Star Donovan, manager of special events for Mersey Seafoods, stands in front of the company’s Scallop Shack, which opened Monday at their location on Bristol Avenue. (Rick Conrad)
Residents and visitors to Liverpool can now buy Mersey Seafoods’ world-famous scallops right from the factory on Bristol Avenue.
The company opened the Scallop Shack in a tiny guardhouse in its parking lot on Monday morning.
Star Donovan is Mersey Seafoods’ manager of special events. She said Monday that response so far is good.
“It’s been busy since we put the sign out considering no one even knew we were going to do this. We just put the sign out by the road this morning, and it’s been flat out busy.”
Since the company opened its new building in 2019, many residents were hoping they would also open a retail facility.
Donovan said that until now, they couldn’t do that.
“Since Covid, we have had our doors locked. Prior to that, we used to sell five pounds of scallops to the community when they wanted them. The president of our company has chatted about being able to offer scallops again to the community so we decided we’d go with the Scallop Shack.”
The Scallop Shack will be open year-round, Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will be selling two different sizes of scallops – 10 to 20 scallops per pound or 20 to 30 scallops per pound.
You can buy them in a one-kilogram or a five-pound bag. Prices range from $37.40 for a kilogram of smaller scallops to $90 for five pounds of larger scallops.
Donovan said that with tourist season underway, it’s a good time for the new venture, especially since it’s difficult to find local seafood in Liverpool.
“I think it’s great, but I kind of figured it would be. We have calls every week from people, ‘Can we buy them, can we buy them?’ I know the community are happy about this and excited, and so am I.”
Mersey Seafoods is also celebrating its 60th year in business this year. And to help celebrate, the company will be putting a float in the Privateer Days parade for the first time, Donovan said.
“The girls in production decided they were going to put a float in the parade this year and so we’re all excited about that, having the Scallop Shack open. You never know what’s to come. We’ll see.”
Scallops sold by Mersey Seafoods are sustainably harvested from the Atlantic Ocean and freshly frozen at sea.
The company also sells coldwater shrimp and redfish or ocean perch. But Donovan says they will be selling only scallops at the Scallop Shack.
Melanie Perron is the co-owner with Mark Baillie of Hell Bay Brewing Company in Liverpool. The craft brewery recently celebrated 13 years in business. (Rick Conrad)
They started out small in a barn in Cherry Hill, and have survived an early cease-and-desist order, floods, a pandemic and just recently celebrated their 13th year in business.
Hell Bay Brewing Company in Liverpool marked that milestone on April 1.
When Melanie Perron and Mark Baillie began their craft brewery in 2011, they were one of only five or six in Nova Scotia. Now, there are more than 50 craft brewers, from nanobreweries to brew pubs to microbreweries.
“That was a nanobrewery then,” Perron said in an interview at the brewery on Thursday.
“We didn’t know where to start or how to start, so we just started very small in our home and quickly grew out of that space and moved here.
“We were just doing it as a hobby, so it was just for fun. And I was on maternity leave at that time. And Mark was always brewing beer and sharing it with friends. And he was to the point where he was brewing so much that we couldn’t consume it all, we couldn’t share it all. So, I just thought, ‘What would it take to do this as a business?'”
Back in 2011, they were known as Rusty Anchor Brewing Company and started out with an English Ale. But three months after they started labelling their beers, they got a cease-and-desist letter from Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco, telling them they couldn’t use the word “anchor” in their name.
So, the former husband and wife team had to come up with a new name and Hell Bay was born.
A couple of years later, they moved into the old Hoggie’s Buy and Sell space in downtown Liverpool. At that time, Perron says, they were focused mainly on selling kegs and bottles to bars in Halifax.
“When we first started out, it was just so busy because we had full reign of everything. It was easy to send 80 kegs to Halifax in a week and then the NSLC, we would send them three or four pallets of beer in a week. So at that time, we were employing probably six or seven staff.”
As more craft breweries opened, however, the market changed drastically. And Hell Bay had to change with it.
