Duane Gorman of Gorman Controls Ltd.
Charlottetown is in my rear-view mirror. The Inns on Great George were a comfy overnight stop. I’m starting to feel at home on this Island. It reminds me a bit of my homeland.
The native Mi’kmaq called the island Abegweit, cradled on the waves. A legend tells how the god Glooscap finished painting the beauties of the world. Then he dipped his brush into a mixture of all the colors and created Abegweit, his favorite island. And it shows.
Sadly I don’t have enough time to seek out the girl with the red ponytails that I’d heard so much about back home. Apparently, she lives somewhere on this island. Next time. I’m ready to move on.
Man, this wind is wild! I guess it’s the perfect day to go and visit Duane Gorman, an enthusiastic Islander who works in the family business, Gorman Controls Ltd.
In Duane’s backyard, there’s a thing of beauty, rising above the rough flattened grasses and no, it’s not a tree. It’s a single wind turbine and today, it’s having a field day, whipped into a frenzy. Duane’s two dogs, Coda and Timber, are also in a frenzy of play and Duane’s description of his wind turbine is punctuated by arching throws of a soggy stick that ends up back at his feet within seconds. Strange furry species, these dogs.
Gorman Controls Ltd. offers a range of wind turbines suitable for residential applications. Residential wind turbines allow people to decrease their carbon foot print while securing a reliable and cost efficient energy source. The turbines in this range will produce between $600 and $6,000 worth of electricity a year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions from 2 to 23 tonnes per year. Duane says, “When I built my house up here on this hill, there was no way I couldn’t use the wind for something.”
Pirmin Kummer, owner of Timber River Eco-Farms
Meanwhile back on the mainland, at our next stop, Pirmin Kummer, owner of Timber River Eco-Farms in Timber River, New Brunswick is noticing the wind too. Noticing how much more there is these days, noticing how the weather has been changing in the twelve years that he has been growing certified organic potatoes.
And Pirmin, a holistic, down-to-earth (in the true sense of the word) farmer originally from Germany, knows his spuds, Eco-Spuds, that is, his own brand of potatoes.
He also knows that it’s not just about eliminating pesticides on your farm. You have to do a variety of things to protect your crop. You have to grow potatoes that get along well with your soil. It’s good to rotate crops on a year-to-year basis so that soil is enriched and pests are discouraged from ‘coming home to roost’ so to speak. And Pirmin’s farm is far away from other potato farms which discourages fungal spore migration. Even the ventilation system of his storage warehouse is earth friendly and uses no fungicides.
And so, with a strong wind beneath my wheels, and big bag of Eco-spuds in my cargo area (thanks, Pirmin!), I roll into Nova Scotia, Canada’s Ocean Playground, and the second-last province on this great adventure.