AGRICULTURE
Pictou County-based farmers talk crops and aspirations at the local farmers market.
Michael Coolican is brand new to the farming business, but you’d never know it from seeing his market stall packed full of fresh tomatoes.
His Small Holdings Farm only started up about a year ago and a pond helped his first tomato crop thrive through a dry spell this summer. Nor could wire worms and cutworm pests slow him down.
“The crop has gone really well. We grew a lot of tomatoes and a lot of tomatoes grew,” said Coolican at New Glasgow’s weekly farmers market Saturday.
His plan for next year is simple: growing fewer tomatoes in favour of carrots, beets, lettuce and other crops.
Crop diversification is also on the cards for Cathy Munro at Bramble Hill Farm outside New Glasgow.
Her market stall was already heaving with freshly plucked beets, radishes, packets of green radishes and squash, among other produce on offer.
“This was a great year actually. Our farm is expanding,” Munro said.
Her plans include a new fourseason greenhouse that will let her grow winter crops like squash.
She has also hit upon a possible solution to ongoing water issues, a challenge both this year and last.
“We actually have a couple of springs that come out of the side of our hill,” said Munro.
Her farm is working out how best to tap into this groundwater supply, which depends on how they can adapt their current well system.
Successfully adapting to prolonged water shortages and spells of extreme weather will be a key issue for farmers and others in an era of climate change.
The provincial government warns that severe storms, floods, droughts, warmer temperatures bringing possible fresh parasites and sea level rises are threats facing Nova Scotia over the coming decades.