Bad weather in 2009 has resulted in poor crops of berries around Calgary this year. (CBC)Locally grown berries will be scarce this fall around Calgary thanks to the lingering effects of bad weather in 2009, farmers say.

Hail destroyed raspberry and Saskatoon crops north of the city last summer.

And at Kayben Farms near Okotoks, 20 kilometres south of Calgary, a sudden temperature drop wiped out much of the strawberries last fall.

The plants did not rebound in time for this year's crop, said the farm's owner Judy Kolk.

"This is all, was planted with strawberries, but ... not all of the rows are full anymore," she said.

After an unusually warm September ended with a sudden cold snap last year, Kolk lost about 75 per cent of her strawberry crop, she said.

"The very beginning of October we suddenly had about minus 16, 17 degrees. So that's very damaging. There's a lot of tissue damage. Of course, we didn't know what the extent of that tissue damage was until this spring," said Kolk.

There aren't as many strawberries to pick at Kayben Farms south of Calgary as there usually are. (CBC)The stunted crop has forced Kayben Farms to restrict self-picking to two days per week.

"We have to turn away so many people," she said, adding that an abundant blackcurrant crop — plus sales from flowers, vegetables and a newly opened café — are helping her make ends meet this summer.

North of Calgary, some fruit farmers are still reeling from a hail storm last August that damaged raspberry and Saskatoon crops so badly they didn't come back this year.

Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Association spokesman Don Gregorwich said fruit plants are particularly delicate.

"Excessive rain or hails storms — it doesn't matter what the plant is, it can only handle so much," he said.