Articles by Author

Nearly every Canadian province maintains one or more public gardens of significant repute, but only one–the Historic Gardens in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia–invites the exploration of 400 years of agricultural history that began with the arrival of explorerSamuel de Champlain and 79 French settlers in 1604. This hardy band of pioneers was recruited by Pierre Dugua de Mons who, in 1603, was directed by Henry IV of France to begin colonization of Acadia, a territory known today as the Maritime provinces and part of the State of Maine. De Mons arrived in May 1604 with two supply ships led by Champlain. By [...]

There it was…on the bottom corner of page 25 in the Yellowknifer newspaper: “Handyperson–Department of Environment, High Arctic Weather Station, Eureka, Ellesmere Island. Position open to residents of the Northwest Territories and northern Alberta.” I qualified as a Northwest Territories resident by a scant three months because I had moved–in early October–from Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, to the barren flats of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories where it was already -22 C. I knew one person in Yellowknife–the sister of a friend back home. She and her family had put up with me for three months while I looked for work. [...]

Jay Willar straightens stiffly, knuckles kneading his backbone, and surveys the hard-won efforts of a morning’s labor: a 10-foot-wide swath of ground-laid netting festooned with tangled ribbons of pink-brown dulse. The noonday sun is already working its magic, baking it to a deep reddish-purple. Jay’s easy smile invites small talk. He’s putting in a third summer on Grand Manan Island, off the south coast of New Brunswick, harvesting dulse. While he admits that ‘dulsing’ isn’t easy, I’m flabbergasted when he tells me that four months’ picking is worth a whopping $7,000. Hard work notwithstanding, he’s put himself through three years [...]