Andrew and Jodi Giberson are rare breeds in the province of New Brunswick these days, they are a young family who has chosen to stay and make a life and career of farming in the Province of New Brunswick, amidst many of their generation who feel forced to leave the province for work. They are passionate, intelligent and delighted to be able to do what they are doing.
Jodi and Andrew didn’t decide to become farmers arbitrarily; Andrew has in fact always wanted to be a farmer. Growing up, he lived in the city and converted his parent’s backyard into an intensive vegetable plot. His father (who now actively helps out on the farm) convinced Andrew to get a university degree before deciding to dedicate his life to farming. For Jodi, becoming a full-time farmer seemed natural to her, as she had grown up on a hobby farm. In 2001, in their last year of university, Andrew and Jodi purchased Chestnut Acres.
Chestnut Acres is found tucked in the foothills of Foster Mountain, across from Pickett Lake, outside of Hampton and Quispamsis. They own 185 acres, 6 of which are in organic production. The farm had not been worked for over 25 years, and it took some intensive labour to get the place up and running again. “It’s been hard work – a fun struggle,” says Andrew, “but it’s encouraging to see it come back to life.” And for many in the area, that’s what Jodi and Andrew represent: bringing agriculture and small-scale family farming back to life in rural New Brunswick.
Andrew and Jodi had always wanted good, healthy produce available for themselves and for their children, and they believed they could achieve this without the use of herbicides and pesticides. “We’d always done it that way with our home gardens successfully,” says Andrew, “so we thought we’d extend that same principle of health to others.” They have been farming organically since they purchased the land, and became fully certified in 2007.
They offer their organic vegetables for sale at the Kingston Farmers’ Market, as well as a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) where they sell memberships to provide weekly vegetable boxes to customers. They have been very happy with the CSA model and they hope to continue to expand this part of the operation by slowly building up their farm capacity and product diversity.
Andrew and Jodi also have plans to increase their farm sustainability plan. They already use drip irrigation for their greenhouses and fields, and they purchased the neighbouring land which included a spring, “which has really paid off!” exclaims Jodi. They also raise some livestock to help improve their farm sustainability, “this way, we don’t have to purchase as much compost, we can create it for ourselves at the same time as we are raising healthy, happy animals for our own consumption.”
Their major goals include becoming completely sustainable – financially and environmentally. At this point, Andrew still has to work full-time off the farm, and they look forward to the time when they can both be full-time farmers. With continued support from their appreciative and loyal customers, they really hope to achieve this goal in the near future.
