Browsing Category : Farming

l-r: Marc, Krista, and Ben Schurman (and Zoey the dog) in front of one of the new boilers Photo credit: Cheryl Young/Salty

NEW BIOMASS BOILERS FOR LOCAL GREENHOUSE


Finding ways to save at Schurman Family Farm Imagine if you could save 100,000 litres of furnace oil a year? Yes, you read that right. One hundred thousand litres. That was approximately the number of litres of oil burned to heat the greenhouses at Atlantic Grown Organics in Kensington, PEI last year. The organic farm has over 4 acres of…

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A variety of seeds available at a Seedy Saturday seed exchange Photo credit: Brian McInnis

GROWING A FOOD SOVEREIGN ISLAND


Island farmers save seed to assert local ownership over food production Food sovereignty: the central element of a food system in which communities control the production and consumption of their food. It prioritizes local, affordable, sustainable, and culturally appropriate food. On PEI, farmers believe that the Island can become food sovereign. The movement begins with a network of farmers saving…

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DORIAN LEAVES ITS MARK ACROSS THE ISLAND


Early September storm has effect on many Islanders, from homes to farms to businesses As post-tropical storm Dorian swept across the Maritimes on September 7, many homes, businesses, farms, and fishers were affected by its path. Despite its category as a post-tropical storm, it packed winds that were in the hurricane range and came with heavy rainfall. Nearly a month…

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DIVERSIFYING THE TRADITIONAL CATTLE FARM


Aiden McIver of Arthur Cousins and Sons is a familiar sight to the beef cattle being raised on this generational farm It’s a cloudy and cool Saturday in early June when we make the trek to Spring Valley Rd, just north of Kensington and Indian River to visit Arthur Cousins and Sons’ farm. The spring planting of barley and alfalfa…

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AN UNUSUAL ISLAND HARVEST


Young farmers choose to grow vegetable crop that takes years to establish When I think of farming in Prince Edward Island, asparagus doesn’t come to mind and yet it is a plant that can grow well here. I had a chance to speak with Matt Hughes and Lexi Mclean about their experience of trying out this crop. Oak Isle Farm…

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FEMALE-LED FARMS ON THE RISE


In honour of International Women’s Day, a look at changing gender roles and the shift from farmer’s wife or farmer’s daughter to straight-up farmer, like Nancy Sanderson of Hope River Farm Farming in Canada is evolving to have more female presence, according to the 2016 Census of Agriculture. Yet, through our history women have always played important roles in agriculture:…

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BALANCING CROP AND CARE


Brothers and business partners, Kyle and Bryan Maynard find symmetry with sustainable potato farming practices Potatoes and Prince Edward Island. Impossible to separate one from the other—the famous PEI potato has become a part of our landscape, literally and figuratively. Fields planted in row upon row of potatoes criss-cross the Island, processing plants dot the landscape, and farm machinery lumber…

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