HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News Record, 2016-06-08, Page 9Wednesday, June 8, 2016 • News Record 9
Even in Southwestern Ontario, a rich farm belt, growing tropical fruit is a tough gig
John Miner
Postmedia Network
It's tough being Canada's
only banana farmer.
For one, people think you're
a liar.
"They thought we were buy-
ing them from stores or some-
thing. They thought it was a
joke," said Terry Brake, who
administers Canada Banana
Farms in Huron County, north
of London.
Located on a gravel sideroad,
the farm produces bananas in
two plastic -covered hoop houses,
along with other tropical fruits,
including oranges, limes, lemons,
guava, papaya and pineapple.
Established six years ago,
Brake says the operation is the
country's only banana farm.
Last year, the two -person
operation harvested 12,000
pounds of bananas. They were
sold at Huron County farmers
markets, restaurants and from
the farm.
In May the farm, in North
Huron township near Auburn,
added the farmers' market in
Exeter to its outlets.
Plans are in the works to
expand from two heated hoop
houses to 102 in the next couple
of years. Hoop houses are tem-
porary structures made of
bowed ribs covered in stretched
plastic.
An unlikely business, even in
an area of Ontario where grapes
can be grown, the operation
began with a terrible car
crash 11 years ago that left
Brake with brain damage and
unable to continue working as a
mechanical engineer.
With his doctor's encourage-
ment, he decided to try agricul-
ture and settled on tropical fruit.
"Nobody else is doing it — it's
new. We are the only ones in
Canada," said Brake.
He teamed up with Laurie
Macpherson, his caregiver after
the crash, who owns the farm.
"It was my idea and Laurie
had the money," Brake said.
Macpherson said she was
attracted to the idea of growing
healthy organic foods.
"You are eating stuff that you
knowwhere it came from," she
said.
For a tropical fruit operation,
Brake said they searched for
property in the "Goldilocks
zone,' an area with just the right
conditions — long hours of
sunlight and twilight, because
the area is high, and the right
distance from nearby Lake
Huron.
The farm in North Huron fit
the bill.
They have had both suc-
cesses and failures with tropical
crops.
The bananas, adapted for the
hoop houses, have done well.
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They sell at markets for $1.50 for
four.
The papaya crop, alone, pays
for all the heating and electrical
costs, Brake said.
The failure was coconuts.
They died when the outdoor
temperature plunged to the
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minus 40 -degree range, over-
whelming the ability of their
propane and wood heating sys-
tems used to keep the hoop
houses warm.
"We won't try that again,"
Brake said.
But their challenges have
been more than agricultural.
The operators face more than
60 charges by the local town-
ship, the county and the area
conservation authority.
The alleged violations
include illegal tree cutting,
altering a wetland and failure to
obtain proper building
permits.
Brake said he hopes the legal
battles will be over by fall and
they'll be able to push ahead
with their expansion.
"We are in it for the long
haul," Brake said.
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