Ontario is experiencing extreme weather conditions this year. Our neighbour, who grows potatoes, has been driving back and forth to adjust his sprinkler system a few times a day. If you don’t irrigate, your crops will shrivel.
In the past three weeks, we have had two to four days with temperatures above 30°C, and on the other days, temperatures have been between 25°C and 30°C. There has also been very little rain, maybe a couple of mm per week. Some rain was forecast each week, but mostly it was not enough. The relative humidity (RH) sometimes fell below 35%. It was very difficult to maintain optimum conditions in the greenhouses. Even the sprinkler system could not bring sufficient relief on those days of extreme weather, so we suffered crop damage. In these conditions, we start and stop work early and cool off in the pool afterwards.
I have been following the debate about the use of the physical auction clock in the Netherlands with much interest. In Canada too, people who buy through the clock prefer to see the products before they buy them. Because volumes are small, we pay a significant commission of 13% while the buyers in this niche market expect to buy a special product of good quality and for a reasonable price. There is very little interest for supermarket products through the clock, though there are modest but reliable sales of tropical import flowers and “dinner-plate” dahlias.
On 1 July we celebrated Canada Day and Canada´s 149th birthday. We took part in a canoe trip down the Grand River near Brantford during the long weekend, celebrating the 400th anniversary of the treaty between the Dutch and the native people of the Six Nations. The Dutch wanted to trade with the native people and made an agreement that both parties would live side by side.
The treaty is called Two Row Wampum and is an unwritten oral agreement. The wampum is a beaded belt on which both parties are depicted travelling in harmony next to each other along a river. History teaches us that this treaty was later repeatedly broken. The weekend was a great success; we met the people of the Six Nations and learned about each other’s culture and insights.
Angelle van Kleef
Potted plants grower in Ontario, Canada
