How are our junior gardeners making out?

You may remember that on Earth Day we were visited by the children of River Hebert Elementary School.


The students came to the centre to learn about growing their own food, learn about composting and to make a recycled pop bottle greenhouse, to plant a pumpkin seed, which they were to take home, and hopefully bring back their pumpkin on Halloween and enter it into our pumpkin competition.

We were wondering how the pumpkins were faring. It seems that some pumpkins haven't fared too well, whilst others are growing slow and steady. The students are enjoying taking care of their baby plants and it seems there is a real atmosphere of competition building up!

So, here is an insider secret we can share with the children on growing great pumpkins:

The Sugar Water Method
Wait until a pumpkin develops, and has grown to be about 6 inches across.
Fill a bowl with 50 percent water and 50 percent white granulated sugar. If you want to use milk instead of water, this will work well too. Dunk your cotton string into this mixture.
Make a small slit with your knife in the base of the pumpkin's stem, about 4 inches above the pumpkin. Insert one end of your cotton string into the slit, and keep the other end in your sugar water mixture. The pumpkin will slowly suck up the sugar mixture, helping it grow bigger.

(Image: Bayden shows off his recycled pop bottle greenhouse)

Calling all local people with green fingers!

The Joggins Fossil Institute is in the process of planning its garden and we are looking for green-fingered volunteers to help us to tend it.

We are constructing raised beds, using our own excellent compost, generated from the cafe scraps, and will be growing a range of vegetables and soft fruits to augment the produce we have in the cafe and to help us to serve fresh, delicious food.

If you have a few spare hours a week and would like to help us, would like to share your expertise, or to donate vegetable or fruit plants if you have a glut of them, then please email operations@jogginsfossilcliffs.net we would love to hear from you.

We are also considering establishing a cooperative for fruit and vegetables, so that we can exchange produce with local growers, to vary what we have and to share fresh, locally grown food.

Watch this space.

Four hectic days in the lives of the new Joggins Fossil Cliffs Employees

Who we are:

Hi, I’m Rachel, I hail from Amherst NS.

I am the new Visitor Services Assistant, and you will see my face as soon as you walk in the front doors, hopefully with a smile and a greeting. I do a bit of everything (as does everyone else) with the exception of giving tours, I’m not quite there yet.

You will see me down on the beach from time to time advising you of tide times.

Hi. My name is Afiqah and I am from Malaysia.

Being able to work in Joggins is like a dream come true for a Geologist like me. My position as an interpreter requires me to lead tours and work in the Exhibition Gallery most of the time.

I love talking, sharing and inspiring other people on the exciting new discoveries of fossils here in Joggins. I am very excited by my position and I hope to learn as much as I can here.

Come and visit Joggins and I promise that you will have a great time!

We also have a fellow new co-worker Nicole who hails from Halifax, who has completed her first year in Geology at Dalhousie; Nicole is bilingual in French and English and will be giving tours in both languages this summer. We know that Nicole is also very excited to be working here with us for the summer.

Now here’s a little taste of what our First week at the Joggins Fossil Institute looked like:

Day One:
We were introduced to the staff, each other and the Institute. We discovered the reasons behind why The Fossil Cliffs became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, had a tour of the award-winning Joggins Fossil Centre and learned about the green features of the building. We were also introduced to the Cliffs in a half hour tour.

Day Two:
After an interesting drive down to the Lower Cove beach, we started on a four hour tour led by the Curator Melissa, and our fellow experienced interpreters, Matt, Cat, Tammy and Elizabeth. We learned how to give a tour and how to identify fossils lying on the beach and up in the cliffs. We also learned the safety measures and precautions needed when walking near the cliffs and on the beach. After our tour and a brief lunch we were introduced to the Director, Jenna, who gave an in-depth discussion on UNESCO and World Heritage.

Day Three:
After a long day on the beach on day 2, our morning was spent with Melissa, learning why the fossils are so significant and about the Carboniferous Period. Before lunch we went out in our teams and learned how to give an engaging half-hour tour.
Later on that day we were trained in the role of an interpreter and what interpretation means. We got to do a team building exercise with Melanie, Operations Coordinator which looked at presenting facts, fiction or legends about certain stories and folklore and how to make information, whatever the subject interesting for different groups.

Day Four:
We had the ‘Give ‘Em the Pickle’ customer service presentation by Anna-Marie Weir, which was both fun and informative. So from now on, if you ask us for a pickle we’ll give you one!

We are all very excited for what the summer holds for us in our new positions and we hope that you will come down to meet us, we’d love to meet you all!

Happy Mother's Day

We have had a fantastic day here at the Joggins Fossil Centre and want to thank everyone who turned out for our special event.

Our Mother's Day Brunch was a huge success, though not many folk opted for the beach walk after all of that delicious food!

Don't forget that we have a stunning exhibition of hooked rugs here at the centre for the next month, which depict children's interpretation of tales from Acadian folklore. It is a truly unique exhibition of 24 rugs by Les Hookeuses au Bor'de'lo and will run through until the first weekend in June.

To visit the exhibition is free, but of course donations are always welcomed.

Community Forests International plan tree planting at Joggins on 23rd May

Community Forests International’s mission is: “To foster environmental stewardship internationally by establishing community forests, promoting sustainable forestry techniques and initiating environmental education.” The Joggins Fossil Institute is pleased to announce that the Institute has been approached by CFI, who wanted to work with them to plant indigenous trees on the site of the old Roundhouse, to aid in brownfield remediation.

Community Forests International is a volunteer-driven organization, working to connect people and their communities to the forests that sustain them. As the pace of environmental degradation intensifies around the world, the need for positive environmental stewardship and a restored balance between humanity and nature has become a necessity.

Community Forests International was formed when a group of fishermen in Pemba, Tanzania felt the need to alleviate pressure on the marine environment. Looking to provide food and timber sustainably, hundreds of Pembans began planting trees on unused tracts of land in a process of ecological restoration. Today, with support from the international forest community, Pembans plant over 100,000 trees annually for the provision of fruit, nuts, timber and increased habitat while improving the condition of their natural environment.

Building on the belief that a few strong-willed individuals can motivate for positive environmental change, Community Forests International currently supports over 12 communities in Pemba, Tanzania while initiating forest and climate change education around the world.

Jeff Schnurr will be visiting Joggins on the 23rd May with a small group of volunteers to plant 2000 trees of a range of species on the site. Jeff has travelled in over 35 countries before landing in Tanzania, where he began the tree planting initiative that grew into Community Forests International. Comfortable speaking English, Spanish or Ki’swahili, Jeff has done much to spread the techniques of forest renewal around the globe and has planted over half a million trees in the process!

If you would like to volunteer and work alongside Jeff and his team, please come along on the 23rd to the Joggins Fossil Centre.