Below is an interview I had with Mrs. Pye (the surviving partner who farmed the land of Pye Farm prior to its acquisition by MUN), which gives some useful contextualization for the soil sampling.
- How long have you been farming?
Many practices started on their original farm 30 years ago near Labrador Highway/Airport, so been farming for ~30 years in two locations (20 at first farm, 10 in current location).
- What main crops did you select to plant, and what were your reasons for doing so?
What local people wanted: root crops (beet, turnip, potato, carrot); strawberries were very good product for HV-GB due to difficulty with logistics of getting strawberries to Labrador (taste, shelf life); squashes (butternut, zucchini, winter and summer squash, etc.); pumpkins (big attraction in fall, but required extra labor and management to prevent frosting in Fall, had special place to store ripening pumpkins when frost became too severe), selected crops starting 30 years ago based on u-pick-it and customer’s suggestions, especially for herbs.
- What other crops were grown?
Wide variety of Lettuce; peas; beans; tomatoes in greenhouse only; raspberries at one time, eggplant (2-3 years), kohlrabi, corn, timothy hay (niche to sell it to cattle farmer, but people also wanted it as bales of hay for Halloween decorations, wedding, etc.; the market for it dried up when the province prevented farmers from selling it), oats.
- What was your crop rotation (if any) and why did you select it?
Every 3-4 years rotated entire field, or every year if vegetable crops; for example, potatoes started in lower leftmost field [ΦA01-A05], then lower rightmost [ΦA05-A09], then were rotated to upper field (now strawberries, λF-λH), then to their final place, upper rightmost (Π). Turnips rotated every year to avoid root maggots.
- Did some crops perform better than others, and did this influence your management?
There is an economic component to this; asparagus was attempted, but there was very limited local market for it, and it was too finicky and required too much labor; pumpkins were successful example (but lots of labor); some crop results were inconsistent (e.g. eggplant).
- Was your farming practice focused on local markets? Did you prefer to go organic or conventional?
Used no pesticides or herbicides (row cover for insects), strong feelings about pesticides, but not certified organic. Basically “Buy local”, and increasingly valuable over the past ten years as people become more aware of where food comes from.
- Did you have any soil tests run on farm soil, and if so, which portions of the farm? Do you have records of the test results?
Ran on spots of farm (spot check), run every 2 years or so, or more frequently if problematic. Copies of soil tests are with university. Used best management practices for sampling soil per provincial guidelines.
- Was liming necessary? Did you apply manure to the soil? Did you utilize any other fertilizers?
Very necessary, very acidic, done in Fall only, every 2 years, rotating different segments of farm; used manure once, and had chickweed problems for three years afterwards, so no more outside manure, instead used chicken manure from own chickens. Commercial fertilizers first few years on potatoes (6-12-12), then switched to rock phosphate, mined potassium, organic chicken manure derivative (Envirem Organics, from New Brunswick, “Nutriwave”).
- How did you cultivate? What was your tractor use, seeding, harvesting, etc.?
Merrycrusher (crush and mix small trees, shrubs, moss into soil), deep ploughing for main vegetable field to bring up better soil underneath per soil scientist, regular tilling but moved to a power-harrow. Used tractor for weed control, tilling, laying out transplants, laying down plastic+drip irrigation, seeding, fertilizing, liming in fall, watering in southern end; harvesting was by hand, except for potato conveyor belt; used it for picking up debris and for writing sermons. 🙂
- What methods of weed control did you utilize? What were your top weed problems?
Cultivation, hand picking, hoeing, various hand tools. Weed Pests: common groundsel; shepherd’s purse, poplar trees, low growing weed reddish in color (ID!), vetch; various grasses (short grass in fall blows across the field and piles on rows).
- What methods of non-plant pest control did you utilize? What were your top problems?
Floating row covers only. Many insects (especially root maggot), one year an infestation of armyworms spread from vacant adjacent farm (“hordes, thousands crawling on the ground!”), destroyed corn crop, but used old wisdom to dig a double trench which prevented them from crawling further onto the farm.
- What strategic management practices did you utilize?
Crop rotation, green manures, Provincial Government’s guideline (“environmental farm plan”)=Newfoundland/Labrador equivalent of Best Management Plans from USA
- Are there any Indigenous farming practices you used or considered using?
Not really; very little native history with farming here, tho Moravian missionaries brought it to northern Labrador (no contact), or Grenfell mission (century ago).
- What landscape features stood out to you and affected your management practices? (e.g wet, dry, productive, barren, plant cover, etc.)
The Pyes were required by the government as terms for their lease to cut down all native vegetation and plant in cropland, but they resisted and successfully argued that they should be allowed to keep areas of woodland as wind barriers and ecological refuges. They especially noted that the land was apparently, at one point, a lake or bog, but after a fire, the water table dropped, making it a very fertile, non-rocky sandy soil. She noted, however, that the water table continued to be close to the surface, so much so that when they dug a pond for irrigation purposes, it filled up immediately with no other engineering of the landscape. She also said that much of the area remained bog-like, even after planting, until another farmer complained about flooding and the government dug a ditch, which had the side effect of causing the Pye’s formerly (mostly) wet land to experience extended periods of dryness, requiring them to install irrigation.
- Did you observe correlations between crop productivity and the previous plant cover?
The northern allotment was half-marsh until the government built the drainage ditch which drained it and made it usable farmland. At that point, they were able to make use of the land as farmland. About 40 years ago, big forest fire.
- Were any sorts of extraordinary modifications necessary to make farming work? (e.g. soil movement, drainage pond, etc.)
Roadways, drainage pond, moving of sphagnum moss to unproductive areas, gov’mnt draining of northern allotment
- What observations did you have about the growing season, weather patterns, etc.? Crop planting/harvesting dates?
Summers becoming wetter over time; usually short, hot, sunny season with long summer days allowing them to grow anything; seeds started toward end of May in greenhouse, but never into field until after 15th of June; harvesting as crops ready, but pumpkins picked early due to frost (last weeks of Sep, first of Oct).
- If there was only one soil location on the farm I could study, where would it be?
Main vegetable garden area (most work to bring up pH level), i.e. Π.
- Any other general observations on farm soil?
Good soil =sphagnum moss, was moved from north (ΩA01) to other part of farm (Φ), spread on bare sandy spaces. Muck did not appear to be more productive than sand agronomically. They moved strawberries from front of shop (~ΦD+ΦE) to drainage pond (λF-λH) in 2014 because of ease of irrigation. Pond allowed for drip irrigation, whereas before needed water gun attached to tractor, wasteful of water.
- What experiential wisdom and advice do you have for “those who follow after you” in handling this land?
Don’t use pesticides; different for university b/c not commercial farming operation. Instead, keep it weeded, try new things! This is what the Pyes did; they were not farmers, had other careers, did farming in later years, and experimented a lot. Main frustration with people in department of Ag. @ St. John’s is not with their helpfulness, but in that they don’t understand that “Mother Nature sets the schedule; but when you apply for a piece of equipment, by the time you get through all of the red tape, it doesn’t get here until September, when it is useless. The university needs to learn from this and do things according to when Nature demands that they move, not at their own schedule. Cannot dilly and dally according to university calendar!”
