By Gwen Wilson
Gulliver’s Cove is located on the rugged Bay of Fundy coast, about halfway down Digby Neck. You’ll see the sign leading you to one of the few small villages, about 15 km from Digby. During the Golden Age of Piracy (1680-1730) the area frequented by famous pirates such as Blackbeard, Black Bart, Captain Kidd and Captain Henry Morgan. Gulliver’s Hole, as it was originally known, gained its name from another notorious, but lesser-known pirate, Cut Throat Gulliver, who would lie in wait for unsuspecting vessels bearing attractive cargo and do what pirates do. The story says treasure would be buried among the steep clifftops along the shore, in several places along the Digby Neck. He and his crew would also travel the woods to Conway, through Culloden, robbing settlers along their way. Legend has it, Gulliver’s life was cut short by his own ruthless pirate wife, a tall West Indian woman had become restless for warmer climes. After killing her husband, she sailed back home returning Gulliver’s ship to his frightened crew. It is believed that they never returned to the West Indies or to Gulliver’s Hole again. The treasure remains here to be found.
Today, there is another treasure in Gulliver’s Cove, and it is much easier to find! You’ll see the yellow and green sign, and an open flag pointing the way of Route 217. Driftwood Greenhouse is a locally owned horticultural business started by Tim Halliday and Tim’s father, Don Halliday. Don and Tim were both born and grew up on Digby Neck. Don fished, like most Digby Neckers for four decades, and Tim followed his dad to the sea, but for a much shorter career, before he started his land-based business in 1999, after buying back what had been the family farm.
When I asked Tim what he had been thinking when he bought the original homestead his answer was a quick, one-word: greenhouse. The first one was up that fall. Their first crop was red and green peppers, and not long after they expanded into flowers. Tim was frank in admitting that as a horticulturalist, he just wants to grow everything and at this point Tim was still working as a lobster fisherman. While he acknowledges that can sometimes lead to taking on too much, he doesn’t seem to have hit the limit yet. At first the vegetables, which by then included tomatoes and cucumbers, were sold out at his dad’s place, where they had installed a cooler because there was no power yet at the farm site. By 2002 a second greenhouse was added, followed shortly by a third in 2005. Slow and steady growth has been the pattern increasing the size of their growing areas from 1600 square feet at the beginning to 30,000 square feet today, among 9 greenhouses, all along building as they went without any funds coming from loans or grants. It was 2022 before Tim was able to find a grant that fit, through the Start Program, which enabled the purchase of a cooler at the farm site. Sales at his dad’s were so brisk it was hard to keep the cooler there stocked. The cooler at the farm site also meant they could open an on-site store. Another important expansion point had occurred in 2020 when they were able to install a large and very efficient, German-built biomass boiler. Prior to that they had a wood boiler that consumed over 300 cords of firewood a year and required near constant feeding 24 hours a day. The new boiler consumes less than half of the biomass that the older one did, allows for expansion of their heating system, and no nighttime feedings required! Once a week Tim may have to push a couple of buttons, but that’s about it!
In addition to the annuals, both plants and gorgeous basket arrangements, the array of vegetables now includes, besides the tomatoes and cucumbers, several varieties of lettuce, beet greens, Swiss chard, green beans, basil, cilantro and garlic. Among the newest products are ginger and turmeric. They had a phenomenal ginger crop in 2025, and as far as he is aware, Driftwood has produced the first seed ginger on the East coast and possibly in Canada!
If all that wasn’t enough, they also sell a limited amount of their own farm raised beef and pork, and eggs!
Tim’s wife Heather, who works full time with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, has her own line of special products. As the greenhouse expanded Heather began to focus on additional value-added products to compliment the greenhouse operations and things that could be produced during the shoulder-seasons when the work in the greenhouses is less demanding. Heather has been raising bees and that was a natural starting point. Besides honey and candles, Heather looked for other bee-related ideas which led her to salves, which contain beeswax. Being a beginner, she made contact with a local plant educator, Teri Sherwood, who taught at the Niagara Horticultural College before moving to Digby Neck a few years ago, for guidance. Teri recommended a ten-plant salve to start with. Starting with the herbs they grow, along with the ones she forages locally, she began producing various salves, depending on what plants are available for the bees to gather nectar from at any given time. This led to an adventure in learning what plants grow in the area, how they are identified, what is the growing and harvest season for each, and what natural medicines they may offer. It was the perfect marriage of her bees and plants. In addition to the salves, she now produces an extensive list of extracts, syrups, teas, again from plants either grown in the greenhouse, such as ginger and turmeric, both grown by Tim and stars in her Roots, Shoots, and Blooms Tea, plus several teas formulated from wild-grown plants and berries. Besides making all of these products for their on-site store, she was recently approached to provide thank-you gifts for the presenters at an upcoming series of 2026 Woodland Conferences organized annually by a provincial committee from Nova Scotia Department of Resources, Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners & Operators Association, Association for Sustainable Forestry, Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute, Nova Scotia Community College, Forest Nova Scotia, Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq, and private woodlot owners (see nswoods.ca/events). She will include forest-inspired products including her Bluenose Boreal Brew Tea! All of this comes from working long hours in the kitchen after her day job! Oh, did I say homemade hand-cranked ice cream? Yes, that too!!! It is truly a labour of love.
This slow and steady expansion of both facilities and products has led to Driftwood Greenhouse now having additional staff beyond Tim, Don and Heather. They now have two full-time seasonal employees and are hoping to be able to add a third.
During Covid, they were fortunate with this business and did not have to close as these kinds of operations were allowed to remain open for Mental Health. Being able to purchase locally produced food and grow food and flowers at your own home was considered important for people’s state of mind.
While buying at the Driftwood Greenhouse site is best, their English cucumbers, both regular and mini, and their tomatoes, and sometimes peppers, have been available at Sobeys and other grocery locations from Bridgewater around the southeast tip of NS and up to Digby for the last ten years. Through other wholesalers, their products can pop up almost anywhere. Their lettuce is also available in a few locations, and they are working on expanding the availability of that line. The current worldwide trade problems have impacted their business mainly because of the increase in fuel prices, but even though they have had to pass that increase along to consumers, because they are local vs Mexico or South American import, their prices are still competitive.
You can find out more on their Facebook & Instagram pages, including the complete list of products available according to the time of year. You can submit an online order for pick up at the farm store. A Driftwood Greenhouse website is also currently in the works at www.driftwoodgreenhouses.com. If you are going to be travelling in the area, put this on your Places Not to be Missed list… they are open daily from 8am-8pm, seven days a week.
