The favourite response to this question is that we're at the same latitude as California. While this is true to some extent -we're about 2 degrees north of California's northern border- the ability to grow tender fruit in the Niagara region has far more to do with local geography than latitude.
There are three main factors necessary for fruit production:
Niagara has been blessed with all three of these.
Moderate Winter Temperatures
January average winter temperatures in the Niagara region are -4.6 degrees Celsius. We experience temperature extremes of between -20.0 degrees Celsius and -25.0 degrees Celsius about four in every ten years.
A magical number for tender fruit production is -25 degrees Celsius because below that temperature severe bud damage can occur, which would put crops at risk the following summer. Areas all around Niagara experience such severe winter temperatures with some regularity. Niagara is normally spared due to a unique micro-climate created by the interaction between the Niagara Escarpment and Lake Ontario.
The Niagara Escarpment is a massive topographic feature that is the remnant of the shoreline of an ancient sea that covered much of what is now Ontario, western New York State, and Michigan some 400 million years ago. The Escarpment can be traced from Rochester New York, south of Lake Ontario, North to Tobermory in the Bruce Peninsula, and underwater to the State of Michigan. The proximity of the Escarpment as it passes just to the south of Lake Ontario's shoreline creates the temperature moderated micro-climate of Niagara where most of Canada's tender fruit production takes place.
In the fall, heat emanating from the lake on cold evenings extends the growing season by delaying the first frost, particularly near to the lake shore. Topography also plays an important role in minimising frost risk damage. In elevated areas, topography acts to drain away cold air on calm nights. Growers just below the escarpment who cultivate lands on a slightly-elevated plain known as St. Davids Bench enjoy this effect.
In the winter when air temperatures
fall below
In the spring and summer during
the daytime the inverse is true. Summer temperatures in
Suitable Soil
Tender fruits grow most vigorously in sand loam soils. As was mentioned above, the Niagara Escarpment is the remnant of the shoreline of an ancient sea. As occurs with present day water bodies such as Hudson Bay or the Gulf of Mexico, rivers flowing into this ancient sea carried sand, silt and clay that were deposited as thick layers of sediment upon which fruit trees now thrive. It should be noted that the soil conditions throughout Niagara are not uniform. There are many areas where particularly finicky fruits such as apricots and peaches cannot be grown.
A Sufficiently Long Growing Season
Due in a large part to the moderating effect of Lake Ontario and the Niagara Escarpment, Niagara enjoys a maximum growing season of 206 days. (As reported at Vineland Station.)
In 1996, there were 2,672 census farms in Niagara and 156,000 acres in crop production. Of these 156,000 acres, only 14,675 were under tender fruit production (about 10% of the total). Peach production accounted for 8,000 of these 14,675 acres. Peach trees account for 1.5 million of the total 2.35 million tender fruit trees planted in the region.
If every one of these 1.5 million peach trees were in peak production years, total production would translate into about 5 pounds of peaches for every person in the country1.
So just how big is that anyway? Well, put another way, it would take the peach farmers of Niagara about seven and a half years to fill the largest ocean-going bulk ship in existence2. (And that's producing at peak.) Is that a lot or not?
More up-to-date statistics reveal that in 1998, peach growers in Niagara harvested 4,742 acres of peaches and marketed 49,926,000 pounds3.
In terms of filling the largest ocean-going bulk ship, that translates into twenty-two and a half years4. So why the huge difference?
The difference is probably due in a large part to the fact that peach trees take several years to mature and they stay in peak production for only a few years. It could also be due to under reporting (or non-reporting) of yields.
On a national scale, Niagara is by the far the most important peach producing region in the country. In 1998, Niagara produced 83.4% of Canada's peaches. The remainder of Ontario produced another 11.3%. The final 5.3% were produced in places outside of Ontario, primarily the Okanagon Valley in British Columbia5.
Another way to size up Niagara's peach crop is to compare it to California's. Peach production estimates for 1999 in California were set at some 1.8 billion pounds6. That's over 35 times the crop in Niagara.
But size isn't everything! Stop by our market and taste a peach... we think you'll agree.
The question is a logical one, because you would expect that Niagara peaches in Canadian stores should taste like Niagara peaches. The truth is, however, that they often taste nothing like those we grow on our farms and sell at our market.
