Dancing Lady Farm
Dancing Lady Farm is owned and operated by Larry Burkam, located in Bakers Settlement, Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. Dancing Lady Farm is only about 15 minutes from Bridgewater; however, it is located up on a hill where you can’t see any other farms. “It’s like being in the middle of nowhere,” says Larry.
Out of the several hundred acres at Dancing Lady Farm, Larry is only farming about five and the garden spans approximately three. And although a large piece of land, Larry uses very little electricity, and even produces some of his own through wind and solar power, taking care to make a very small ecological footprint.
Several years ago, Larry took a degree in ornamental horticulture and learned a lot about the chemicals used in farming. He then got sick from the drift while spraying something and decided not to work with chemicals anymore. But it was at an organic conference in California that he got “the spark” to begin organic landscaping. Later, when he began to farm, he decided organics was the only option for him.
Larry began the process of certification in 1997 when he bought the farm and was certified for the first time in 1999. He is certified with the Nova Scotia Organic Growers Association (NSOGA), as “NSOGA is small and local, just like Dancing Lady Farm, and is perfect for someone not trying to export”. To Larry, being certified is important because it is proof that you are doing what you are supposed to, and it maintains a level of honesty.
“In my market garden I grow everything from arugula to zucchini,” says Larry; however the main crop is garlic. He is also concentrating on growing more and more Asian and specialty vegetables, because “everyone else is growing the regular ones”. In the future, Larry would like to grow more of the products that are in higher demand with higher returns, instead of growing a little of everything. He would also like to develop more products with garlic and develop a market for garlic scapes. Currently, Larry says that his biggest production challenges are the weather and maintaining soil fertility, without having livestock.
Dancing Lady Farm retails at Mahone Bay and Hubbard’s Farmers Markets and also sells to some local restaurants.
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