“When you think of all these breweries fighting for the same tap space and then the NSLC there’s only so much shelf space there. That’s why we had to put more concentration into our store and our pub and doing music and trying to attract more local people.”
While Nova Scotia craft beer sales increased overall by 6.1 per cent over the past three months, many breweries say the past few years have been a struggle.
In early March, FirkenStein Brewing in Bridgewater posted on its Facebook page that it was having trouble paying its rent. The brewery said if business didn’t pick up, it may have to close.
Other Nova Scotia craft breweries have closed or announced they will restructure. Uncle Leo’s near Pictou, Serpent Brewing, Off Track Brewing have closed or announced they’re closing. Brightwood Brewery in Dartmouth is closing its tap room, while Harbour Brewing in Musquodoboit Harbour is selling.
Perron says she hates to see other breweries in trouble.
“It hurts my heart because I know we’re in that boat every day. We’re just like, ‘Do we keep going or do we just sell out and close’, just because it’s not as profitable as people think. I always think it’s a good thing that I’m not a person who needs a lot in life. I don’t need a paycheque. I survive off very little. I have two staff who work here. So, my goal is to get my staff paid first. And my paycheque comes after that.
“It’s a hurting industry and I knew there was going to be a bubble. Everybody thought it was a multimillion-dollar business, adn I’m sure it would be if there were only 20 of us. But the market right now is just so saturated.”
Perron says that like with other businesses, Covid changed the landscape for microbreweries in Nova Scotia.
“Everything went to hyper-local. We lost all our accounts in Halifax, so all the bars dropped us. … So as of now, all of the bars we do have are on the South Shore.”
Perron says they’ve worked hard over the years to keep on top of what customers want. She says that’s why they started making more ready-to-drink beverages, like their popular hard lemonades, which often outsell their beer in the summertime.
And they recently made rum for the first time. It was a small batch but sold 72 bottles in two weeks.
She says that even though the past few years have been “up and down”, they’ve had great support from the local community.
“We wouldn’t be here without them, 100 per cent, especially since Covid. … So I am relying a lot on local business.”
Perron says she’s looking forward to the summer, when tourists return. The brewery plans to bring back its hot dog cart and offer some specialty hot dogs, and maybe even some food nights.
“I’m excited for the summer because I think it’s going to be super busy. I just have this feeling especially with all the new people moving here. The South Shore, it’s so beautiful and people are finally discovering it.”
In the past three months, sales at the brewery are more than double what they were this time last year.
Perron says the secret to their staying power is pretty simple.
“My perseverance. I’m not a quitter. I live a lot on hope. You know, next year can only be better. Since Covid, things are getting better.
“Just staying true to what you believe, I guess, and what your passion is and lots of hope.”
And that San Francisco brewery that sent Perron and Baillie that cease-and-desist letter 13 years ago?
It closed last year, but Hell Bay is still going.
“We try to keep our beer natural and true to what beer is. Just keeping the hops and barley and water. We don’t use preservatives. It’s all unpasteurized. It’s just the way beer should be.”
Rae Bonneville is the chairwoman of the newly formed Lunenburg Queens Business Collective. (Rae Bonneville)
Business groups on the South Shore have teamed up to form one large umbrella organization, potentially representing hundreds of businesses.
The Lunenburg Queens Business Collective includes the chambers of commerce and boards of trade from Liverpool, Lunenburg, Mahone Bay, Bridgewater and Riverport. It also includes the South Shore Tourism Co-operative.
Rae Bonneville is the new group’s chairwoman. She says the group won’t replace the business groups in each community. It will enhance what they’re already doing and give them more voice and visibility.
“It’s just so much more of a pool that everyone can access,” she said in an interview. “If you’re a member of the Lunenburg Board of Trade, for instance, you’re also a member of the collective. And your connections are really extended. … The connections for business are much higher. And also it gives us a much stronger voice for going to council and representing the businesses with a much stronger voice. It’s not just Liverpool on their own, dealing with a challenge. It’s all of us supporting that group. … It just gives us a lot more strength.”
