Goldfinch Farm
While casually growing avocados, peanuts, and cacti in his greenhouses – Henry Penner is also extremely busy producing a huge variety of mixed vegetables. He lives firmly by his philosophy of the small homestead business based on trust and furnished by the “friend to friend” business system.
Henry Penner has a deep-rooted love for healthy life – one that includes the health of the earth. His life has been dedicated to producing quality organic products and he has become well known for his dedication to quality. People from all across Nova Scotia seek out his produce! When Penner speaks about his customers at the local farmer’s market he smiles with appreciation, “the challenge is for people to become open-minded – to care for the earth and the environment,” he says about his lifelong endeavour to support his family by organic farming alone.
Growing up in farming communities, he wasn’t exposed to chemical agriculture until later in life when he moved from Northern Mexico to what was then British Honduras. Before that, his family and community farmed organically by default. When he was exposed to chemical farming, he was also exposed to a plight of ill-health. Being an inquisitive fellow, Henry realized that the white powdered chemical being used in excess on the vegetables he was working to produce was seriously affecting his and his family’s health.
Concerned for the rampant use of the chemical in Belize, Penner decided to be radical, and in 1970, he quit using the miracle chemicals in favour of the more natural, less invasive methods from his childhood. This was not easy, as it was the peak transition period in favour of chemical agricultural, and Henry was quite alone in his venture to become an organic farm. He had to send away for books and information on organic farming because it was such an unheard of idea.
In 1986, discouraged by the violence in Belize, Henry Penner moved to Canada. He chose Nova Scotia because he thought it would be an ideal place for a small, mixed farm. He also loved the scenery and welcomed the opportunity to escape the rat race. He felt Nova Scotia was the perfect place for this dream – quiet and peaceful, temperate, and open to small family farm business. Nova Scotia also appealed to him because of the existence of organic certifying bodies – something that was still non-existent in Belize.
Henry Penner now has roughly 10 acres of intensive, impeccably kept gardens. He has three large green houses and three movable tunnels which he moves every two to three years to maintain soil health. At 61 years of age, his dream now is to slow down. During the peak months, he currently works between twelve and thirteen hours a day, six days a week. He aspires to take it easier than that by purchasing more equipment and becoming more specific with his products, all the while experimenting with avocados and peanuts!
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