Homegrown Revolution – Cultivating Tropical Fruit in Huron County

Homegrown Bananas – Cultivating Tropical Fruit in Huron County

By Bryan Lavery

 

On a concession road deep in Huron County, about two hours due west of Toronto, you’ll pass many well-established farmsteads. Often referred to as Alice Munro Country, the writer’s birthplace and the subject of her prose, this neck of the woods is characterized as rural and conservative, with ingrained farming practices and stalwart beliefs.

Visitors, arriving at Canada Banana Farms, will drive up a lengthy laneway with “No Trespassing” signs, past cords of stacked wood, ending up at a large modern brick house. To the right of the circular drive are three hoop houses and a view of an expansive field and large woodlot.

Inside the main hoop house, a path follows the perimeter of the tunnel –shaped 30-foot by 100-foot structure. Surrounded by exotic plants usually found in more temperate climates, Canada Banana Farms, owner and farmer, Laurie Macpherson, is busy planting organic vegetables for harvest this winter. It is a balmy 25C inside. The dome-like structure maintains conditions favourable to growing tropical fruits even during the most brutal Huron County winters. Heated by a combination of wood and propane the humidity reaches 85 to 90 per cent, creating a tropical landscape inside.

The reality of growing organic tropical fruit with sustainable practices in hoop houses in Huron County has garnered plenty of attention and speculation. When it comes to the media, Macpherson says reporting on the operation has never been accurate. Considered “outsiders,” she and Brake feel the tight-knit farming community has not fully accepted them. Part of the opposition facing Macpherson, Brake feels, has something to do with ingrained ideas of gender roles. Beyond that, there have been legal battles over converting some of the farms’ woodlot to agricultural use. There have even been questions about whether hoop houses, for bureaucratic purposes, are permanent or temporary structures.

No easy thing, trying to implement pioneering ideas in the face of entrenched farming conventions.  

Terry Brake is the farm’s spokesperson. A single father of two daughters, Brake eventually turned to farming after a serious car accident left him unable to work as a mechanical engineer. The accident also left his daughters with ongoing rehabilitation from their injuries. During his convalescence, his doctor presented him with a banana plant which he nurtured to fruition. This gift germinated the idea of growing tropical fruit and Canada Banana Farms began operating eight years ago with novice farmer Brake at the helm.

As tropical fruit farmers, they have had to deal with a lot of local resistance. There have been lengthy legal battles and lots of red tape regarding changing some of the farm's woodlot into agricultural use. It can be frustrating to implement pioneering ideas, when others are set in their ways, still tethered to time honoured agricultural conventions.

Initially, when Brake helped Macpherson sell products in the region’s farmers’ markets, he was met with skepticism. “No one believed we were growing bananas,” he explains. Surely, he was reselling fruit from the Ontario Food Terminal in Toronto.

Brake walks over to a banana plant with a hearty tree-like stem and an outer layer of branching leaves. At the top of the plant is a crown of large, oval, deeply-green leaves and bunches (properly known as hands), of pristine green bananas. Brake points out guava, pineapple, orange, lemon and lime trees. The bud of a passion fruit is about to flower, soon there will be hundreds of intoxicatingly scented passion fruit blooms.

 Both the Apple mango and the Julie (St Julian) mango which is native to Jamaica are grown. These exquisite fruits are in such high demand that they are sold at several farmers’ markets in Toronto.  Brake says, “I could offer a 1,000 mangoes and it still wouldn’t be enough.”

Ever knowledgeable and down-to- earth, Blake plucks the leaves from various citrus trees and tears them to release their fragrance. Lemon leaves, he says, are reputed to have “the happiest smell in the world,” with a potency that does not disappoint. Lime leaves are milder yet aromatic and refreshing. There are also shrubs of green Pink Lady guava, which have a coral-coloured interior, taste of melon and have the texture of kiwi fruit. Lemongrass, a culinary and medicinal herb with an understated citrus flavour, has become a coveted farmgate

Suspended overhead, clusters of ripening green papayas push out from the main trunk. “This particular variety tastes like chestnut,” Brake explains. The sample he picks from the ground reveals a creamy interior and butter-like colour.

He points to a Sugarloaf pineapple, a spiky plant looking much like a bromeliad. Though small and deformed, he insists it will have a superior taste.

There are banana leaves on the ground. Brake explains that a friend recently arrived from Jamaica told him they were better used on the ground than in the compost pile, because they create natural ground and keep the soil hot. Loaded with potassium, banana leaves rot back into the ground, giving the plants the nutrients to the plants and keep weeds away.

Bananas are botanically berries. Each plant is propagated from the off-shoots of a mother plant – which can be a source of vulnerability, since they are genetic clones of one another, all susceptible to disease when attacked by funghi. The dessert cultivar is known as a banana while the cooking cultivar is generally referred to as plantain.

The mainstream Cavendish banana is now under threat – but you won’t find any Cavendish among the seven varieties grown at Canada Banana farms.

Guineos and Lady Fingers are small disease-resistant bananas, nice and sweet, about one and a quarter inches thick.  Aromatic and sweet, with a flavour reminiscent of vanilla, the Ice Cream banana has a creamy smooth consistency. The Honey banana is similar. There are Bertha and Big Bertha bananas; the latter grows from a 15-foot high plant producing upwards of 300-strong on a 15 foot high plant. The smaller Thai banana is taking over from the ubiquitous Cavendish.  “Although not as large they weigh about a half a pound each.

We prefer the more manageable- sized varieties which are easier to harvest and store,” Brake says, with Guineo, Big Bertha and Ice Cream the big sellers.

With a developing horticultural instinct, they graft different types of banana cultivars to other plants. Brake enthusiastically points out a double flower comprising both Ladyfinger and Ice Cream varieties. The purplish leathery thyrse hanging off the plant will eventually curl back exposing white flowers followed by hands of developing bananas that he says will require two months to ripen.

Both his daughters still require ongoing rehabilitation therapy. Brake has met some of his expenses with the insurance settlement. Due to the lack of insurance support, Macpherson and holds farmgate open houses, which are promoted on the Canada Banana Farms Facebook page. Proceeds go towards ongoing treatment. “People go crazy and buy everything and just starting eating. They don’t wash the fruit because they don’t need to,” says Brake. At a recent open house, they had 500 to 600 pounds of bananas for sale. They events have attracted  up to 1,200 people.

With her steely determination, patience and business acumen, Macpherson has proven she can run a farm and stand her ground for innovation and change and the right to determine the future of the land.

 

Shortly and unexpectedly after this story was published, Canada Banana Farms posted a message to their Facebook page to say they were permanently closed. The business was sold and Canada Banana Farms moved to Simcoe in Norfolk, County.