It's been another year. So, continued,
11) Three years in, I feel comfortable saying it's possible to set up and manage a fruit farm from 1000+km away. We're in Nova Scotia about 6 weeks total per year.
12) The Jerusalem artichoke experiment failed. Soil too acidic? I have tried a second planting.
13) Garlic turned out small but it grew. I wasn't there to clip the flowers, neither did I fertilise it.
14) We set up a vineyard. Grapes are forgiving. We did everything at the wrong time. We got the rootless cuttings in June (2015) when they were no longer dormant. We planted them and were not there to water them all summer. We transplanted them to their permanent location this July and again were not there to water. Most survived anyway, when last checked in November.
15) The wild apple trees are productive. We harvested 70kg, pressed them to 30 litres juice and concentrated that to 4 litres on the woodstove.
16) I did a calculation on wood ash: each kg is worth about 70 cents in terms of lime and fertiliser content. 2kg of ash is equivalent to 1kg of lime. Of course, not a lot of ash is produced. If one burns wood all year, maybe 5,000 kg of wood goes into the stove. Less than 2% of that becomes ash, thus under 100 kg.
17) When clearing land, I keep the food sources for the birds, frogs etc. The beneficial wildlife. Thus, the choke cherries stay, as do small seasonal wet areas.
18) The growth rate of many plants is very slow in Cape Breton. Even the haskap grows slowly. It shows the low fertility of the native soil. It'll become better with the lime.
19) Liming is far more important than fertiliser. A small fraction of nitrogen, phosphor and potassium is actually available to the plants when the pH is 4.5.
20) Community life is delightful.
21) Oh a demolition hammer with clay spade attachment does wonders to help dig holes and help with trenching in the hard stony clay soil.

I appreciate the posts and your observations. We are 'year one' into the same exercise in Antigonish County.

I've noted a lot of gardening, however not in obvious places. People appear to be land rich and don't necessarily keep their gardens by their homes in my area. My in-laws grow potatoes, beet root, carrots, and beans. Lots of canning going on.

I've also noted the abundance of wild apples. This last year micro cider operations were the rage in NS however I am not sure if the fruit is all locally sourced. I've also seen strawberry and blueberry operations around town and in Guysburough.

There is a large dairy operation outside of Antigonish and this is the only large scale agricultural operation I've noted however I'm not scouring the back roads. There appears to be more going on around Truro. The commercial fishery appears to be alive (if not well).

Like you, I appreciate the community. The people are kind and welcoming.

I will look forward to your observations next December.

Cheers.

Great overview, thanks for the read and updates.. please do another one as the time comes.. There is a company in Nova Scotia that sells a few kinds of the Chokes, they would be naturalized to the island and might be worth considering.. I have five kinds now on my farm and the difference between them can be quite a bit..

I am on the old family farm in rural Pictou county. The soil here is much richer and far less rocky than up at my in laws in Margaree area of CB. Lots of wild apples, cherries, and several types of berries. Hazel nuts do very well, but you have to get them before the birds and squirrels. Water table has been very consistent on our property for 20 plus years.

I love it here.

It's been another year. Counting, it's been 4 years in Inverness County. We continue to expand the orchard while living far away in a big city. In 2017 we spent about 10 weeks on the farm. Continuing my notes and observations, in no particular order,

22) It continues to be delightful and lovely in Inverness County. The locals are kind. I knew full well, coming in, that it's an area of the country of established families where anyone new coming in is an outsider for life. I attend local church services and make a point visiting with some neighbours. I am very grateful to the neighbours for all their big and small outreaches to help me feel welcome. It's a part of the country where the population has been shrinking rapidly and locals are glad that anyone is coming in and work on a farm rather than it becoming yet another abandoned property. In turn I am glad to call Inverness County our second home and we also have a paid subscription to the local Inverness newspaper delivered to our home in the big city.

23) Moonless nights are truly pitch black. I found that out visiting a neighbour by bicycle. I had no bicycle light. On the way back, about a km long, I could not make out the hand in front of my eyes. I had to walk the bicycle. Carefully. I had no idea where I was walking on the road. Here and there I seemed to come close to the ditch on either side and corrected course. Even with eyes accustomed to the dark after 15 minutes walking like that, I could make out nothing. Pure black. Completely blind.