Bonneville, who is also the president of the Bridgewater Chamber of Commerce, said the idea was first hatched by the Bridgewater chamber about two years ago.
“It seemed like a great idea to unite and form a united voice and have a stronger presence and support each other in the whole region.”
She said that although the group is brand new, it already has its sights set on some big issues.
“One of the biggest things we’re trying to tap into is a really good transit system between all of these towns to help with students and seniors and all kinds of shift workers and that sort of thing.”
And it has taken over responsibility for the Lunenburg Queens Business Awards, which are planned for November at the Best Western in Bridgewater.
Bonneville said they hope to hold region-wide job fairs and to create an activity calendar, so that an event in one community doesn’t compete with an event in another.
“It’s pretty exciting, we’re getting a lot of really positive feedback. I think this is going to have a lot of legs as we go along.”
Myrna Gillis, CEO of Aqualitas. The cannabis producer, based in Brooklyn, has been sold to a British firm. (Aqualitas photo)
Queens County cannabis producer Aqualitas has been sold to a British company.
The Brooklyn-based firm has been bought by the London-based Cannaray Limited. Aqualitas will become part of Cannaray’s medical cannabis division, Therismos, which operates in Germany and the UK.
Co-founder and CEO Myrna Gillis said Thursday the deal started being hashed out three years ago. She said jobs are safe at the plant in Brooklyn.
“It’s a great thing for the plant here in Brooklyn,” she said in an interview.
“We have expansion plans that had been on the books for a while, because we effectively had more demand than we had supply or capacity to meet. And we have funds that are earmarked now under this agreement for expansion, so we’re going to have expansion in the Liverpool facility. It enhances our position in relation to jobs and we don’t have any expectation of any layoffs. We expect to be in a position of expansion and growth because of it.”
Gillis would not disclose the value of the deal. But she said the two companies combined for sales last year of $75 million.
Gillis was a lawyer in Bedford when she co-founded Aqualitas in 2014. The company set up its grow-op shop in the Port Mersey Commercial Park, at the site of the former Bowater Mersey pulp and paper mill in Brooklyn in 2017. It employs between 75 and 85 people.
It quickly became recognized around the world for its environmentally friendly aquaponic growing system that uses the nutrient-dense waste of more than 3,000 koi carp fish as fertilizer.
Its products can be found around the world, in the U.S., Australia, Israel, Germany, Portugal and Poland.
The privately held company is certified organic and has won numerous awards and certifications since it was founded. It has also been on the forefront of research into PTSD, insomnia and pain.
“When I look back at that and I think of everything that we’ve accomplished, it’s an incredible story,” Gillis says. “So I’m really proud of what we’ve done, I’m really proud of what I was able to contribute to the team.”
Gillis said the time was right for the marijuana merger. Prices domestically have been going down, while export markets are still paying top dollar for their product. And Germany is set to legalize marijuana on April 1, opening up the international market even more.
“When we got into this industry we were licence No. 87. Now there are more than 950 licences with Health Canada. We had too many companies, too much supply in the domestic market, too many people doing the exact same thing.
“I always had the vision that I wanted to do an exit with a global company because you need to be globally competitive to guarantee your growth and access to markets.”
Gillis will continue as chairwoman of Aqualitas and she will be a member of Cannaray’s board.
Chief operating officer Josh Adler will take over the daily operation of Aqualitas and the current management team will stay in place, Gillis says.
“I think this is good for the community, it’s good for Aqualitas and it’s good for the industry.”
As for Gillis herself, she says she will still be busy with the company she founded with friends almost 10 years ago.
“I have a third act, I’m sure. But right now, there’s a lot happening here during my tenure. But there’s a third act for sure.”
Joel Westin, president of Bridgewater Ready Mix, says he’s teaming up with South Shore Ready Mix to reopen Liverpool Ready Mix. (Rick Conrad photo)
A new concrete supplier could be open in Brooklyn by August.
Joel Westin, owner and president of Bridgewater Ready Mix, said his company and South Shore Ready Mix are teaming up to reopen Liverpool Ready Mix.
