It was another dark and dreary day in May. I had a morning coffee and chit-chatted with Karen Gyde about the consistent rainy conditions. For us former farm kids, the weather is a constant topic. A deep, sympathetic vein runs deep when Mother Nature is clearly neglecting the needs of the land and its stewards.

“You know,” I started while looking at the sky. Karen already knew the fate-tempting quip that was coming. “If it ever stops raining, it might never start again.”

We laughed. I gazed through the window at the parking lot-turned-pool I’d just circumnavigated as the rain started even harder.

What I didn’t know then was that Prince Edward County was in the midst of one the wettest springs in 50 years. May saw nearly twice the amount of rainfall over the long-term average. Between five and six inches over the month, depending on where your rain gauge is located. 

Then, virtually nothing. A few passing rain showers in June and July that helped some crops growing in the deep clay but not nearly the volume needed to properly sustain a yield. If anything, this season has reinforced the need for crop insurance and irrigation strategies wherever possible.

Nowhere on this isle is the drought more punitive and prolonged than Hillier. If you drew a line between Picton Bay and West Lake, the good and deep soil is about 5-7 km north and south of that stripe. Beyond that, things get dicey and soil gets shallow. There are some big pockets of workable sandy loam where acreage remains in production.

On the rolling hills of Hillier, the limestone shale shows its teeth. Shallow soil and no rain do not a successful farm make. There’s still evidence of fallow fields where Hillier Township livestock and crop farmers tried and failed.

But this century has brought a new crop and a new mode of agribusiness to Hillier. A form of agriculture suited to the terroir. Over 20 wineries are established here. The former corn and hay fields of the late 1800s have given way to rows of pinot gris and chardonnay grapevines. Wine tasters show up by the bus load every weekend to taste the trappings at Broken Stone, Traynor Family Vineyards, Hinterland.

In addition to popping corks and pouring tasting flights this summer, some wine makers along Danforth and Closson Roads are actually watering their vines. Without anything by way of inland lakes or ponds to draw from, a few growers have taken to hand watering. They are sourcing bulk water, trucking it in, and then parceling it out in slow, tedious doses.

In the case of some varietals, the task is not just to preserve this year’s crop — but to save the vines from withering and dying out completely.

2025 marks the second year in the last decade when a drought resistant crop like wine grapes has been decimated by dry conditions. This year’s drought has prompted the Prince Edward County Winegrowers Association board to explore forming a climate change subcommittee to how best to lobby the province for irrigation infrastructure support.

As part of a $135 million investment in Southwestern Ontario, the Ontario Government is sending $41 million to the Niagara Region to build out irrigation infrastructure. Pipelines will deliver water to hundreds of farms and agricultural businesses in St. Catharines, Lincoln, and Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Never missing a chance to pump housing numbers, full credit goes to Premier Doug Ford’s government for tying irrigation infrastructure funds to the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program’s (MHIP) Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund (HEWSF) stream. They say this investment will unlock 14,000 new homes in the area.

The province steered well clear of mentioning climate change in their August 11 news release, quite a feat in this day and age. You know, with forest fires raging in both British Columbia and the Maritimes and the spate of runaway fires in this part of the province the last weekend.

But the City of St. Catherines was a little more clear in their response, and thanked the province for punching up local agribusinesses in light of erratic weather patterns.

“With climate change bringing more drought, and in the face of global economic uncertainty, there’s a growing need for better irrigation to ensure producers have the resources they need for consistent water supply, which would result in the potential of boosting crop yields of high-quality products, and heightened water conservation and management,” the city said in a news release.

Now, to be clear, Hillier is not Niagara and will never be. By volume, the majority of Ontario’s tender fruit and grape crops are grown in Niagara. That region’s agri-food sector contributed to over $2 billion in GDP in 2024.

Provincially, Niagara produced about 29 per cent of VQA wines in 2023. While Hiller can boast the critical mass of wine production in the County, it produced about 30,000 cases in 2023. Or 1.1 percent of all VQA cases.

So the prospect of the province dropping $40 million for a central retaining pond off Closson Road or piping water from Lake Ontario to allow vineyards to feed irrigation pumps, pipes and water guns is low.

But good things grow in Ontario and, over the last 20 years, great things have been growing in Hillier. After fits and starts over the last century, there’s finally something emerging from the shale hills. Or trying to. The economic growth and spin off from a previously sleepy section of Prince Edward County is undeniable. Our wineries, cideries and distilleries and connected agritourism businesses are becoming a key part of Ontario’s $5.5 billion wine industry.

The province and local stakeholders should be discussing how they can mitigate climate change and keep that trend growing for decades to come.