“The Gift at the End of the Branch”
We were so inspired both by Nova Scotia and by the Haskap Berry that we decided to buy our own piece of this beautiful countryside and have started growing our own 15 acres.
In August 2013 we visited Nova Scotia with the intention of buying a farm to grow the latest in Superfoods ... the Haskap Berry.
We fell in love with the beautiful farm on the hill in Baker Settlement with its 15 acres of immaculate pasture.
So by the end of September 2013 we had bought our own piece of Canada and set about ordering our 15,000 Haskap bushes.
For 6 summers (from 2014 to 2019) we nurtured the bushes as we watched both them and our family grow up in the Canadian wilderness. in 2020 the global pandemic put a stop to that as we couldn't travel to Canada from the UK for 3 years.
The plants have now in 2022, been in the ground for 7 years and have grown into large berry producing bushes.
The pandemic certainly threw a spanner in the works of us becoming Canadian Berry Growers. We have had to do a lot of reframing over the past 3 years as our businesses in the UK have been hugely impacted by the pandemic.
And now we just need to decide what this 'new world' will enable us to do in the Haskap Growing Business.
Richard & Liz Mayon-White
Richard and Liz run a group of businesses in the UK, providing services to organisations operating in remote & outdoor environments. Since 2021 they have been contracted to run the Covid Vaccination Centre in Basingstoke, UK, and so far have vaccinated over 350,000 people. They met whilst they were both professional yacht skippers based on the South Coast of the UK.
Richard and Liz are also no strangers to undertaking new challenges. In 2005/06 became the fastest mixed pair to row across the Atlantic Ocean, in 2009 Richard cycled around the Tour de France route, in 2013 Richard sailed solo across the Atlantic Ocean and in 2014 Liz completed an 'Ironman' triathlon (3.8km swim, 180km bike & 42.2km run) in Nice, France. Liz now competes in triathlons for Team GB Age-Group team, with races in; Denmark, Spain, Romania and Abu Dhabi.
Now with their two children, the latest challenge of building a successful berry growing business in Nova Scotia, is the most exciting yet.