“South Shore Ready Mix operated a plant in Brooklyn for many years and was forced to close that due to dwindling market,” he said Tuesday.
“We’re hoping the two of us will have enough business in this area to support us reopening this plant. It’s a significant investment and it will create better service for businesses in Queens County and also some employment.”
He said the time is right with a large wind farm development being planned for Milton.
Westin said Tuesday the business could eventually employ up to three people. But it will begin with one.
They hope to have trial batches going through the plant in July, Westin said. The plan is to open by August.
Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston and Queens MLA Kim Masland will be speaking at a luncheon in Liverpool on Feb. 7. (Tim Houston Facebook page)
By Rick Conrad
Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston and Queens MLA Kim Masland will be speaking at a luncheon organized by the South Queens Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 7.
The two-hour event is being held at the Best Western Plus in Liverpool. The chamber says it’s a “prime opportunity” for Queens County’s business leaders and others to talk with the two politicians about the area’s future.
Houston and Masland, who is also Nova Scotia’s minister of public works, will speak about rural economic development. In addition to the speeches, the event will feature success stories from local businesses.
Attendees will get to ask Houston and Masland questions in a Q&A session. The chamber wants questions submitted no later than Feb. 1 to secretary@southqueenschamber.com.
Liverpool Visitor Information Centre. Photo courtesy Region of Queens Municipality
By Rick Conrad
The Region of Queens is planning a nighttime outdoor party in February and everyone is invited.
Mayor Darlene Norman says the Light Up Queens Winter Night Festival is a free event and open to everyone. It will be held in Centennial Park on the Liverpool waterfront, next to the Visitor Information Centre.
“It is to bring fun, happiness, community, good times all together at a time in the year that is dismal and dark,” Norman said Tuesday. “So it would focus on diversity and culture. It’s planned to be a fun, free night involving all ages.”
Light Up Queens is scheduled for Sat., Feb. 24 from 5:30 to 9:30 pm.
Co-ordinating with the Nova Scotia Lobster Crawl, the event will feature more than 30 stations around the park, offering various artistic, cultural and winter-related activities. The Visitor Information Centre will be open, where there will be a pop-up restaurant, which will also be the site for the event’s “chowder house”, where they’ll be selling fresh seafood chowder.
TideKite, which has hosted a few kite-flying demonstrations in the park, will be on site flying special kites that light up in the dark. And they’ll offer a kite-making workshop.
Bridgewater’s DJ Danimal will be providing the music.
The Royal Canadian Legion across from the park will host a makers’ market featuring local artisans and vendors.
There will be other snacks available at the park, as well as hot drinks.
“So if you don’t want to do something physical, then maybe you want to go sit in one of the community tents and talk about night spirits,” Norman says. “There are all sorts of aspects. And everything is accessible for all of our people.
“It’s an event that’s for young, old, and in between.”
Warming tents or huts will be set up in the park. Free hats and coats will be available for those who need them. And the region will have their Mobi-Mats in the park to help those with mobility issues navigate the winter conditions.
“The idea was we wanted to make this as inclusive as we could,” Norman said. “And as we all know, inclusion also often hinges on a person’s financial ability to take part in things.”
The region is footing the $17,000 bill for the event. And Norman says they hope it will become an annual thing.
The region wanted to time the event for the opening weekend of the musical Follies at the Astor Theatre. And Norman says she hopes it will be a boon for local businesses, who are being encouraged to stay open that evening.
Stephanie Sereda, the region’s community development coordinator, came up with the idea. She says it’s been great to see how everybody has come together in such a short time to help get it off the ground.
“It’s just been a beautiful collaborative effort and everyone’s excited and given the short time frame we’re really happy to leverage the big hearts and passion of Queens.”
Sereda and Norman said the region will be releasing more details in the next few weeks. People should follow the Queens Coast Life Facebook page for more information. They hope the weather co-operates, but if it doesn’t, the event will be rescheduled.
“We just have to hope for that beautiful February night,” Norman said.
