Farming is a complex business. In March 2020 the Teerling family of Lindsay Lake Farms was set to move their farm from Germany to Nova Scotia.
The limitations on growth in their native Germany prompted them to look for a new place to call home.
After visiting Nova Scotia in 2019, and deciding on a magnificent location, Christiane Teerling, her husband Jan and their two boys planned the move for early 2020.
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And then, the pandemic happened.
“In early March 2020, we started packing one of our first containers to ship from Germany to Nova Scotia. We heard that there was something going on, but nobody really was aware of what was going to happen. So, after the container was on its way, we figured, we had to get to Canada quickly,” recalls Christiane.
They landed in Canada on the first day of lockdown.
“After a couple weeks, we figured out that the container was not coming to Halifax. Turns out they had unloaded the ship in Montreal. And this was just the beginning of an unfolding nightmare,” says Christiane.
They had also left their oldest son in charge of the farm back in Germany, not expecting that the world would be “closed” for so long.
Christiane remembers that when they first visited Nova Scotia, they landed in 60 centimetres of snow in the middle of the night. “The worst time of year you can imagine to visit a farm,” she says, laughing. “But when we arrived at the address and our navigation system said, ‘You have reached your destination’, that’s what it felt like. This is it. This is home.”
Find out how they made it through the pandemic, built up the business and what’s next for Lindsay Lake Farms at country-guide.ca/features/the-country-guide-podcast.
