nicely.
“We had much less crop loss due to excess rain or drought. Our onions — which were a total crop loss for us last year due to rot — did amazingly well this summer and we are pulling in a really nice harvest. Our tomatoes — which did really well last year considering the growing conditions — exceeded expectations this year and we'll have a bumper crop of those for sure, they're just starting to roll in now,” said Humphrey.
“Overall I'm really happy with the growing season this summer, the warm fall we've been having has been really amazing for extending our growing season.”
John Genier and his wife Kathy run JK Gardens in Cochrane. He's been very pleased with this year's growing season.
“This summer we had a cold month of May, so seeding was a bit of a challenge and it delayed us a little bit. But because September has been beautiful, and August was warm, also we got periodical rain at the right time, it was a fantastic summer,” he said.
“I wish had a summer like that every summer, but I know I can't bank on it because we are in Northern Ontario, so this is exceptional.”
Moist conditions can be very harmful to many vegetables and 2014 took its toll on Genier's fields.
“Last year we didn't have a fall. It was cold and rainy and very wet. We were getting mold on products in the field. Beans for example, chances are they're going to get mouldy on you if it's rainy and not windy enough. This year, they are just beautiful.”
Northern Ontario definitely has a different growing climate than the southern half of the province.
Genier says almost everything they grow is a 'Northern' variety, with the exception of tomatoes and cucumbers, which they put in a greenhouse.
With the summer of 2015 being considerably warmer than recent years, it provided a boon to a few crops in particular.
“Squashes, which require some heat, are really outstanding for us this year. That made a big difference,” said Genier.
He has also been pleasantly surprised with an experimental plantation.
“This year we grew corn. Not enough to come to market, because it was a trial thing. But we're eating sweet corn this year, and its not something we eat every year up North. The heat has been there,” he said.
As for the long-term forecast for the growing season in 2016 in the Timmins area, The Farmer's Almanac says April and May will be slightly cooler than normal, with above-normal rainfall.
Summer will be warmer and slightly drier than normal, with the hottest temperatures in mid to late August.
Their forecast also predicts that September and October will be much warmer and somewhat drier than normal.