The years between 1984 and 1993 witnessed many changes in the methods of grape and tender fruit production and the types of planting in the Niagara Region. The fruit industry saw a gradual push towards denser orchards with continually more trees to the hectare, tighter row spacing and modified pruning methods. These developments were a mixed blessing, as increasing yields exacerbated local oversupply problems, particularly in peaches, and prices were mired near dismal. Tighter plantings necessitated changes in husbandry that resulted in interesting effects on the type of equipment used and unclear implications for pest control.

The 1988 implementation of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States had a profound impact on the grape and wine industry. A consideration for grape growers was linked to the agreement, which resulted in incentives to pull out old vineyards and replace them with newer varieties thought viable in a North American market. This resulted in considerable vinifera plantings, the legacy of which is the excellent wine coming out of the region today. It also influenced land-usage patterns, as vinifera vineyards were seen by many growers as an alternative to tender fruit orchards.

At Quiet Acres, this vineyard revolution passed us by. One reason is that we had historically grown few grapes, and those that we grew were for our fresh market (not for wine). A second reason is that most of the soil on our farms is too good, in a sense, for grapes. Grapes thrive on heavier, slightly less-expensive (and more widespread) soil. Based upon area, the capital investment required to establish a vineyard, excluding land costs, is almost three times that of a typical tender fruit orchard. Compared to vineyardists on more marginal lands, we would have found ourselves at a distinct disadvantage with a large long-term capital investment in vineyards on prime tender fruit soil if the pendulum swung towards grape oversupply. Instead of "growing wine", with our retail market in mind, we continued our oxymoronic focus on diversity in the years between 1984 and 1993.

Two crops that we began producing in large quantities in these years were pumpkins and raspberries. A third, less significant, but personally important product was eggs.

The decade between 1984 and 1993 marks the years where Brad was king of the poultry operation roost at Quiet Acres. With my parent's encouragement, and my sisters' dissent (for they had briefly shared control of egg production one summer several years earlier), I gradually built my flock from twelve alleged-layers to over a hundred productive hens. Alas, those were fleeting years; when I left for university the business passed to my parents.

Raspberry production was controlled by the progeny for many years as well. It was a joint-control affair among the three siblings. My sisters and I did much of the work, though happily invested almost no capital, and we reaped most of the benefits. Raspberries are still produced in large quantities at Quiet Acres, though control of the business has been absorbed by the larger operation.

There was a gradual increase in pumpkin production on our farms during these years. Though we had always grown pumpkins and decorative gourds and squash, we began producing them in much larger quantities. Our farm became locally known for our large pumpkin selection in the fall, and groups of school children often came for farm tours and to get pumpkins. One of the primary reasons for our increasing pumpkin production was that it complemented our apple crop. At that time, over ten percent of our land was devoted to apple orchards and we had plenty of apples to sell in the fall.

In the years leading up to 1984, growing apples on dwarf rootstock became increasingly common. This was one aspect of the pervasive movement towards higher-density orchards. Dwarf trees produced higher yields per hectare, better-quality apples, took fewer years to come into full production, and were easier to pick. The introduction of dwarf apple trees with quicker yields encouraged growers and would-be-growers in many parts of North America to plant such orchards. (Apples can be grown over a wider area than tender fruits, because apple buds are more resistant to severely cold winter temperatures.) While previously apples growing on "standard" rootstock took ten to fifteen years to reach full production, dwarf trees could reach full production within six. The result by the early-to-mid 1980s was a chronic oversupply of good-quality apples, and virtually no market for lower-quality apples growing on larger standard rootstock.

One response to this oversupply was the increased construction of Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storage facilities for apples. Since at least the mid-1960s CA storage facilities had been sporadically built, but they were rather uncommon. CA storage goes beyond regular cold storage; it is a storage method whereby most oxygen is removed from the storage room. Removing oxygen inhibits decay, so apples keep far longer. Suddenly, it was common to see many varieties of apples in supermarkets year-round. CA allowed more apples to be sold, but it also commodified them; in a macro sense apple availability was guaranteed, quality was standardised, and they could be transported long distances with little or no effect on that quality.

In the mid-1980s, almost half the apples at Quiet Acres were grown on standard rootstock. As the years progressed, it was increasingly difficult to find markets for these apples. One market was for juice, with prices ranging from five to thirteen cents per kilogram. Even ignoring the sunk costs in our established orchards, growing apples for the juice market was a losing proposition. In 1985 we removed one standard orchard at the back of the farm and replaced it with peaches. In the fall of 1987 we removed the second orchard that was planted along our driveway near the market and replaced it with the sweet cherry orchard that's there today. Though the apple orchards were nearly fifty years old, having been planted in the early 1940s, they were still producing well. They were victims of changing times.

