Food & Wine

That’s Agri-tainment

How one family farm stays au courant

That's Agri-tainment
In this day of corporations and conglomerates, it is exceedingly difficult to find an example of a cohesive, successful family business. And not just a business that comprises immediate family members, as there are many that a brother and sister or husband and wife start and run, but a truly multi-generational business that not only survives, but thrives. Farming was, for centuries, one of the bastions of familial cooperation, but as the concept of family farm disappears into the mists of time, to find one that is growing and keeping up with the times is a refreshing change.

Noggins Corner Farm, in Greenwich, Nova Scotia is such an example. Founded by Timothy Bishop in the 1760s, his original land grant ran from the Cornwallis River to the top of the South Mountain ridge. It continues under the Bishop family guardianship to this day. Eight generations of Bishop have farmed this land and today, I tour it with the current custodians. I had met Patricia Bishop during a Pumpkin Festival meeting and found her a charming and motivated young woman (and in the late stages of pregnancy at the time). We arranged a visit and tour of the farm in late July that her sister Carolyn led.

That's Agri-tainment

I have been buying products from this farm since I opened Tempest in 2003. They specialize in fruit production, pumpkins and field crops, but I was to learn today that their operation is much larger than I had anticipated or known. One hundred dairy cows provide milk daily for a local dairy cooperative. Corn, vegetables, plums, cherries, squash, beans, pears, flowers, seed corn, brussel sprouts, other vegetables and the ubiquitous valley apple (over 50 varieties!) are grown on the family lands, which total over 400 acres of three separate parcels. Much of the production of the farm ends up in the farm market, but they also wholesale to foodservice companies and other food producers. Product is exported across Canada and into the United States.

‘Agri-tainment’ was a word from Carolyn’s lips that I found instantly modern for a farming family. In keeping with current worldwide trends, perhaps begun by the Italian model of Agriturismos, they have come to realize that the modern farm, in order to stay au courant must offer more than a traditional farm experience to grow and attract more customers, and to keep the earning potential of the land at a premium.

That's Agri-tainment
They also operate a large corn maze from August to November, a Spooky House during the Halloween season, a children’s playground, and maintain and operate an Eagle-Cam that monitors an eagle family nesting in trees on the family property. They have a beautiful U-pick flower operation and in September and October the U-pick pumpkin patch is teeming with city folk and country folk alike finding their perfect Halloween pumpkin to carve. As well, there is a nature trail, and an attractive pen that holds toy Shetland ponies and turkeys that delight wide-eyed children.

There is a feed store operating on the property that supplies pet owners and farm operators in the area, and a fish truck that operates on the weekends. These days, the motor is broken on the fish truck, so they use a farm tractor to push it into place beside the market stand when the fish arrives on Friday!

The mainstay of the operation, the Farm Market, is humming with happy patrons today. On a busy Saturday in September they can have as many as 2,000 customers a day. It is brimming with the season’s first raspberries, the last of this year’s strawberries, breads, pies, cookies, apples, squash, beans, lettuces, baby carrots, spring onions and 20 or 30 other products including maple syrup, jams and local craft products. This is like a mini-clearing house for everything local.

That's Agri-tainment
The young sisters, Carolyn and Patricia, are very motivated and in many ways direct the traffic at this uber-farm. Patricia leaves me to walk the farm with Carolyn while she and now newborn Frank join a local reporter for a photo shoot and interview relating to agricultural zoning issues. They communicate across the farm via cell phones, which constantly ring as we make our way past the corn maze to the raspberry tunnels, by the flower gardens, through the warehouses which contain modern low oxygen cooling technology and apple processing equipment, into the feed store and eventually to the fruit orchards.

The entire operation is presided over by current owner and patriarch Avard Bishop and his wife Sandy, who took over in the 1950s. Avard, at 80, and Sandy join their granddaughters every morning at their nearby house for coffee at 7:00 a.m., before surveying the state of the farm, and inspecting the various degrees of ripeness of the orchards. The actual overseer is Avard’s eldest son Andrew Bishop (Carolyn and Patricia’s father), who is constantly on the move over the entire breadth of the farm, ensuring that the up to 60 employees are harvesting what they should be as quickly as possible, or planting, or engaged in the maintenance tasks that are integral to safeguarding the operational success of the farm. Seven or eight Bishop cousins come from as far away as Ontario each year and work on the farm as their summer job. Uncle Randall maintains the Eagle-cam and is updating the computer systems. Four of Avard’s five children are still involved in the farm in some way or another.

That's Agri-tainment

We end up in the gigantic cherry orchard with Avard, Carolyn, Patricia, her daughter Lily, newest addition Frank and sister Jillian. We stroll the cherry avenues while Avard describes to me the constant threat the Grackles pose to ripening cherries, naming varieties I have never heard of (Black Tartarian!) and justifying the screeching recording of harp-y like birds that plays in a loop to help keep the real birds away from the trees, now dripping with mature fruit just waiting for pickers to ease the load from the drooping branches.

I spy some beautiful sour cherries and pick a quart in under 30 seconds to make a sour cherry custard tart back at Tempest. Perennially busy Andrew catches up with us in time to take a four-generation photo in the midst of the cherries before dashing off to find another picking crew to direct. Avard, amusingly, grabs some sour cherries and feeds them to the captive turkeys who gobble them up voraciously in seconds. They would be good turkeys to eat later, I say, thinking of the cherry flavour imbuing the birds with delectability, only to hear that the Bishops DO enjoy them later!

As I go back to the farm stand and select some beautiful produce to create this month’s recipes, I have a chat with long-time employee Melissa. She has worked here since the age of 17 and is in charge of the wholesale operation. They sell almost 90,000 lbs of corn each year and supply some of our regions major grocery retailers with much welcome local product. She is now as much a part of the family as any Bishop and they trust her with a very important part of the business. She seems efficient and very accomplished, as well as proud of what she contributes to the farm’s success.

This farm, and others like it in the area are models of agriculture in a modern world. They stay abreast of current technologies, are willing to explore new products if they think a new market can be developed and recognize the power of the farm as an entertainment commodity. I think, too, that they count their lucky stars that a shortsighted ancestor did not chop up the farm into lots and sell it to developers for a quick short-term profit. They own a good chunk of premium agricultural land in the heart of Nova Scotia and are creating an enterprise that we can all be proud of.

There are several other noteworthy farms in the immediate vicinity all operated under family banners. I buy product from all of them.

Hennigar’s Farm Market and Cookhouse
10272 Highway #1
Wolfville, NS
902-542-3503
www.hennigars.com

Elderkins Farm Market, Bakery and
Cider Company
10362 Hwy #1 Wolfville, NS
902-542-7198
email: elderkins.apples@ns.sympatico.ca


Originally published in the Fall 2007 issue of Lifestyle Nova Scotia Magazine.