Thomas Kamiya is seeing Canada one tractor barn at a time.
The retired Caterpillar mechanic has been touring Canada on and off since 2009 visiting organic farms and helping them with their tractor maintenance.
And learning along the way about organic gardening in Canada.
“I want to know more than what’s on the computer – that’s knowledge, but I want to gather wisdom from the across the country,” said Kamiya during a recent stay in Gilbert’s Cove with Siegmar and Gilberte Doelle of Wild Rose Farm.
“I want to get all five senses,” says Kamiya. “Here (in Digby County) I hear Acadian French, I taste good food, I smell the ocean, I feel the rocks and I see green green green healthy plants.”
Kamiya, originally from Japan, moved to Canada in 1975 to continue his career as a licensed heavy-duty diesel mechanic. When he retired last year, he bought himself a 3/4 –van, filled it with tools and a fold out workbench and hit the road.
Last year he travelled northwards from his Vancouver home as far the Arctic Circle, staying at organic farms all along the way.
This year he has travelled right across the country west to east. Wild Rose Farm in Digby County was the easternmost point on his trip, the turn-around point.
Kamiya supports organic farming and see this trip as a way to give back to society.
“Organic farming is part of our health system,” says Kamiya. “Organic farmers are food doctors. I can’t help in a hospital or in a seniors home, but I can help with the tractors; I have 40 years’ of experience with them.”
Kamiya says his goal is not to fix broken tractors but to show farmers how to properly maintain them. While at Wild Rose he helped change all the fluids in the tractor and gave all the small engines (whippersnippers and chain saws) a tune up as well.
Kamiya hopes to share all the wisdom in a book perhaps when he gets home.
“I want to learn what is really happening in the fields and barns of this country. What is good farming, what is bad farming and then I can tell people what I’ve seen. People need to know about their food.”
Sunday Sept. 18 is Nova Scotia Open Farm Day this year. For more information check out: www.gov.ns.ca/agri/agaware . Wild Rose Farm on Highway 1 in Gilbert’s Cove will welcome visitors by chance just about any day.
