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FRESHBAY RECEIVES PURCHASE AGREEMENT FROM BERRYMOBILE FOR 15 MILLION POUNDS OF STRAWBERRIES PER YEAR

Freshbay Inc. announces it has advanced a major step toward securing the economics of their deep geothermal powered agriculture facility near Hinton, AB. The purchaser of the strawberries, Berrymobile Fruit Distribution Inc. is one of western Canada's premium, local, soft fruit wholesalers. This first of its kind project uses heat from geothermal wells and cogeneration to directly heat, power and supplement CO2 enriched air for over 800,000 square feet of new Atlantis greenhouses outfitted with Affinor Growers Inc. (CSE: AFI) (OTCQB: RSSFF) turnkey vertical farming technology.

As per the Letter of Intent with Affinor dated February 10, 2023, the sales agreement for the strawberries is produced under the Affinor Growers' Grade A brand "Affinoria Fragaria". The strawberries were market tested for quality and shelf life in Vancouver, BC over the winter of 2022, and distributed by Berrymobile to excess demand. The sales price will remain undisclosed until the facility is in full production.

Vic Reddy, CEO of Freshbay, commented: "Based on the success of Affinor's commercial pilot and excess demand for Berrymobile's strawberries, compounded with this purchase agreement, we have firmly established the economic viability of our production plans. Our strategic partners Novus Earth and Affinor Growers Inc. are cutting edge engineering and technology companies working hand in hand to create the first of its kind project for geothermal powered greenhouse production in Canada. It comes at a good time for us to contribute to Alberta's economic revitalization."

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Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.