{"id":9466,"date":"2025-11-21T14:55:53","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T18:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=9466"},"modified":"2025-11-21T14:55:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T18:55:53","slug":"queens-county-prime-spot-to-grow-agriculture-group-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/11\/21\/queens-county-prime-spot-to-grow-agriculture-group-hears\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens County prime spot to grow agriculture, group hears"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Dale Richardson and Matthew Roy speak to the Queens Garden Club about an innovative greenhouse project in Shelburne. (Rick Conrad)<\/p><\/div>\n

The conditions are ideal for Queens County to become a local food powerhouse just like the Annapolis Valley, advocates say.<\/span><\/p>\n

The area\u2019s temperate climate and natural biodiversity are two big factors in its favour, members of the Queens Garden Club heard on Thursday evening.<\/span><\/p>\n

The club\u2019s Mary White says it\u2019s time to devote some resources to harnessing that potential.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe want some green initiatives here in Queens County,” she said. “<\/span>We have some very lovely spots that they could go in and that not only could it help with things like food security, it could help with our economics. There’s no reason why everybody should go to the Valley and not go here.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the same resources, and we’re able to do the same sorts of things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

About 30 people gathered at the Thomas H. Raddall Library in Liverpool on Thursday to hear how that might be done.<\/span><\/p>\n

The garden club invited Dale Richardson, a municipal councillor in Shelburne, and farmer Matthew Roy to talk about an innovative solar-powered and geothermal greenhouse project in Shelburne. Both were involved in the project.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Community Garden and Foodshare Association of Shelburne County<\/a> got a $142,000 grant from the Nova Scotia government in April.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The volunteer-run project is about 90 per cent complete. It will produce thousands of kilograms of fresh produce year-round for the community to help combat local food insecurity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Roy is co-owner of Coastal Grove Farm in Upper Port LaTour, Canada\u2019s only certified organic tea grower and the country\u2019s only certified saffron grower. The farm <\/span>is also the largest commercial vegetable producer in Shelburne County.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said communities in southwestern Nova Scotia need to start thinking seriously about becoming more food independent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNova Scotia in general only has three days of food in the province,” he said. “Just digest that for a moment. \u2026 The rest of it has to get imported from other places, which isn’t bad when there’s not geopolitical issues, when there’s not climate change issues that bring dryness or droughts or interrupts transportation. \u2026 I think it’s really relevant to be thinking about where is our food coming from? And do we have the local production?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Roy said that with only 19 registered farms in all of Queens County, there isn\u2019t enough capacity to put food on the shelves if disaster struck.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat has happened in Shelburne, I think would be really beneficial to have that replicated up and down the southwestern shore.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Milton resident Kathy Chute said she\u2019s impressed with what they\u2019re doing in Shelburne.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m jealous. I think we could do it here, no problem. and maybe even up in Milton. You know, that unused area by the swimming pool, we could put a nice greenhouse in there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

White says farming could be as big an industry in Queens County as forestry and fishing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis area in particular was more about forestry and fishing, that sort of thing, and really they just let other people provide the food for them. And now it’s time for us to take that resource back. \u2026 It’s time for us to look at another natural resource that we have, and that is our outdoor space.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/greenqueensnov2125.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n



<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The conditions are ideal for Queens County to become a local food powerhouse just like the Annapolis Valley, advocates say. The area\u2019s temperate climate and natural biodiversity are two big factors in its favour, members of the Queens Garden Club heard on Thursday evening. The club\u2019s Mary White says it\u2019s time to devote some resources […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[3338,3584,3587,3586,3592,2074,2073,3589,3588,3591,39,3583,2283,3228,3585,49,772,3590],"class_list":["post-9466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-agriculture","tag-coastal-grove-farm","tag-community-garden-and-foodshare-association-of-shelburne-county","tag-dale-richardson","tag-farming","tag-food","tag-food-security","tag-geothermal","tag-greenhouse","tag-kathy-chute","tag-liverpool","tag-local-agriculture","tag-local-food","tag-mary-white","tag-matthew-roy","tag-queens-county","tag-shelburne","tag-upper-port-latour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9469,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9466\/revisions\/9469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}