24) The StatsCan Census numbers show that the rural area of Inverness County has a population density of 5 people per square kilometre, and falling. Even though, the farm is best described as "remote but not isolated". Ironically it takes us less time to arrive at the hospital than in the big city. We can get there in 13 minutes right to the front door of the hospital. I have timed it.

25) We had another big year of planting. We put about 20 nut trees into the ground (walnut and hickory varieties), spacing them at least 15 metres apart. I don't expect a harvest for 15 years. We also planted 2 mulberry trees. Mulberries are said to produce within a few years and give plentiful harvests. When harvested, they rot within 24 hours so they need to be processed on the spot and that's why we don't see fresh mulberries in stores. In addition, we planted 30 more hazelnuts, and 20 gooseberries/currants.

26) Mostly things grow steadily and slowly on the farm. The haskaps we put in in 2013 have spread and look healthy but are not much more than knee-high. The berries and apples grow slowly. A few things grow fast, especially the hazelnuts, which are two metres tall and we had a harvest.

27) Our 20 grafted apple trees may or may not survive. The water table is way too high where we planted them. We dug out the drainage ditch and planted willows to lower the water table. The issue is possible crown rot disease over time. To help protect the roots, I have started treating them with an Agri-Fos foliar spray.

28) The philosophy remains of a permaculture- oriented food forest. There is no aspiration to make it fully organic but certainly with sound responsible stewardship of the land. We continue to use commercial fertilizer in small quantities (liming is more important) and we also treat any seeds we plant with a commercial fungicide. The apple trees get insecticidal soap (organic) and now also Agri-Fos (kind of organic) and permethrine (kind of organic).

29) The apple trees have suffered from the white spiral plastic we put around them during the planting in 2014. We thought we could leave that permanent. Not so. We looked underneath the plastic this summer and saw some trunk rot and also roots from above the graft zone into the soil. We cut those roots, treated the exposed trunk with a fungicide and removed the spirals. As of this autumn, the trunks look mostly fine and I seem to have saved them. A few were also half girdled by what is almost certainly mouse damage, and that despite the spirals.

30) Also, I corrected the soil around the apple trees. The trees have sunk somewhat into the ground since planting. Everything planted from this autumn forward is somewhat higher to anticipate later sinking. The sinking of the apple trees was modest and I corrected that by moving the surrounding soil.

31) The grapes survived the winter. If they ever bear, is an open question. They are local, yes, from a Cape Breton vineyard. That said, we planted them on a hill that gets optimal sun but that unfortunately is somewhat of a frost pocket in winter and spring. Most vines came up from the bottom this spring, rather than from the upper portion of the plant, which mostly died. That may be a temporary phenomenon as the plants are yet getting established. If growth continues to shoot however up from the bottom every year, we never get a harvest, because the fruit grows on one-year old vines.

32) If somehow the grapes don't do well in this location, the effort to establish the vineyard is not lost. I put in North American blue grapes or the like, which are actually good tasting and those are very hardy.

33) The Jerusalem artichokes finally took. I am very happy about that. These are a true perennial food source that can even be eaten raw. That said, from what I know, the human body can only easily absorb 250 grams of those chokes per day because the calories don't come in the form of starch, but a less digestible variety. And no weeding is needed, they grow tall with big stalks.

34) Fava beans is another success story. They also survive with no weeding as they grow about a metre tall with thick stalks. Favas will be our go-to food plant for our first attempt to grow a larger, family-nourishing crop. We had a harvest this year that took zero effort.

35) Garlic grows well and also can be grown with long absences. It'll do better if we were there to weed and fertilize. That said, we planted 20 last year and they all came through, and we planted more this year.

36) Still no success with winter rye. Could be a variety of factors - seed quality, planting too late in fall, not deep enough in ground, rabbits munching it in spring before we come up. We'll keep at it.

37) Buckwheat and oats grew great on their test plots, until the rabbits ate them in late summer. That can be fixed with deer fencing. Overall, deer fencing is the way to go to protect gardens. It's relatively inexpensive and it works.

