Out Arizona Way

[doctorwayne]

Been hesitant about posting this because of it's rather mundane subject...

On the contrary, I found it rather interesting.  This area of the Niagara Peninsula was once known as the Garden of Canada, with orchards and vegetable farms lining the shores of Lake Ontario from just west of Trawna (Toronto) to Niagara Falls.  The CNR ran dedicated fruit trains during the harvest season, carrying produce all over Canada and to parts of the northeastern U.S., too.

While there are still orchards between Stoney Creek and the Falls, all of the small towns in between those two towns have grown considerably, with most of the growth taking place on lands formerly dedicated to orchards.
A lot of the vineyards which grew grapes for juice production took out their vines when the provincial government decided to subsidise the grape growers to convert to wine grapes when the juice industry began to fade out.  Some farmers also took out their orchards to cash-in on the windfall.

There are a great number of greenhouses in the area, too, and those not converted to- or built for- cannabis production, are used for either vegetable or flowers.  Most of them, especially the latter, are owned and operated by Dutch immigrants, many of whom came here in the '50s, when Holland was offering cash for people to leave, as at the time, it was one of the most densely populated countries in the world.

With these farms and greenhouses spread out along the plain between the Escarpment and Lake Ontario, they have a readily-available supply of water, and this entire area of southern Ontario gets ample rain, too, with Lake Ontario to the east and north, Lake Erie to the west and south, along with Lake Huron and Georgian Bay to the west and north respectively.  No matter which way the wind is blowing, it's passing over large bodies of water.

Wayne