How one Sask. farmer grows tropical fruits in the middle of winter | 24CA News
While Saskatchewan is thought for being a province full of farmland, there aren’t many farmers that may say they develop their very own tropical meals.
But for Dean Sopher, that’s precisely what he got down to do.
The thought for a solar-powered greenhouse got here as meals costs soared on account of inflation. Sopher mentioned the greenhouse was simply an extension of how he lives his life.
“I’m a builder by trade, but I’ve always been interested in passive solar technology,” the Saskatoon resident defined. “I built my house to use very little natural gas and air conditioning and I knew this concept would work for a greenhouse.
“I designed this specifically for our latitude on planet Earth. So, where we live, we get 319 sunny days a year, and I decided to utilize all that sun for producing as much as I possibly can.”
Now, Sopher is rising avocados, bananas, passionfruit, lemons, limes, eucalyptus and various tropical medicinal herbs.
“In this climate, we have created, we are able to grow things that can’t be grown in Saskatchewan,” Sopher mentioned with a smile on his face.
The photo voltaic greenhouse sits at roughly 35 levels Celsius all through the winter.
Sopher constructed the area nearly totally by himself and mentioned the method has taken over a thousand-man hours during the last two years.
“I have a young family and I want to provide them the best food possible as well as fresh food,” he mentioned, although Sopher hopes to someday increase to a small direct-to-customer system as properly.
Sopher has been documenting his journey on his YouTube channel, the place he’s received greater than 36,000 subscribers and over 1 million video views.
“I try to share all aspects of the science on passive solar technology so anyone anywhere on the planet can make some adjustments and recreate what I built here.”
Sopher mentioned all the expertise has been very humbling to see individuals so within the science. And no matter his success on-line, Sopher mentioned he’s simply blissful he will get to spend time together with his household and stroll right into a tropical local weather after shoveling snow exterior within the chilly Saskatchewan winter.
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