Strange but true
Tropical fruit being grown in Ontario,
A car crash 11 years ago left Terry Brake with a brain injury and forced him to quit his job as a mechanical engineer. He had to relearn how to walk and talk, and was unable to work longer than two-hour stretches.
As part of his therapy, Brake was given a banana plant from his South African doctor to help him relax. That gesture planted an idea. When his longtime caregiver Laurie Macpherson bought a 40-hectare farm in Huron County, the idea took seed. They became business partners and started a tropical fruit farm.
Growing bananas and papayas in Ontario’s climate would appear to be an im- possible endeavour without a sophisticated lab and team of horticulturalists. However, the two simply started seeding and grafting plants on their own and, with lots of trial and error, it took root.
Today, they sell their produce at farmers’ markets in Goderich and Exeter. Bananas are four for $2 while papayas are $3 each, comparable to the price of imported fruit at the big supermarkets.
Located in Blyth, Ont., about a threehour drive west of Toronto, Macpherson and Brake were naive but eager for a career change when they started the farm in 2010. The locals were skeptical when word got out they were growing bananas.
“We’ve been accused of growing pot or that we were getting (the fruit) from the food terminal,” says Macpherson, a law clerk for 25 years, taking a break from plucking purple beans.
“So we had open houses, asking them to come in and see it for themselves.”
Now they have a loyal local following as well as supporters from as far as Windsor, who come to buy the fruit as well as more typical Ontario produce such as kale, broccoli, beans and tomatoes.
Broad fragrant leaves from a cluster of 10 banana trees hits my face as I step deeper into the hoop house, essentially a giant plastic tent with metal arches grounded by wooden planks. The bananas are still green and won’t be ready for market for another week. Macpherson returns from her house with a plate of Lady Fingers. These fat little bananas with thick skin are sweeter than the Cavendish variety, the common banana produced for export markets.
A circular path along the perimeter of the house is dotted with pineapple plants. Long, spiky leaves poke at my ankles as I walk past trees sprouting guava, papaya and oranges. Brake, who acts as the farm’s administrator, plucks a leaf from the lemon tree for me to smell. The scent is more intense than lemon zest.
“Our dream is to see (these fruits) growing everywhere and not have to depend on other countries and employ local people,” says Brake. He is hoping to expand the operation from the current three hoop houses on the property and be able to feed more people in the province.
“We don’t need to rely on boats or planes, and we can have better-tasting fruit that would otherwise rot during transport,” he said.
“We travel to the Dominican Republic and get tips from the plantations there. We also made a friend in Jamaica who works at a resort and showed us how to graft and grow the plants,” says Macpherson, who learned that banana trees grow better in triangle formations rather than in rows. “We also learned that orange trees have to be constantly trimmed before they bear fruit, and that lemons have to be picked before they turn yellow or else they rot quickly.”
This year, they’re introducing lychee, starfruit and passion fruit to the farm. The one crop that failed to flourish? Coconut. The cold-sensitive tree didn’t survive the winter and the two decided it was too much trouble to replant it.
But how do the rest of the plants fare since Ontario is far from having a tropical climate? When tempera- tures start dipping, the hoop houses are heated by an outdoor furnace fuelled by wood cut down on the farm’s property. “We do select cutting,” says Brake. “We have loggers cut trees from an area and we don’t cut from it again for 20 years. We noticed in the last six years, our maple trees have gotten bigger because they have more room to grow now.”
Brake and Macpherson’s efforts aren’t being universally praised. The farm is facing multiple charges from the Township of Huron, Huron County, as well as a single charge from the Maitland Conservation Authority for failing to obtain permits for its hoop houses, altering the wetland and clear-cutting on their property.
They have received stop-work orders for not having permits for three hoop houses and for not paying taxes for operating the structures. Their next court date with the township is in October. They are scheduled to go to pretrial with the conservation authority in December.
Brake says the township’s former building official determined that the hoop houses weren’t permanent structures and therefore aren’t subject to commercial taxes. As for the clear-cutting allegations, Brake says that the trees cut down were diseased or dying.
When contacted for a statement, the Township of Huron and Maitland Conservation Authority said they cannot comment on matters regarding ongoing cases.
Brake, however, is optimistic that the legal hurdles will clear by the end of the year. He and Macpherson hope to expand operations and build 100 hoop houses on the property next year so they can expand into other markets in the province.
And there is an online petition in circulation supporting the farm. “The county put us in a pickle, but we’re here to stay,” says Macpherson. karonliu@thestar.ca