We (Shannon Jones and Bryan Dyck) are the hearts and hands behind Broadfork Farm, and have recently bought our farm in River Hebert, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia.
Click on our pictures to learn why we farm.
In the news, there are many discouraging reports of aging farmers, farm kids moving to jobs in cities, prime farm land being sold for development… But as young people who have left the cities to become farmers, we are optimistic!
We know many new farmers (including ourselves) who are going into farming to feed people, to leave a lighter environmental footprint (and help the eaters of their food leave a lighter footprint) and to make a living at it!
There are many reasons why farming isn’t seen as a wise career choice these days and one of them is finding land to farm. As many of you have probably heard, land access is a HUGE barrier for young and new farmers wanting to start and run sustainable farms (sustainable = environmental, social, and economic viabilty for the long-term).
We are so blessed and honoured to have found a beautiful little (15 acre) farm on the Boar’s Back (road) in River Hebert, NS….really close to the border with New Brunswick and the Bay of Fundy. The view from the front of our home has a tidal bore river running through land that the Acadians had dyked for farming. Interestingly, Bryan’s last name Dyck comes from a “dweller at or near a dyke.” Now, he does indeed dwell near a dyke!
We are so grateful for the help and support of so many individuals and organizations as we begin the lifelong process of husbanding this land:
- Jim and Margaret Drescher, stewards of Windhorse Farm, from whom we leased land in the first year of running our own farm business. We are so grateful for all that you’ve done in encouraging the future sustainability of farmland, forests, and spirits!
- Eric and Ruth Hoffman, who also generously leased land to us in our first season.
- Heifer International, who helped us out tremendously with a start-up grant which we are “Passing On” through offering free workshops and farm tours to our community.
- Everdale Farm’s Farmers Growing Farmers program which has a wonderful farm business planning course. We learned so much about the business side of running a farm that would have taken us a long time to learn (with a lot of bumps along the way).
- Carrot Cache, who have provided us with grant money to build “Caterpillar” tunnels to extend our growing season and allow us to bring crops to farmers’ markets year-round.
- to all our new neighbours who have made our transition to River Hebert so wonderful (Su and Andy, Dara and Lois, Reid and Barbara, Laurie and Shelley…..)
- to our families we support us and believe we can do it!
- to ACORN and ThinkFarm for being such great resource and support organizations
- to the Farm Loan Board for saying YES to loaning young farmers money to purchase their own farm
- and to all of our mentors who are too numerous to name but if you look at the list of “Farms we’ve worked on, learned at, or just love” list, many of them are there (but we’d like to give a special shout-out to Wayne and Angie Bruhm who don’t have a website but they are the best friends ever and have helped and inspired us in too many ways!).
Our mission is to:
- provide a year-round, diverse selection of tasty and nutritious, hand-tended vegetables; carefully harvested to share with our community at local farmers’ markets.
- use sustainable farming practices (following organic standards): minimizing the use of non-renewable resources; preserving and enhancing soil structure and fertility; expanding biological diversity on our farm through planting perennial crops, raising appropriate livestock, and creating wildlife habitats.
- maintain a farm scale that is manageable and inspiring for the labour on the farm, relying on the physical and intellectual power of human effort, being economically viable to sustain ourselves.
- contribute to the health and well-being of the community by empowering conscious eaters with sustainable and nourishing food choices and connections to their local food system; engage our community by providing information and inspiration for healthy and local eating through excellent customer service, farm tours, and community events.
Some books that have inspired us: