Hey! We’re Shannon and Bryan, the farmers at Broadfork Farm.
We love growing delicious and nutritious vegetables – and we love eating them too! We cook simple, tasty meals, preserve in-season veggies (especially lacto-fermenting or freezing), and are really into healthy eating. We grow herbs too, for adding flavour to meals and for herbal tea.
We also grow a lot of different flowers – for their incredible beauty, to increase biodiversity on the farm, and for their benefits to pollinators (as long as they’re grown the way we do – without pesticides). We always have flowers in our house, to bring that connection indoors.
On Saturdays, from April until November, you can find us at the Dieppe Market in Dieppe, NB.
Meet your Farmers
I’m Shannon.
I’ve been passionate about the environment since I was a child, reading about issues and sending letters to the Prime Minister asking to help endangered species.
As a teenager, I became fascinated by natural health and nutrition. This lead to me studying and becoming a Holistic Nutrionist. I loved this work but I realized that whole foods available in grocery stores were not as nutritious as they were 50 years ago. People needed to supplement their diet with nutrients they should get from their food. I figured the best way for me to help others would be to grow the healthiest food I could. But first I needed to learn how to become a farmer.
For 6 years, I worked on organic farms – here in Canada, the U.S, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and India. Each farm taught me lessons that would ultimately influence the farmer I’ve become.
My name’s Bryan.
During university, I spent a summer apprenticing on an organic (actually biodynamic) farm….then never stopped.
I loved the complexity of farming and learning to work within the laws of nature.
Working with my hands – building things, tending plants and animals, and caring for the soil – is the ideal job for me….despite the many curveballs thrown at us as farmers.
I love getting up early when everything’s quiet and peaceful. I love good food and trying out new varieties, but i also love growing good food for the soil and all the organisms that live there.
Cover crops and green manures are really fun for me – and really benefit the health of our farm.
We met when we were each working on a different farm in the same area.
We started dreaming and planning our future farm, and in 2011, started Broadfork Farm.
Starting this farm has been the most incredible way to take all of our passions and values and create something life-enriching and fulfilling.
We believe in the power of local farms and organic food to make the world a better place.
We both work full-time on the farm. It’s just us. We’re a 2-person operation.
In our off time?
We love arranging flowers for our home, hiking at Cape Chignecto, checking on the Monarch caterpillars, hanging out with our cats, and tearing up while watching Queer Eye.
In addition to full-time farming, we also volunteer on boards and committees related to farming and food.
Currently, Shannon is serving on the boards of:
- COG (Canadian Organic Growers)
- OFC (Organic Federation of Canada)
- Canadian Organic Standards Technical Committee
In the past, she served on the boards of:
- ACORN (Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network)
- NFU (National Farmers Union)
- IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) North America
- Eat Local Cumberland (previously CFAN, the Cumberland Food Action Network)
- Agrifutures Nova Scotia (no longer in action)
Bryan is currently serving on the board of:
He also previously served as President of the Cumberland County Federation of Agriculture and represented on the NS Federation of Agriculture’s Council of Leaders. He also served as Youth Advisor for NFU’s Region 1.
