Newfoundland - Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative

54 - DECKS AWASH
decided to have a holiday before
going to work," he remembers.
"I jumped on a motorcycle and
drove to Florida, then to Alaska
and back to the east. In September
I arrived in Newfoundland,
and after a bit of travelling I realized
I would like to live here.
Looking at the maps, Deer Lake
looked like the place to live. It
had an airport and it was at the
crossroads of the two main roads
to Newfoundland and Labrador.
The scenery was fantastic and
the soil was among the best in the
province. There were lots of
moose, trout, friendly people; I
couldn't see living anywhere else.
The fact that Indians lived here
4,000 years ago shows that this
area has always been a rich one.
"I came here thinking I could
buy 100 acres of land with 20
acres cleared and maybe an apple
orchard on it for a few thousand
dollars. I was flabbergasted
by the price of land here, which
was unnaturally high. It wasn't
an agricultural area and I could
only get 15acres for what I had
saved. The same year I turned
down 80 acres in New Brunswick
for a quarter of the price. The
price of land is still outrageous
and you can hardly justify buying
any land at 2.000 an acre if you
want to farm it. Of about 50 landowners
right here. only t\\u VI
three are actually farming the
land."
Gerard was not the first strawberry
farmer in the area, but he
learned fast.
"There were two people planting
strawberries here and it
seemed to be the only kind of
farming I could hope to make a
living at with just 10 acres of
cleared land. I found out a little
bit about strawberry fanning and
started out at that instead of
growing hay as I had planned
originally. Strawberries are intensive
farming on a three-year
rotation. I'm into a three-acre
system killing off weeds on one
field, growing off plants from the
mother plants by picking off the
Gerard Beaulieu with the first of this year's crop of strawberries (photo by Dave
Hoover).
Apple blossom time on the farm
flowers on another. and then
producing fruit from the plants
on a third field. If I did. my job
properly you'lI get a second, and
maybe even a third. year pick until
the weeds overrun you. In reality,
I now have five three-acre
fields. three of which are producing
fruit. There's a thousand
ways to lose in farming. A bad
winter could kill all my growing
plants and a summer frost could
kill all the flowers and I'd lose
another crop."
Strawberries aren't Gerard's
only crop.
"I first planted apples nine
years ago," he confirms. "I came
from an apple-growing area and
I wanted to have apples to eat. I
realized how long they take to
grow, so I planted an acre of apple
trees even before I started on
my house. I tried 13 varieties and
I feel that the Viking is the bestsuited
to the climate here. I can
only get that from Michigan or
Nova Scotia; it's a Mclntosh-type
apple. The other verities will do
well but a bushel a tree is a good
enough crop to plant another acre
arxl a half of Vikings. Once
they're coming up I might put in
another acre of miscellaneous
fruit trees.
"Apples can take frost better
than almost anything else, but
you have to pick the variety that
will fit the growing season. It's
the same with any crop. Having
different flowering seasons