Meet the Nova Scotia farmers who are growing rice

In late April, when Nova Scotia remains to be sloughing off its winter chill, Ian Curry and Niki Clark may be discovered inside their greenhouse, utilizing tweezers to seed one of many yr’s crops.

The small seeds are not any greater than a grain of rice — as a result of they’re grains of rice.

The Granville Seaside, N.S., farmers have been rising rice in paddies on their property since 2014.

“It is a phenomenal crop, as you’ll be able to see, and it is enjoyable to develop and it is pleasant to eat,” says Clark.

They first bought the thought of making an attempt to develop rice in Nova Scotia after studying concerning the situation of arsenic in rice and deciding to search out a substitute for commercially produced rice.

The couple attended a seminar in Vermont on rice rising and realized the Japanese-American farmer internet hosting the seminar was on the identical latitude as Nova Scotia. Hokkaido Island, a rice-growing area of Japan, can be at an identical latitude as Nova Scotia.

“So we thought, okay, how can we do that?” Curry says.

The pair planted their first crop of rice in 2014, and, via trial and error, have honed their abilities to the purpose the place they now produce 80 kilograms a yr.

That is way more than the quantity they eat in a yr, so that they promote small portions to mates. They’ve even offered some to a restaurant within the Valley.

“I’ve bought a listing so long as my arm of individuals wanting rice,” says Curry. “The individuals who purchased it beloved it and so they need extra. So I’ve no bother promoting my rice.”

This yr, they’re rising two kinds of rice, Akamuro Crimson, a Japanese selection, and Titanio Rose, an Italian selection.

After the seeds sprout within the greenhouse, the seedlings are hand-planted right into a discipline a brief distance from a pond. The sphere is then flooded, and the rice grows within the standing water for everything of the rising season. The sphere can soak up heavy rainfall however, because of the pond, can even climate droughts, so the crop is adaptable to the altering local weather, Clark says.

In September, when the heads are full and drooping with the burden of the rice, the sphere will likely be drained so the crops can dry out earlier than a mix sweeps over them and removes the rice from the stalks. Later, the rice will likely be dehusked utilizing a particular machine that removes the exhausting exterior to disclose the edible rice inside.

Proper now, although, damselflies and dragonflies flit among the many stalks and the occasional creaking and clicking of a frog may be heard.

The rice paddy has created its personal ecosystem that attracts in quite a lot of creatures that may not in any other case name Nikian Farm house.

“All people needs to reside within the rice paddy — all people,” says Curry. “I’ve extra frogs and toads and snakes and turtles and piping plovers. Yesterday I used to be strolling alongside and there was just a little child muskrat heading out.”

Curry and Clark develop all kinds of crops which might be recurrently seen on small, combined farms in Nova Scotia, together with greens, fruits and herbs. However additionally they develop a couple of that might not be so frequent right here, together with peanuts, sorghum, artichokes, corn for polenta and hazelnuts for oil.

They’re at all times striving towards self-sufficiency, and so they’d wish to see others embrace that excellent, too.

“I believe we’re all susceptible, extra so maybe than we notice as a result of persons are used to going to the grocery retailer and seeing simply unimaginable selection on the cabinets. However it’s just-in-time selection,” says Clark.

“COVID was very illustrative in exhibiting us simply how issues can collapse shortly. So I believe all of us actually have a accountability to be extra conscious of the place our meals comes from, assist our native farmers to allow them to maintain us higher.”

The couple say they’d like to see different farmers develop rice, too, and are prepared to share their gear to assist them.

“Nova Scotians are famously conservative in farming. They get a program and so they stick with it. They do not look left or proper. That’ll run you proper right into a brick wall.”

A spokesperson for the provincial Agriculture Division mentioned the division is simply conscious of 1 farmer rising rice in Nova Scotia, and that farmer is in Annapolis County, the place Clark and Curry reside.