Atlantic Food and Horticulture Research Centre Centennial Celebrations - Open House and Rhododendron Sunday - Kentville, Nova Scotia (June 11-12, 2011)
More than 1,000 people visited a weekend showcase of agricultural research that marked the 100th anniversary of the Atlantic Food and Horticulture Research Centre.
During the open house on Saturday, more than 500 people toured labs and took guided tractor-pulled wagon tours through the orchards and field trial plots.
On Rhododendron Sunday, cameras were out as the public walked through the research centre's gardens of rhododendrons and azaleas, the largest collection of the flowering shrubs in Atlantic Canada and the product of a nearly 40-year ornamental research program at the centre.
Presentations by scientists in the labs and by guides on the tour were interesting and easy to follow and tied in both the centennial of the research centre and 125th anniversary of research branch. As a result, the public was left with some sense of the historic contribution of the centre and the department in the development of agriculture and with some understanding of the considerable potential science still has for the industry and for Canadians.
Three-year-old Gwyneth Burke of Wilmont was mesmerized by a chick held by Kristen Thompson with the centre's poultry research program at theNova Scotia Agricultural College.
Dr. Wilhelmina Kalt demonstrates a technique for extracting components in
blueberry juice to nine-year-old Olivia Rappoldt and her grandmother, Pat
Rappoldt, both from New Minas.
Ava Harris looks on as Research Technician, Beata Lees, shows a how water
moves through an aquifer model and explains the role of environmental science.
Three-year-old Sam Garvey and her six-year-old sister Seamus, from Halifax,
smell the blooms during Rhododendron Sunday at the research centre.