Stewart Organic Farms
Apples & apple cider, highbush blueberries, and
other mixed berries
Alan
Stewart grew up in Nova Scotia on his parent’s farm – in the shadow of
the economic export boom when many industry-export farms were slowly
going under. As a child, he was strongly discouraged from
considering farming as a future, and went to school to study
science. He received his Bachelor’s of Science from Acadia
University and later continued his education at the Technical
University of Nova Scotia. Despite his parents’ desire for
their son to avoid suffering the perils of farming and in the midst of
completing his Master’s in Engineering, Alan Stewart made his major
career decision in his mid-twenties: he wanted to become a farmer – and
not just any farmer. He wanted to become an organic farmer. Just
as he renounced the engineer-structured lifestyle in exchange for the
independence of farming, Alan Stewart further forsook the conventional
agricultural structures for those of organic farming.
When
getting started, Alan Stewart used his science background to understand
soil fertility, but only after struggling for a long time to understand
why it was important in the first place: “when I started with farming,
the ground was just dirt – and that’s part of what convinced me that
organics was a challenge I wanted to take – the ground was a living
entity: soil.”
Organics presented a challenge to
Stewart’s academic mind, “I didn’t have a fear of being different,” he
says, “in fact, I enjoyed the challenge of going beyond my
experience.” He also enjoyed the challenge of turning his
parent’s stagnant farm into a viable establishment – one that is in
tune with natural systems and what he calls “a minimalist approach to
growth.” His current approach is based strongly on observation – to
carefully understand what action is needed and when – “one recognizes
the hand one has to play in the production of food,” says Alan Stewart,
“but you don’t overdo it.” |
