[cheering & applauding]
The wild blueberry capital of the world.
[applauding]
A huge stain on the community, in the most delicious of ways.
[laughing]
What is a wild blueberry? Well, I'll tell you.
It's not one of these bloated,
Genetically modified abominations...
That you're gonna find at the supermarket, okay?
A wild blueberry is that sweet, little low bush berry that is
Far more dense in taste and nutritional value.
And, you know, I should stop.
I don't want to pump up wild blueberries too much 'cause
They'll turn into the big fat kind that I hate.
[laughing]
However, not everything is so sweet.
This town was nearly blue 'berried' in the ground.
Just three years ago, a sink hole formed
Right in the middle of lions club park.
Closing down not just your community centre,
But that beautiful piece of park land.
Now, what is a sinkhole?
Well, that depends on whether you consult the oxford english
Dictionary or the oxford nova scotia dictionary.
[laughing]
Let's just say one of them pretty much sums up the
Sinkhole as being a big pain in the 'a' hole.
[laughing]
When you grow up in a small town in newfoundland,
You see the people have a sense of humor about hard times.
Check, check.
I turned that into a career and hit the road.
Mr. Jonny harris!
Now I'm on a mission to find it funny in the places you'd least
Expect it — canada's struggling small towns.
Towns that are against the ropes, but hanging in there...
Still laughing in the face of adversity.
This is oxford, nova scotia.
♪
[cheering & applauding]
There was a little confusion.
When I first found out I was coming to oxford,
And I looked it up, I wasn't sure if it was the
Wild blueberry capital of the world, or if it was
The wild... Blueberry capital of the world.
Like, if your blueberries were normal,
But everyone was doing tequila shots.
[laughing]
♪
To learn about oxford's story from a to z,
I met the owner of gjde, eric mosher.
[cheering & applauding]
Eric owns gjde enterprises,
The only store that was named during the
Bonus round of wheel of fortune.
[laughing]
Gjde enterprises: George, joan, deborah and eric.
My father, my mother, my sister and myself.
The 'e' is silent, but I'm not.
[laughing]
I had a look around inside.
It's got a bit of everything, I suppose.
It's got ornaments, candy, whatever you need.
Basically, this store's got everything but
The kitchen sink hole.
[laughing]
Eric told me about the good old days here in oxford.
When we moved to oxford, oxford was like at its prime.
We were primarily a lumbering community,
So there were sawmills and lumberyards.
We had a furniture factory, wool mill,
A huge producer of like wool blankets.
There was lumber mills and furniture factories,
Which garnered this area the nickname 'slab town',
Until someone realized it would sound nicer if they called it
Anything but slab town, really.
[laughing]
We had a men's wear, women's wear, a shoe store.
We had an upholstery shop.
Barber shop, beauty parlor, bakery.
There were two drugstores.
And the town started shrinking because people were able to
Travel and go to other places and, you know,
The plight of every small community.
Yeah, yeah.
Loss of industry here meant decline for retail business.
I mean, even with eric's shop, it's still holding on strong,
But he said they used to have 10 employees there.
And now, it's him. They went from 10 down to just one.
In fact, now I think he's got to rename it 'ogjde':
One guy just does everything.
[laughing]
Oxford is not what you call a tourist destination.
We're not on the water.
We don't have beautiful views so much.
People, when they're on the highway,
They want to get to the sunrise trail,
To heather beach and sort of like the more touristy
Scenic parts of nova scotia.
He said oxford has sort of become a bit of a
Drive through town, where people pass through
To go to other more touristy areas.
Although, a surprising amount of people will stop to get
Their picture with oxley, your giant blueberry.
[cheering & applauding]
Apparently oxley used to have arms.
And I've seen actually on a little snow globe in his store,
So I know what it looked like. He was sort of like...
- [laughing] - right?
But apparently the kids used to climb up on the arms.
And the arms were breaking, and the kids would get caught on it.
As a small town, you don't want your kids
Getting hooked on oxley.
[laughing]
And people come to see eric's shop, of course.
In fact, tripadvisor ranked his store as the number one
Thing to do in oxford.
And number two was the riverside art gallery.
And number three, well, there was no number three.
Eric said that another tourist draw is people who come to the
Blueberry capital of the world looking for blueberries any
Time of the year, not knowing that the blueberry season
Is relatively short.
Oxford is the blueberry capital of canada.
