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This Nova Scotia greenhouse grows eye-catching tropical fruits

Annette Clarke’s nursery is expanding the definition of what’s growable out east

Tart Chilean guava berries, plump persimmons the size of tomatoes, and pods of blue sausage fruit, also known as dead man’s fingers. This list sounds like an inventory of the world’s most magical fruit aisle, but in fact, all of this exotic produce (and more) is currently sprouting in a massive greenhouse located just outside of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Exotic Fruit Nursery, an operation built and run by biologist turned entrepreneur Annette Clarke, specializes in fruit varieties native to Europe, Australia and Southeast Asia, but it’s also expanding what the “hundred-mile diet” means to hungry East Coasters.

Clarke acquired her penchant for unusual fruits in childhood, during a family vacation to Lake Garda, Italy. She remembers climbing a tree loaded with sweet, ripe figs and eating them right off the branches. “They tasted almost like honey,” she says. “It was an incredible taste that I never forgot.” Clarke, who is originally from Neuss, Germany, first visited British Columbia in the late ’90s, while conducting fieldwork for her forestry and soil science master’s degree from the University of Bonn. She put down roots in the province after meeting John, her future husband, and they settled with their son, Nicholas, in Roberts Creek, a town on the Sunshine Coast...

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The Dark World of Canadian Gymnastics

Dave and Elizabeth Brubaker became top Canadian gymnastics coaches by pushing young girls to their limit. Their former athletes say the tough training was a cover for abuse.

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• Escape from Iran: A Doctor’s Journey 
• Physician and author Vincent Lam on the opioid crisis 
• Why Gen Z Can't Get Enough Shania 
• How Canada’s International School System Scams Students

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