SEPTEMBER 2023
CELEBRATING 144 YEARS AS CANADA’S PREMIER HORTICULTURAL PUBLICATION
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THE WILL TO GROW
Greenhouse technology outpaces Ontario’s infrastructure capacity
Greenhouse pioneers are pushing the boundaries as to what can be grown in a controlled environment. Having mastered tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers in both Canadian and American locations under the brand of Nature Fresh Farms, Peter Quiring and his R & D team see promise in the berry category. Here, blackberries are trellised in a Leamington, Ontario greenhouse. Photos by Marcella DiLonardo.
KAREN DAVIDSON Planet Earth makes one revolution around the sun every year. This year, Peter Quiring is marking 30 such revolutions of his own. First, as a greenhouse builder founding South Essex Fabricating. Then, as a startup greenhouse grower building Nature Fresh Farms into an internationally respected brand. And today, he’s on a personal mission to expand the foods that can be successfully grown under glass. “I have no idea of where things are going with this persistent inflation and the results of both good and bad decisions by government,” says Quiring at his Leamington, Ontario headquarters. “I see the future as unstable until this reckless printing of money translating to high interest rates on both sides of the border stops and inflation cools down.”
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Uncertainty aside, Quiring is preparing for the future with an R & D Centre that’s literally growing everything under the sun: papaya, figs, melons, limes, bananas, peaches and leafy greens. The category that’s most ripe for expansion right now though, is berries, specifically raspberries and blackberries. Statistics Canada, now tracking greenhouse berry production, reported 2021 sales of $18.5 million with Ontario being the largest producer of greenhouse strawberries at 2.2 million kilograms. With 2021 strawberry imports to Canada valued at $643 million and an often temperamental climate in the U.S., Quiring sees opportunity to fill the seasonal void of field-grown berries with Nature Fresh-grown product. And he looks to enhance Canadian food security in the bargain. “We’re really just starting to research what to grow and how to grow,” says Quiring, pointing to blackberries fruiting on trellises. “Varieties are proprietary because everything we do is about taste. We still need to answer
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the question of whether the quality is better and whether there’s a compelling reason for a retailer to buy our product.” Agronomic hurdles are the same as with greenhousegrown tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers -- categories that Nature Fresh Farms have mastered on both sides of the border. R & D head grower Matt Korpan is quick to point out that there are more questions than answers about what climate, lighting and varieties work best. His team of 20 includes specialists in several disciplines: propagation, horticultural crop research, IPM, post-harvest research, consumer tasting, data science, genetics, sensor technology and robotics. Nature Fresh Farms work collaboratively with seed companies in Holland and California as well as with global leaders in horticultural lighting.
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