Here’s how a former pilot is growing berries earlier than usual

John Carroll spent decades flying aircraft before returning to his first workplace: a greenhouse

Fresh fruit lovers might be interested in this story.

John Carroll, a former pilot who owns New North Greenhouses, is now growing his strawberries and raspberries inside two 4,300 sq. ft. high tunnel greenhouses, in contrast to outdoor fruit producers.

High tunnel greenhouses are covered in plastic, not glass.

What that means is Carroll’s greenhouses allow him to sell fresh strawberries and raspberries to customers in an extended, spring-to-October growing season.

Becoming the owner of New North in 2019 was a full circle moment for Carroll, a Hamilton native who started working in greenhouses when he was 13 years old.

“I grew all kinds of different plants. I grew hydrangeas, geraniums and tropical plants like African violets.”

In a career change, at 21 he enrolled in the aviation program at Thunder Bay’s Confederation College.

He piloted several different types of aircraft for 26 years — from bushplanes to large commercial airline jets — before returning to his gardening background.

Carroll said he loves the business of growing plants.

“I actually treat plants like they’re humans. You’re constantly nurturing them. It’s just really interesting to me.”

He says he’s the first producer to grow fruit in high tunnel greenhouses in the Sault and area, Carroll said his operation produces fresh food closer to home, reduces reliance on imported product and gives customers access to locally grown berries earlier and longer.

New North soft launched their annual business season May 7 and officially opened May 9.

“If you’re growing outdoor strawberries or raspberries, the planting starts in mid-May.

“You’re not going to see a strawberry until about Canada Day and for raspberries it’s going to be more like the end of July. But we’re going to have berries in about three weeks,” Carroll told SooToday in an early May interview.

This is his second season of indoor berry growing.

“Last year I got interested in growing the berries because I have everything I need to do that in this place,” Carroll said.

“These greenhouses used to grow trees, so that’s why we have big huge vents and fans and there’s great air flow. It’s really good for growing berries.”

Carroll has 120 bees in each of his two fruit growing greenhouses to pollinate strawberry and raspberry plants.

“Last year we learned the hard way that the bees don’t see how we see. The bees wouldn’t come out of the hive because they thought it was night time. So, that crop of raspberries didn’t make it. The plants were beautiful, the flowers were beautiful, the berries came, but they weren’t pollinated,” Carroll said.

With a lesson learned, Carroll re-skinned the greenhouses with polyethylene.

“I had to put new roofs on these houses so that the bees could see. Now they’re flying around everywhere.”

Carroll is growing raspberries again this year and has added strawberries to his growing list. He also plans to grow blueberries and blackberries.

He has 1,200 strawberry plants in one greenhouse with another 300 hanging baskets that have three plants each.

“We started planting March 19,” he said.

The plants look like they’re growing in soil, but it isn’t soil.

“They’re growing in husks from cocoa. All that has to be specially prepared and buffered and we’re constantly feeding them nutrients,” Carroll said.

“Outdoor, field grown operators won’t see fruit until probably around Canada Day, especially with the kind of winter we had. My staff and I are bringing them in almost a couple of months earlier and we’re going to run until October.

“Field berries, by comparison, are finished in a month. Our berries are going to be ready for market much earlier and much later.”

Carroll said his growing environment doesn’t experience problems with pest control and the use of a lot of sprays.

“It’s closer to being organic,” he said.

Customers purchasing baskets of fruit from Carroll will be able to grow their own berries throughout the summer.

“I’ll send them home with a slow release fertilizer that will last them the whole summer. All they have to do is water them because we’re going to give them the proper slow release fertilizer to keep them going all summer and right until frost in October.”

“I have no transportation costs,” he added.

“We pick them in the morning. They go into a cooler within 30 minutes of picking and they’re as fresh as you could possibly imagine, with a way better taste.”

That compares to fruit shipped in from California and Mexico which has been on a truck for a week and has a significantly shorter shelf life at supermarkets, Carroll said.

Carroll said he plans to significantly expand the number of high tunnel greenhouses at New North and sell to local grocery stores.

He also knows how to give back.

Carroll gave 80 pounds of raspberries to Harvest Algoma last year and that fruit was turned into jam as a sweet treat for the Sault’s hungry.

New North Greenhouses was established in 1992.