Quote:
Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere
My understanding is that Essex county area is good because it’s the warmest part of Ontario and has a longer growing season, but Niagara’s soil is better so yields can be higher with only a slightly shorter growing season.
Ultimately there is a reason Leamington is booming with greenhouses, and it’s because it’s got the lowest energy bills for heating them in the province.
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Afaik, Leamington has the largest cluster of greenhouses in the world. There are hundreds of acres under glass (actually plastic) in Chatham-Kent as well, just not clustered together. A lot of the greenhouses do three crops per year of English cucumbers, slicing tomatoes or bell peppers. A bunch of them are also used for starting tomatoes, peppers, onions, etc for outdoor planting, and flowers and house plants.
There are three key areas for specialty crops: Leamington, Blenheim, and Dover township in Chatham-Kent. The latter two areas have the same long growing season plus rich black earth. A lot it is actually below lake level and water levels are controlled by dykes and pumps.
Pretty much every crop grown in Canada is grown within about 10km of my home. I see cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, tobacco, onions, Brussels sprouts, peas, squash, melons, peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries, apples, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, you name it, all grown at industrial scale. The Dover township farms have traditionally been served by canning facilities in Wallaceburg and Dresden, in addition to the famous former Heinz plant in Leamington.
There's more focus on vegetables than fruits in the SW, part of it involves distribution and processing channels, which are more developed in Niagara, while canning is big in the places I mentioned. The cherry industry completely collapsed in Blenheim about 15 years ago when the processing and packaging facility shut down. Regardless of climate, you need to get the food to market