38) When coming up in summer, the locals said they just experienced drought and it hadn't rained in weeks. Looking out the window, I saw green grass. Note to self: what the locals call "drought", is not a drought by Central Canada standards. In Central Canada, you get bone dry brown grass in a drought. That never seems to happen in Cape Breton. Good.

39) In automn, we processed 25 kg of wild apples to about 4 kg of apple butter. We de-cored them, threw them into a big pot on the wood stove, added about 10% sugar, some cinnamon, and boiled it down, with the peel. Very nice tasting end product.

40) Running count of plantings. 40 fruit and nut trees, 30 hazelnuts, 80 grapes, 50 small fruit.

41) The best part of the farm as a retreat property and eventual retirement property is that living expenses there are astonishingly cheap. When you start your long-term retreat / retirement with a mortgage-free farm, a good functioning vehicle and some basic farm implements, yearly expenses are low. Property tax $1,000. Food expense: half that of the big city, with much grown on-site. Utilities: low. Free unlimited wood heat. Enough solar to keep a few deep cycle batteries going, which is enough for an emergency. Fridge, freezer and other non-essential power hogs stay grid-tied.

42) A contractor examined the site for possible solar. He recommended a stand-alone hut. We plan to have a root cellar dug, and put said hut on top, and the electrical wiring to the house in place. Put a panel on top and a battery or two, others can be added later.

43) We found that any structure of 20 square metres or less doesn't need a building permit. That's great because that's actually a lot of space. I also received a written opinion from a provincial building inspector that the 20 square metres can be underground, say, for a root cellar.

44) The idea of possibly being snowed in in winter for a few weeks doesn't bother me. With a wood stove, food and a few deep cycle batteries to run lights, there is not much of an issue.

45) We have a shallow well about 50 metres from the house. I bought from Lee Valleys a cast iron hand pump and from Home Hardware enough hose to run a path from the pump to the door step of the house. So we now have a way to get well water to close to the house when the pump is down.

46) Note on food storage: we use 7 year old fish cans, olive oil, walnut oil, pasta, split peas, a variety of beans, almonds, brown rice, parboiled rice, chocolate, cocoa, sugar and they are all fine. The one exception are hazelnuts, which go rancid in 2 years or so.

Close to another year has passed. We continue to develop our orchard retreat while living at a distance. We typically spend time in spring, summer and automn on the property. This year, we had to skip spring. Thus, we have only spent 3 weeks on the property; nonetheless, much was accomplished and will be later this season when we will spend another 3 weeks in autumn. Observations, in no particular order;

47) Note on food storage: 8 year old fish cans, olive oil, walnut oil, pasta, split peas, a variety of beans, brown rice, parboiled rice, chocolate, coca, sugar are all fine. That said, the tuna appears to slightly change taste faster than salmon as age progresses.

48) The garlic grows without much care. It stays small but it grows even when covered with weeds. The rabbits don't touch it.

49) The rabbit fence around the garden area, which is about 70cm high, will have to be higher. They get in.

50) The leaves of the 4 year old grafted apple trees (on B118 rootstock, now about 2m tall) are attacked by a variety of mites, insects and fungi. I gave them a spray of permethrin and and a mild fungicide. Thus far, all have survived.

51) The 30 hazelnuts were reduced to 20 by the rabbits. We find that loss acceptable. Once they reach a certain size, I will protect them with spiral wrap.

52) Out of the two mulberries planted, one survived the first winter. We found this surprising as I expected both to survive and it was not a particularly cold winter.

53) Turning compost is hard work.

54) My footbridge project finally has a solution. The task is to span a river that's 4 metres wide at low water and 10 metres+ wide at high water. Plus there is ice damning in winter. All that together means a major undertaking if one wishes a permanent bridge, not to mention there is need for permits and more so because it is beaver habitat. I considered a variety of solutions such as a suspension bridge and dock floaters for a seasonal bridge. I came across a section of the river where at normal water level, the river is 15 metres wide but not really. It starts with a 5 wide and shallow section, then a 6 metre long island, then a one metre deep channel and finally a 3 metre shallow section. The solution is to build a permanent stone landings in form of gabon cages, and link those with temporary aluminum platforms that can be easily removed. This makes the bridge a one-man project with minimal footprint.

