Archive for March 2018

By Mark Halsall Harrison Van Meekeren is a third-generation apple farmer in Lakeville, Nova Scotia, managing the crop on property his grandfather Frank bought back in 1964 to grow vegetables, apples, and other fruit that he sold door-to-door. Today, Van Meekeren Farms comprises a bustling apple packing facility, along with 100 acres of trees that…

By Simon Lavoie, Les Producteurs en serre du Québec Located in the charming valley of the Diable River in Quebec’s Laurentian Region, Ferme aux petits oignons has an incredible story to tell. As part of the wave of agroecological horticultural field and greenhouse production, the Mont-Tremblant business continues to impress with its capacity to develop…

Dusty Zamecnik is a 27-year-old horticultural farmer in the lush farmland of Norfolk County, Ontario, which is situated close to Lake Erie’s north shore. Now production manager at his family’s EZ Grow Farms, Zamecnik returned to farming in 2014 after getting a business degree from St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia and spending…

Bryce Loewen is a 28-year-old potato farmer in Winkler, Manitoba who believes more young people should be eating more spuds because of their significant nutritional value. That’s why he supports a new fresh potato marketing campaign from Manitoba’s grower-owned vegetable marketing board, Peak of the Market. The campaign, called Potahto Lovers of Manitoba, was launched…

By Mark Halsall Cory Gerrard is a 33-year-old potato producer at Rod Swenson Farms, a fourth-generation farm on Westham Island in Delta, British Columbia. Gerrard married into the Swenson family and runs the operation along with his wife, brother-in-law, and father-in-law, but he’s certainly no stranger to farm life. “I was born into it,” says…