Niki Jabbour is the award-winning author of four best-selling gardening books: The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener, Growing Under Cover, Niki Jabbour's Veggie Garden Remix, and Groundbreaking Food Gardens. She hosted The Weekend Gardener radio show for 15 years and speaks on food gardening at events across North America. Niki writes for magazines and newspapers like Horticulture, Birds & Blooms, Fine Gardening, Garden Gate, and the Chronicle Herald. She is also the co-owner of SavvyGardening.com which welcomes over 15 million visitors each year.

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Jenni Blackmore is an artist, writer, micro-farmer, and certified Permaculture Design Consultant. Passionate about all things "food," she's an ardent supporter of holistic food production who strives to grow most of her own vegetables. Her most recent book, Permaculture for the Rest of Us, follows her journey from industrial Manchester to a sustainable island homestead in Nova Scotia. When she isn't painting, writing, or tending to the various feathered residents of her QuackaDoodle Permaculture Farm, Jenni likes to slip her kayak into the waves or take her bike for a spin along the trail.

 

Elizabeth Peirce is an award winning Halifax-based gardening author. She is also an editor, teacher, and gardener. For Nimbus Publishing, she has authored and co-authored two historical fiction books about infamous cases of piracy in Nova Scotian history, Saladin and The Pirate Rebel, one guide to vegetable gardening in a tough climate (Grow Organic, winner of the 2011 APMA Best Atlantic Published Book award) and a preserving cook and guide book, You Can Too! 

Her book for children, The Big Flush, is dedicated to her young son and his horror of loudly-flushing public toilets. In 2019, she published Lost and Found: Recovering Your Spirit After a Concussion, a toolbox of strategies for healing from a difficult injury. When she’s not writing and editing, she enjoys cooking, canning, and encouraging people to tear up their lawns and grow some vegetables! Visit her website at https://elizabethpeirce.ca

 

Bob Iuliucci and Betsy Hartt started Bear Cove Resources out of their own good fortune in being able to gather sea wrack for their family gardens in East Berlin, Queens County. Bob has been sheet composting sea wrack on his gardens since 1973 and Bear Cove Resources has supplied Nova Scotia gardeners with storm-cast composted seaweed since 1994.

Storm-cast is 100% sea wrack (mixed seaweeds washed ashore by winter storms) gathered from the shores of Liverpool Bay, composted, screened, and bagged. No live seaweed is harvested,and no fillers are added. Rich in trace minerals, growth hormones, and microbial activity, sea wrack is a Nova Scotia renewable natural resource, and a heritage fertilizer and soil amendment.

Bob Cervelli has enjoyed gardening and food production for decades, and currently manages a one-acre mini farm at his home in St. Margaret’s Bay. He is an experienced botanist and horticulturalist, with a B.Sc. degree (Forestry) from Purdue University and a M.Sc. (Botany) from the University of Wisconsin. He has over 40 years experience in plant propagation, horticulture and fruit crop production. Bob is the host and co-producer of the Transition Garden (www.transitiongarden.ca) film and TV episode series, which is dedicated to the inspiration and how-to’s of local food production and gardening, during times of a changing and fragile world. He is also is a co-founder and Chair of Transition Bay St Margarets (www.transitionbay.ca), one of the first Transition Initiatives in the Maritimes.

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Ken Byrka A true agricultural expert and the heart of Revival Seeds, Ken’s journey with farming began early, with his first tractor ride on his grandfather Stanley’s 1945 Case row cropper—a moment that sparked a lifelong passion for agriculture. Growing up in rural Manitoba, Ken was surrounded by a family of farmers who cultivated many of the varieties now carried by Revival Seeds. Ken’s hands-on experience began in his teenage years, working in an onion factory pickling onions and at McCains packaging potatoes. His love for the land led him to earn a Bachelor of Education and an Agriculture and Horticulture Diploma with Honors from the University of Manitoba. His excellence in the field earned him the prestigious Governor General Award and the Highest Standing in Farm Planning Project Brad Jonk Memorial Award. With a wealth of experience, including managing a 10-acre apple orchard in BC and a 10-acre organic market garden in Manitoba, Ken brings unmatched expertise to Revival Seeds. He’s a mastermind when it comes to seed history, trials, mulching, field planning, growing information, and plant genus—and he’s always eager to learn more. Ken is dedicated to ensuring the success and sustainability of every seed we plant. Beyond farming, Ken is a talented singer-songwriter and recording artist who toured the world with his band Sleddogs. In addition to his work at Revival Seeds and his love for music, Ken enjoys bird watching, architecture, and woodworking!

 

Jordy Aucoin Blackbird Hollow - from the website “...weaving old and new traditions and ways together, re-learning and un-learning, blackbird hollow is many things. We are based on an old clearcut on the bedrock of the north mountain, providing sanctuary to plants, humans, animals and wild things. a budding off-grid edible & medicinal perennial nursery, ever growing apothecary gardens (with a medicinal library) & a space to share knowledge & good food. We are dedicated to sourcing and trialing hard to find perennial plants, hardy fruit & nut trees, bring back forgotten perennial food crops, and strive to grow and diversify what can thrive and survive in our bioregion. by doing so, we are seeking to build & strengthen low impact, simple systems in place for growing food and medicine. how can we build community, food systems, and new worlds...”