55) There was construction activity on the property. A solidly built root cellar now lies underneath a hut that is ready for solar. A new woodshed was also built, plus an addition to a garage. Overall, close to 100 m2 enclosed space was added and the property gains tremendous value as a retreat that way.

56) We are tremendously grateful to my 70 year old "jack of all trades and master of all" neighbour who supervised all construction activity with a keen eye on quality. That is value in gold. Everything was built far beyond code.

57) We planted 7 willow trees in wet zones and protected them well with cages.

58) We collected soil tests carefully from a number of areas on the property and had them formally analysed. My lime treatments have nicely raised pH. The shocking - yes, shocking, part of the analysis is how low the soil is. We are getting 17 kg/hectare of phosphor (P205) in my apple orchard when it should be 270 kg/hectare. Similar low phosphor values for the other samples. We shall pick up phosphate fertilizer and apply it this autumn. It'll take a few years to build it up. We have found a source.

59) We plan to write another update in a few weeks after we have returned from the property. We look forward to meeting with the forest management specialist from the Wood Owners Association. We took part of a program where a specialist walks the land and makes suggestions. With our 60 hectares of woodland, we want that input. We also plan to meet with the company that will build the solar installation, and do more plantings.

Close to another year has passed. We continue to develop our orchard retreat while living at a distance. We typically spend time in spring, summer and automn on the property. This year, we had to skip spring. Thus, we have only spent 3 weeks on the property; nonetheless, much was accomplished and will be later this season when we will spend another 3 weeks in autumn. Observations, in no particular order;

47) Note on food storage: 8 year old fish cans, olive oil, walnut oil, pasta, split peas, a variety of beans, brown rice, parboiled rice, chocolate, coca, sugar are all fine. That said, the tuna appears to slightly change taste faster than salmon as age progresses.

48) The garlic grows without much care. It stays small but it grows even when covered with weeds. The rabbits don't touch it.

49) The rabbit fence around the garden area, which is about 70cm high, will have to be higher. They get in.

50) The leaves of the 4 year old grafted apple trees (on B118 rootstock, now about 2m tall) are attacked by a variety of mites, insects and fungi. I gave them a spray of permethrin and and a mild fungicide. Thus far, all have survived.

51) The 30 hazelnuts were reduced to 20 by the rabbits. We find that loss acceptable. Once they reach a certain size, I will protect them with spiral wrap.

52) Out of the two mulberries planted, one survived the first winter. We found this surprising as I expected both to survive and it was not a particularly cold winter.

53) Turning compost is hard work.

54) My footbridge project finally has a solution. The task is to span a river that's 4 metres wide at low water and 10 metres+ wide at high water. Plus there is ice damning in winter. All that together means a major undertaking if one wishes a permanent bridge, not to mention there is need for permits and more so because it is beaver habitat. I considered a variety of solutions such as a suspension bridge and dock floaters for a seasonal bridge. I came across a section of the river where at normal water level, the river is 15 metres wide but not really. It starts with a 5 wide and shallow section, then a 6 metre long island, then a one metre deep channel and finally a 3 metre shallow section. The solution is to build a permanent stone landings in form of gabon cages, and link those with temporary aluminum platforms that can be easily removed. This makes the bridge a one-man project with minimal footprint.

55) There was construction activity on the property. A solidly built root cellar now lies underneath a hut that is ready for solar. A new woodshed was also built, plus an addition to a garage. Overall, close to 100 m2 enclosed space was added and the property gains tremendous value as a retreat that way.

56) We are tremendously grateful to my 70 year old "jack of all trades and master of all" neighbour who supervised all construction activity with a keen eye on quality. That is value in gold. Everything was built far beyond code.

57) We planted 7 willow trees in wet zones and protected them well with cages.

58) We collected soil tests carefully from a number of areas on the property and had them formally analysed. My lime treatments have nicely raised pH. The shocking - yes, shocking, part of the analysis is how low the soil is. We are getting 17 kg/hectare of phosphor (P205) in my apple orchard when it should be 270 kg/hectare. Similar low phosphor values for the other samples. We shall pick up phosphate fertilizer and apply it this autumn. It'll take a few years to build it up. We have found a source.

