Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
Canada Banana Farms, located 200 kilometres west of Toronto in Blyth, Ont., is cultivating fruit such as papayas, pineapples, lemons, guavas, and – of course – bananas. You'd think that you'd need an advanced degree in horticulture or botany to grow fruits like these in frigid Canada, but Terry Brake's method is easy – and cheap.
[...] "We grow them in hoop houses," Brake told CTV News Channel on Friday. "And we heat it with wood all winter long." The hoop houses – essentially long sheets of polyethylene stretched over a frame – have effectively created the jungle-like conditions these fruits need to flourish. "It just feels like you're in the tropics," Brake says of his DIY greenhouses. "It's very humid in there: about 85 to 90 per cent humidity in the winter."
Source: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/meet-the-farmer-who-s-growing-bananas-in-ontario-1.3007500
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @08:00PM
What's the point? All that production to grow tropical fruits when you can import them in refrigerated containers instead?
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Saturday July 30 2016, @08:27PM
FTFA
“The bananas from the tropics are very old and shipped up from Costa Rica by boat… and then they’re sprayed to make them go yellow,” Brake says. “Ours are very sweet, creamy. Not as big, but a lot better.”
Of course he's going to claim theirs are better than imported. But I have little reason to doubt him. Local fresh produce is virtually ALWAYS better tasting than imported.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @08:35PM
That sounds like me back in the days bitching how I miss bacon when I was backpacking through Middle East.
Novelty, yeah, but ... well, I guess that what it is, novelty.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @08:48PM
I'm sure they can take some extraordinary measures to grow rice in Nebraska, but they don't for good reasons.