Thick, humid air envelops Myriam Claude's banana tree, which bears a beautiful cluster of fruit, not yet ripe. Beside it are several trees blossoming with flowers, citrus fruit, and tiny pomegranates waiting to explode with flavor.
But Claude's bounty isn't in the tropics. It's in an 8,750-square-foot greenhouse northwest of Montreal, in the dead of a Quebec winter. Claude is making a big bet that her family's greenhouse, once dedicated to growing plants, will be able to produce more than 100,000 bananas per harvest, along with other exotic fruit.
"Three years ago, when I said to my father, 'Dad, let's try this,' I didn't even believe it would work; it was experimental," she says of her fledgling project at the nursery — Éco-Verdure — in St-Eustache, Que.
"But I thought, why not?" says Claude, daughter of Jacques Claude, who founded the family business. So she set about proving to her father that her idea wasn't so far-fetched.
"When I planted the banana trees, as soon as they produced bananas after six months — the first flower appeared as soon as I planted it — (my father) understood that it worked, and that he had to focus on it," Claude says.
With just two banana trees, she grew six bunches each with 250 bananas and quickly sold them all — that's 1,500 bananas in two months. Claude plans to have at least 100 to 150 plants, each with three bunches.
"There will be a lot of bananas," Myriam Claude says with a smile. With those kinds of numbers, she says her family could end up producing between 75,000 and 110,000 bananas per harvest.
Bananas might seem like an odd choice given they are one of the cheaper fruits on store shelves. A bunch of six of Myriam Claude's bananas sell for $5; she says most people just buy them green and let them ripen at home.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the provincial government encouraged locally produced food amid supply chain issues and shortages. But what's driving Myriam Claude's sales goes beyond the idea of promoting and purchasing local — there's a genuine desire to buy them.
Jacques Claude, the family patriarch, says his bananas aren't like the ones in the stores — and they taste quite good. "First of all, they have much more flavor, and they're richer," he says. "You eat one and you don't want to eat another because you're full."
Myriam Claude says imported bananas are filled with preservatives that allow them to reach Canada in edible condition. "I feel like they taste like Styrofoam," she says.
But the Claude family plans to produce more than just bananas: they want to grow lemons, limes, oranges, tangerines, papayas, and pomegranates. Myriam Claude, meanwhile, is experimenting with other fruits — pineapple, passion fruit, guava, kumquat, figs, and mango.
Even the humble yellow banana isn't enough. "We have special bananas coming: turquoise-blue bananas, pink bananas, red bananas, ones as big as squashes."
"That's why I want to do exotic fruits because no one else does them. I don't want to do what others do; it's too easy," Myriam Claude says.
Her ideas don't end with exotic fruits. She says she hopes to grow pawpaw, a forgotten fruit that grows in the eastern United States and southern Ontario.
"We're going to start growing it in the fields here, the tree matures after four years," she says. "It's an exotic and rustic fruit whose flavor is a mix of banana, mango, and kiwi."
Source: Vancouver is Awesome