What's in Your Four-Season Greenhouse?

Tomatoes and cucumber in the greenhouse. Photo by Eli Pluma

In the not too distant past, Canadians had a limited growing season due to the Great White North’s climate, with the usual field-grown cucumbers and tomatoes and strawberries coming in strong in the summer months and tapering off in the fall. 

With the advent of modern day greenhouses and greenhouse coverings boasting highly energy efficient ways of extending the growing season, we now can boast those same strawberries, tomatoes and cucumbers of all varieties (plus many other different items such as beans, peppers and lettuce) grown year round! 

The most obvious motivator for this is the demand as a nation we have for fresh produce of all varieties led by the health-conscious as well as those with a taste for foods that don’t come in a can or tear-off wrapper.  Consumers are looking for options that are closer to nature and further removed from labs and factories. A more diverse range of diets has cropped up in recent years with more people claiming vegetarianism and veganism as a way of life.  Also being a country of many nationalities has influenced the diet of the average Canadian, so that nothing is generally off limits when it comes to taste and cuisine.

A quick online search for the most common greenhouse crops in Canada yields the following crops - Potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, chillies, sweetcorn, peas, brussels sprouts, and lettuce.
That is a whole lot of staple diet foods for many Canadians who eschew the processed and fast-food diets of mass popularity in favour of more traditionally healthy home-grown and home-cooked fare.

So with the abundance of choice available - what favourites are you choosing to put in your greenhouse this season?