Changing times affected peach production too. By 1984 virtually all new plantings throughout the region were high-density with about a three-meter spacing between trees, and five metres between rows. Previous to this it was common to leave as much as six metres in each direction. Though the trees were pruned smaller, high-density planting still had the effect of increasing yields per hectare and resulted in slightly shorter times to maximum yield. More interesting, however, was the effect high-density planting had on orchard husbandry practices.

With such tight plantings, it was no longer possible to cultivate, till, or mow grass in both directions. Instead of mechanically controlling weeds growing between the trees in a row, herbicide use became more common. Some growers began using modified orchard mowers, able to move in and out, around the stumps of the trees.

Dense planting also has the effect of decreasing air movement around fruit. Air movement can arrest or delay decay. Air movement is important during periods of high humidity or particularly rainy periods because the decay resulting from brown rot thrives under such conditions. Tighter plantings increased grower concern over brow rot, and necessitated more careful orchard monitoring.

Tighter orchards required growers to begin investing in smaller, lower, specialised orchard tractors. Shorter ladders became common, as did low orchard trucks capable of getting into orchards under branches with low-hanging fruit. (Orchard trucks are also known as jitneys, orchard cars, orchard wagons and orchard buggies.)

Until 1986, we used a tractor and trailer to move fruit from the orchards to the market and packing facility at Quiet Acres. In 1986 we started using orchard trucks and haven't stopped. Some of our orchards are now so dense that even with no fruit on the trees it's difficult to get in with tractors; it would be impossible to get in with a tractor and trailer during harvest.

High density peach orchards were a mixed blessing because though they increased yields, they also contributed to a local over supply problem and resulted in depressed prices. Though the central marketing mechanism controlled by the Ontario Tender Fruit and Grape Grower's Marketing board had been strengthened in earlier years, it was becoming less effective towards the late-1980s. Increased production was not the only reason for this. Food-store conglomeration and leaner channels were necessarily pushing down prices, as larger buyers were able to contract for fruit from as far away as California. These fewer buyers, representing larger markets, purchasing a variety of fruit from further afield, negatively affected the homegrown market. In the years between 1985 and 1990 it was very common to have such a glut of peaches in the distribution channel that by Labour Day there was simply no wholesale market. Much of the blame, rightly or wrongly, was tacitly placed on the marketing board.

Growers responded by planting earlier-maturing varieties in the hope of beating the Labour Day glut, and by putting in orchards of clingstone peaches devoted to supplying Nabisco's Del Monte canning facility in St. David's.

By 1990, de facto control of the wholesale channel no longer rested with the marketing board. Individual distributors, and co-operatives set up by groups of farmers began doing the job themselves. The jury's still out on what effect this direct marketing has had on the distribution channel. In recent years, there has been less of a glut in the market, but it could be due to factors other than marketing. Some of these factors include the increased plantings of early-season peaches, increased demand by the canning factory, decreases in peach hectarage in favour of vineyards, increases in consumer health awareness and demand for fresh fruit, and so on.

There was some ambivalence at Quiet Acres during the late 1980s and early 1990s as to what to do in response to the uncertain peach market. Peach orchards that my parents had planted in the 1970s were due for replacement, and the future market was far from certain. We were reluctant to follow the trend towards vineyards, and there was no attractive alternative crop to replace the peaches with.

At about the same time as we faced these decisions, we began having serious disease problems in the oriental plum orchard at our smallest farm. Black knot in certain varieties of purple and prune plums had long been a problem in the Niagara Region, but it had only recently become a problem in some orchards of oriental plums.

Black knot is a disease that causes black, cancerous growths on the limbs of trees. It is very difficult to control, having no widely known and proven-effective cure. The control method consists of diligent yearly physical pruning and removal of affected limbs; the caveat being that affected limbs be pruned back at least ten centimetres from the infection. The problem on our small farm was that the black knot began growing on the stumps and main limbs of the trees. There was no effective removal method. Just as this orchard entered peak production years, black knot began to take hold.

Anticipating declining production at this small farm, we replaced some of the old peach orchards with oriental plums. Like other growers, we planted more early variety peaches in order to smooth supply throughout the summer, hoping for improved markets. We also began planting newer and earlier-maturing varieties of clingstone canning peaches, both for our fresh market and for the canning factory.

Over the years, we focused increasingly on our retail outlet. Many of the plantings in early part of this period contributed to a more stable and predictable harvest, and a steadier supply of a wide variety of fruit for our market.

After years of intending to do so, in the spring of 1993 we finally had signs made and started actively promoting our fruit market as Quiet Acres. This name had been associated with the farm even before my father bought it in 1968. Though we had been wholesaling under the name for many years previous, 1993 was the year that our fruit stand was finally christened.