Location: 1726 Church Street, Starrs Point, Kings County, Nova Scotia.
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BIOGRAPHY
The "Family Farm" at Starrs Point was purchased by Frederick Cornelius van Nostrand (1930-2016) and Shirley vanNostrand, in 1961 from the John Magee estate. It was built around 1900. The 5 acres included a large barn, car garage, woodshed, and large 2.5 storey farmhouse with 4 bedrooms, a large finished attic, and a damp stone wall basement. Over time grew to include about 100 acres, and various additional buildings. Originally the purchased farmhouse was white, it was painted light green, and later was changed to dark blue. The front yard included a mature Horse Chestnut tree (3 foot diameter trunk), and the side yard had a small grove of English Walnut trees, which provided nuts when harvested and dried. Plus cherries, apples, grapes - purple and green, high bush blueberry's, raspberry's and pears. The family VW bug was used as the first tractor to haul manure for the fields, before a real farmall tractor was acquired.
Eventually Neil and Shirley's daughter, Peggy SALSMAN, acquired the property, raised her family and subsequently sold it in approximately 2016 to the owners of "TapRoot Farms".
Neil initially built a small farm pond in the natural creek, suitable for raising Canada Geese, ducks, and beavers. There was a good supply of watercress growing in the creek. The pond had a concrete sluiceway and even a drain plug. The pond area also became a center for boiling the maple sap to make syrup in the spring. The pond with a dock, was great for the family to swim, canoe, fish and skate on. A second pond was built further upstream, and eventually a much larger third one, with assistance from Ducks Unlimited funding.
Neil built an addition on the house, which was called the "Eco room". It provided heat from a wood fired cook stove that had an oven. The stove also heated the hot water for that room. Water was available from a hand pump, which drew from a surface well below the addition. The space below the addition was also designed as a winter root cellar.
A traditional "Log Cabin" was build in the 1st parcel, overlooking the 2nd pond. A Barn and shed were built on the 2nd parcel. An "Underground House" was built in the 3rd parcel.
Wildlife
Since Neil was a Wildlife Biologist, many types of animals were kept on the farm during its time with the vanNostrands.
- 6 Cattle, 1 horse, Chickens, Sheep, Goats
- Canada Geese, Wild ducks, Muscovy ducks
- Beavers, Raccoon, Flying Squirrels
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| Red - Original 5 acres, Green - 2nd parcel, Yellow - 3rd parcel |
Early Rural Life
Church Street was a gravel road at the time the farm was purchased, It was paved a few years later. Originally the phone was on a "party line", where you had to recognize your ring pattern to answer the phone. Plus neighbors could pick up the phone and listen to others talking if they stayed quiet. There was a "secret passage" through the bedroom closets, which let to playing some tricks on the baby sitters who took care of us. The barn was used to store the rectangular hay bales, which were great for children to build tunnels and forts, plus a large swing rope made for great fun, falling into the hay mow. Our elderly neighbor Horace RAND actually used his team of two horses, to mow hay and plow the fields.
School
There was a one room "Town Plot School" very near the property, but it was de-commissioned when the Port Williams Elementary School was opened in 1962 ish. The original "School bus" was a VW van, driven by Ross MacKENZIE from Port Williams, who eventually upgraded to a more traditional Yellow Blue Bird type bus.
Neighbors
The "Rands" were our neighbors in three directions. The dairy farm was run by Hugh RAND (with his father Horace RAND) and son Rick RAND who subsequently created Fox Hill Cheese. We were able to get our un-pasteurized milk directly from them. In the opposite direction John RAND operated a Tobacco / topsoil / sod operation, and across the road Keith RAND was the county Weed Inspector. Mrs. Kelly lived on Magee Road. Ebbes Peill and family operated an apple orchard and cucumber greenhouse. The Norton family was on Wellington Dyke Road, near the BEST family farm.
Research Notes
2025-03-13 #177 03-14 #265 03-15 #288 16 #307
