Nova Scotian Hops.

I've got soooo much to post about my trip to Halifax. I just got home last night though, and I'm really motivated to work on my thesis after the conference, so I have to focus on that first. I just wanted to post about this article I read in Westjet's free Up! magazine. They stick it in the back of every seat on the airplane and I flipped through it on my flight yesterday.

The article was about Lazy Acres Hopyard. The owner and operator of Lazy Acres, Joshua Herbin, has been growing organic hops in Nova Scotia for two years now. He supplies a few microbreweries (and there are A LOT of those in NS!) with locally produced hops. This is one ingredient that is very difficult for the breweries to find in the region. On his site, Joshua also links to the Canadian Agricultural Skills Service (CASS). This link caught my attention because on the acronym. This Government of Canada initiative gives grants to farming families in order to help them take courses that improve the productivity of their farm. Various levels of government have shown interest in providing support for this sort of business lately. I learned about a program in Toronto to encourage Market Farm development in the surrounding area. I have to look into that a little more, I think.

Anyway, I was checking out these sites and thought I'd mention them here before i head off to grab some lunch.