The main reason for the difference is that often times the peaches that end up in supermarkets were picked somewhat green in order to facilitate transport and storage.
The ones at our market taste better because we can pick them ripe; there's no need to transport them more than a kilometer, and we usually sell them the day they're picked.
The short answer is no. All fruit sold on the fresh market is harvested by hand. This includes small fruits like sweet cherries and raspberries. The cost of intensive labour for picking and sorting is, buy far, the highest single input cost.
Mechanical harvesting is used for some fruits for processing, but not on our farm. Somewhat common in our area are tree shakers, which are used in sour cherry orchards where the cherries are destined for processing, and grape harvesting machines used for wine grapes. In other parts of Ontario some raspberries and strawberries for processing are harvested mechanically.
We do not allow pick-your-own on our farm. Long ago we did, but orchard damage caused by inexperienced pickers was heartbreaking (and limb breaking). In recent years, the rising costs of proper liability and accident insurance for pick-your-own operations is also a disincentive.
There are a few possible reasons for this.
We do use chemical pesticides on our crops, but total pesticide use has been decreasing on our farm for several years because of our family's concern over its use and our involvement in an integrated pest management (IPM) approach to its use. Like us, many fruit growers across Ontario have reduced their total pesticide use by 50% in recent years by using an IPM approach.7
IPM involves various methods (horticultural, biological and chemical) to control pests and diseases. One of the most important advances in pest control for fruit production has been the timing of applications to correspond with the lifecycle of the pests. In the past, it was common to apply blanket applications at regular intervals. Today, through careful monitoring, we are able to apply pesticides only when they're needed, and at the precise time when they'll be most effective.
In addition to pesticide use, we are also concerned about the use of chemical fertilisers. In the past five years, we have concomitantly reduced our use of chemical fertilisers on the farm while increasing our uses of alternatives like cattle and chicken manure.
If you're wondering what that smell is as you drive down Lakeshore Road in the spring or fall, it's probably our farm!
Our total farm size is 45 acres (18 hectares). On the home farm, where the market is, there are 30 acres. We have two other farms within two kilometres that are 10 acres and 5 acres. The total land under cultivation is somewhat less than this, probably somewhere around 40 acres, because our barns and house take up some space. We also have a creek running through the home farm that prevents us from using all the area.
The farm is mid-sized for the region. Due to the labour intensiveness of tender fruit production and the logistics involved in administering large staff over large areas, the vast majority of farms in the Niagara are less than 100 acres.
During our growing season between late March and early November the number of people working varies from three to forty. (Including family members.)
Most days in July and August there's about twelve of us working. A lot of the work happens in our orchards and on the wholesale side in our barn.
When harvesting and grading sweet cherries and oriental plums we have more people helping.
We sometimes have people jokingly
ask us this question on heady summer weekends when
Chaotic Acres or Busy
Acres might be more apropos. While the metric system was taking hold
in Canada our
wholesaler used to call us
Quiet Hectares
! Occasionaly newspaper articles have referred to
us as
Happy Acres
. So what's
with our name?
The reason it's Quiet Acres is that when the home farm was bought in 1968, it came with the name. We did not introduce the name to our retail market until about 1990, though we were wholesaling using Quiet Acres for many years before that. When you come to the farm ask Ruby this question... she'll tell you stories of her childhood.
1 This calculation is based on the assumption that one full-grown tree can produce approximately 100 pounds of peaches, and there are 30 million people in Canada. Back
2 This calculation is based on the assumption that one full-grown tree can produce approximately 100 pounds of peaches. The largest bulk ship in existence can carry 564,000 tons. The calculation also assumes imperial tons. Back
3 Source: Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Back
4 The largest bulk ship in existence can carry 564,000 tons. The calculation assumes imperial tons. Back
5 Source: A combination of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and Agriculture & AgriFood Canada, Market Industry and Services Branch, 1998/1999 Canadian Fruit Situation and Trends (Including apples, tree fruits & berries) www.agr.ca Back
6 Source: California Crop Production Report, 1999-06-11. www.nass.usda.gov/ca/Flash/906flash.htm Back
7 Source: Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Rural Affairs. What You Should Know About Fruit Production in Ontario. Order #98-063, Agdex #010/206 Back
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