Water

Aaron and Dani harvesting herbs

At 4:20 am I wake up and hear the conversations of frogs that live on the edges of the ponds. We are so grateful for all the bodies of water nearby, and all the fish, frogs, dragonflies, birds, and plants that make up the habitat. We depend so heavily on the ponds for irrigation and for moderating rain events. Beside the pond is a 6 foot deep spring fed, dug well that has terrific drinking water. A lot of people in the area have to buy drinking water because their well water is ‘hard’. I think that means mineral-rich, and it doesn’t taste good. Our water is ‘soft’ and we wash the vegetables with it, shower in it, and drink it. At the edge of the farm there is brackish tidal water river that flows to and from the Bay of Fundy. We are in the Avon River Valley, part of Mi’kma’ki territory, where Atlantic Salmon, striped bass, sturgeon, gasperau, eels, and many other species thrived. I even saw porpoise chasing smelts up the Kennetcook River in early spring many years ago. There are many tidal rivers here with Mi’kma’ki names like Cogmagun and Kennetcook or Acadian names like Herbert and Cheverie.

I have a friend who ‘grew up on salmon’ fished out of the Herbert River. There is also an old gypsum quarry nearby where the water is so clear and we love to swim and cool off. Especially on a hot day like today. The Avon River shore also provides a diversity of salt water beaches to explore and many muddy banks to slide down. On some of these beaches are remnants of the huge wharfs that point to the area’s ship-building history. Ships were built to transport gypsum and other goods all over the world.

Now our shore is a lightly populated, mostly wild, hidden gem of a place. Even though it has a sleepy feel, there’s a surprising number of interesting business based here, many of them food and agriculture related. We are happy to be part of this community and thank you, our customers for supporting our farm so we can live and work in a place like this.