59) We plan to write another update in a few weeks after we have returned from the property. We look forward to meeting with the forest management specialist from the Wood Owners Association. We took part of a program where a specialist walks the land and makes suggestions. With our 60 hectares of woodland, we want that input. We also plan to meet with the company that will build the solar installation, and do more plantings.

Sounds awesome AND you sound like you are enjoying it tremendously.
Not sure about deer population, but they are all my fruit trees on spring, nothing survived. We were not yet living on the property but I don’t think that would have made a difference. Then again, our coo. Hound may have scared them off.

Again congrats with all the work and all the best with your bridge. Ice flows can be a real treat every few decades so try and factor in high spring buildups and sudden release of ice.

great overview, thank you for the taking the time to write it out.. such great work on the place!

great overview, thank you for the taking the time to write it out.. such great work on the place!

have to say, while i am in good shape, he makes me want to go and do a lot more and i hope to be able to do just that this fall and winter. awesome encourgament

Agreed that last knock of good weather that is appearing now has us doing more outside work and getting things done.. We had been having lots of company (mother in law came for a ten day visit from out west) and lots of family came to visit including little ones that had colds and so we both got them..

We puttered on the thanksgiving weekend, still got a number of yard things done and more greens dried and put up.. I figured it was a great time to dry horseradish greens to help clean our sinus lol

Clarence wrote: "Not sure about deer population, but they are all my fruit trees on spring, nothing survived. We were not yet living on the property but I don’t think that would have made a difference. Then again, our coo. Hound may have scared them off."

The good news is that there is a solution. The bad news is that it is expensive. Each tree is protected by a solidly built cage that consists of two 8-ft heavy duty T-posts and then spanned by a 6 foot high quality metal horse fence. That way, each tree costs $30 to protect. It will fully protect the growing tree, and the trunk of a more mature tree, from deer attack and beavers. I have heard too many stories, including yours, to spare that expense and I have done that level of protection for all trees at the time I plant them. I even protected my willow trees that way. The protection needs to be permanent. I heard of a story where last winter, a farmer lost all his mature fruit trees when deer ripped the bark off the trunks in late spring.

I figured it was a great time to dry horseradish greens to help clean our sinus lol

That interests me. Somebody had told me that horseradish leaves taste similar to the root, but upon tasting the leaves, I found their taste to be nondescript and non-interesting. But your variety seems to have pungent leaves!

Clarence wrote: "Not sure about deer population, but they are all my fruit trees on spring, nothing survived. We were not yet living on the property but I don’t think that would have made a difference. Then again, our coo. Hound may have scared them off."

The good news is that there is a solution. The bad news is that it is expensive. Each tree is protected by a solidly built cage that consists of two 8-ft heavy duty T-posts and then spanned by a 6 foot high quality metal horse fence. That way, each tree costs $30 to protect. It will fully protect the growing tree, and the trunk of a more mature tree, from deer attack and beavers. I have heard too many stories, including yours, to spare that expense and I have done that level of protection for all trees at the time I plant them. I even protected my willow trees that way. The protection needs to be permanent. I heard of a story where last winter, a farmer lost all his mature fruit trees when deer ripped the bark off the trunks in late spring.Fruittree_cage 008.jpg

Thanks for photo and costings. Happy harvesting

I figured it was a great time to dry horseradish greens to help clean our sinus lol

That interests me. Somebody had told me that horseradish leaves taste similar to the root, but upon tasting the leaves, I found their taste to be nondescript and non-interesting. But your variety seems to have pungent leaves!

I have alot of horseradish plants (at least 30 at a min) and I can honestly say that the leaves flavour changes depending on time of year, weather and plant to plant.. I started with three different sourced plants, including the one that is a a mixed white/green one. It's the most mild in flavour, i think because the white does not have the heat to it.. then of the two other kinds, one is hotter in the greens then the other.. but I have been selecting flavour that I like for years.. I will test the leaves and if I like them, I will replant that root.. if I do not like it as much, I will do my best to dig out the root and not replant the trimmed top/bottom of the root.

My favorite greens plants are only dug out every three years and that is to prevent the plants from choking themselves out.. So I say, try that leaf again in the spring, the early summer/mid/late summer and the fall and see if you like them at certain points 🙂 if not.. head to the garden center and sample lol till you find one you like LOL