The Drummondville company expects to produce 2.5 tons over the next three months. We were determined that these berries would taste better than they looked. They settled on three varieties - Chandler, Sweet Charlie and Douglas. All are good-looking. The plants are grown suspended from containers of soil, like chandeliers.
Shoppers can buy a complete plant of ripe berries, if they wish.
Like the Savoura greenhouse-tomato company, the Lamprons use bumblebees to pollinate their plants. For those of us who can't make the trip to Drummondville, we're now being offered the first of the big spring crop of California strawberries. Keep an eye peeled for more varieties of big, beautiful black grapes from South Africa. These are the Rolls-Royces of the grape world, with succulent flavour and juice, and a crisp snap when you bite into them. The Chilean grapes have fed us well all winter.