PAN NEWSLETTER NOV 2026
Greetings you wonderful PAN members! Hope this finds you all well. What a spectacular colour show we've had out there in our Wabanaki forest. The pic above was from a glorious paddle down the Musquodoboit river with a friend, during a social paddle last month hosted by the Musquodoboit Valley Outfitters.
Now that most of the bright hues of red, green & yellow leaves have mostly fallen, I'm really noticing the fiery ochre of the larches this time of year. I hadn't noticed til this year how prominent they are in the forest, at least around my parts. A few big ones grace the back of my yard, seen here behind some late blooming African daisies. Recommend getting your hands on these perennial flowers if you keep bees.. they really seem to go crazy for the late october/november nectar that these late bloomers provide.
While at Natural Build East a few weeks ago I had a chance to meet Mandy Sandbach, co-coordinator of the Scotsburn Community Food Forest . This coming weekend Mandy will join Sarah MacDonald of Farm to Feast and others for a day of talking food forest design. Whether you have a private food forest in mind, or a shared community one, this event, taking place with the Scotsburn Community Food Forest in Pictou county as a backdrop, will be sure to be a valuable one. See this link to the event on facebook for more information, or email scotsburnfoodforest@gmail.com. Don't let cost be a barrier, I believe they are committed to no one being turned away for lack of funds and offering this as a pay what you can opportunity.
Wanted to quickly share this pic I took at one of the home tours during that natural building weekend. Check out this artsy strawbale build with a gorgeous open design. A masonry stove heats the space. I've been dreaming lately about retrofitting my old home with a masonry stove.. a dream for the future as it would be no small undertaking. But having a way to heat my home if the grid goes down feels like a worthwhile endeavour..
A couple things to share from Food for All NB's latest newsletter:
Canadian Organic Growers will be offering an Organic Vegetable Seed Production Course starting in January 2027
I've been sharing a bit about community food forests in Nova Scotia.. to learn about community food forests in NB check out this article:
Food for All NB's final What the Food?! webinar of the year looks interesting.. How Wildlife Supports Agriculture & Food Security. More info and registration for the November 25th zoom here.
25% off sale on permaculture plant nursery items this week at blackbird hollow!
People came out en masse yesterday across NS, despite the heavy rain, to attend protests in 7 locations across the province. The proposed AI data centre for Port Hawkesbury is not sitting well with many of us who have concerns about the environmental ramifications of a data centre requiring that much energy and water. All for AI and under the control of American companies. Concerning to say the least! If you'd like to add your voice to the concern there is this petition on change.org that has upwards of 28,000 signatures already.
On a personal note, I recently completed a pretty exciting new compost bin build! If anyone is going to share my joy over this it's you folks;) I did a bit of documenting along the way so I could share what i was hoping would, and did indeed, turn out to be pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. Thinking about starting to share videos on youtube.. but in the meantime if you're interested you can find the reel detailing the process here on my instagram @sky_organics14
Til next time dear PAN peeps, may you be happy, & may you be well. Some of you might have noticed I adopted this farewell from Kheaven of the CKDU morning show! I so enjoy his voice, it makes me happy just to hear it. Highly recommend his show, weekday mornings 7-9am. CKDU 88.1 FM is Halifax's campus community radio station, with quite an eclectic mix of shows for all tastes & languages. Democracy Now weekdays at noon gives you world news you might not hear on more controlled media sites. Full schedule here. There's your random recommendation for the day;)
Megan Ashworth Hartlen
volunteer admin for the Permaculture Atlantic Network
located in Mi'kma'ki, unceded land of the Mi'kmaq
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