So, everyone that's interested in blueberries
Comes to the town.
It could be the springtime, could be mid-summer,
It could be in the winter.
Where's the fresh blueberries?
If you come here before September looking for
Blueberries, well, the only berries you're gonna find
Are gonna be frozen.
If you come here after October, well,
You might just freeze some berries of your own.
[laughing]
As much as I learned about oxford so far,
I knew it was important to get the whole story.
Luckily, you have someone in town with rocks in her head,
Renowned geologist and sinkhole expert, amy tizzard.
[cheering & applauding]
Amy told me the story of how this sinkhole
Was first discovered.
In 2018, in late July, someone was at a
Wedding reception at the community centre.
Here across the lake.
Stepped outside to relieve himself and,
Heard the sound of rushing water.
And there was a hole quite suddenly.
Some guy went out around behind the building to have a pee.
And when he got back there, he could hear —
Under the ground — running water.
And according to the story,
That made him have to pee even more.
[laughing]
This guy then realized that the very ground that he was
Standing on— let's just say for a guy whooping it up at a
Wedding with an open bar, he found himself
In a strange depression.
News of the sinkhole spread...
As did the sinkhole, itself.
[laughing]
She explained to me that, essentially,
What a sinkhole is...
There is a known bedrock that extends into the town of oxford.
Rocks like gypsum, rock salt.
Those types of rocks are more prone to dissolving in water.
You get groundwater and surface water interacting
With these rocks that dissolve.
And, it formed some sort of cavity underground.
And when that cavity gets so big that the roof of the cavern
Can no longer hold up, it collapses,
And the result is a sinkhole.
She explained it very well to me,
But I was still confused because, to me, you know,
From phil collins to sting to chris de burgh,
I always thought soft rock was solid.
[laughing]
But eventually, in the name of public safety,
The parkland was permanently closed.
It was sold to a private investor who filled it in.
Filling the sinkhole in doesn't change the
Underlying geological conditions.
So, it's still at a risk for future sinkhole development.
We just don't know what timeframe that could be.
It could be tomorrow, it could be in 10,000 years,
It could be in a million years.
The loss of the park had a huge impact on the town.
The community centre was the hub of social activity.
I took swimming lessons here.
I would use the playground as a child, too.
So, it's the loss of community space.
I guess if you did have to try to find a silver lining,
The sinkhole did bring in some tourism.
This thing sucks in more than pylons and picnic tables.
[laughing]
It was quite a scene for about a month.
Some of the shops downtown in oxford
Were having sinkhole sales.
People had their signs done up:
"sinkhole sale, everything might go".
[laughing]
I think that's good. I think you've got to
Jump on these marketing opportunities
When they present themselves, right.
You know, maybe you could say: "visit oxford, nova scotia.
Our public parks might not include a golf course,
But we have a hole in one."
[laughing]
[applauding]
However broken the bedrock, it is covered — no doubt —
By a bounty of beautiful berries.
And I discovered that the family that picks together,
Sticks together.
I'm talking about the owners of black track farm,
Dwayne and greg gordon.
[cheering & applauding]
I went out and had a chat with the lads out in the field.
And it turns out that, you know,
They do their job pretty much the same way I do mine.
We both go for low hanging fruit.
[laughing]
What I mean by that is wild blueberries are a
Low bush berry, not unlike the gordon's themselves,
Or like most nova scotians.
These berries are pretty grounded.
[laughing]
They told me that there are several reasons why
Wild blueberries grow so well in this area.
The ground here is acidic...
Or, has the right ground for growing blueberries.
They're here natural.
There's a very specific, highly acidic soil in this area.
And I think if I got it right, I think the
Soil helps them grow. And the acid makes them wild.
[laughing]
It's not just the environment that makes
The berries around here so good.
It's also the knowledge that comes from
Generations of experience.
I started picking blueberries here with my grandmother,
My father after her, and...
Now my children and their, their children
Are gonna be here next.
I followed my grandmother around here,
Down on my hands and knees, raking by hand and
Putting it in a bucket all day for a month.
By the time greg started,
Things were a little more automated.
Machine picked everything, everything came up,
Fell into a box.
You just had to keep moving boxes,
Make sure you didn't spill any.
You'd get yelled at a lot if you spilled some.
14 hours a day, just driving around the blueberry field.
Just eat your sandwich and sit in the tractor.
He said, you know, you're on the back of a tractor all day,
Lifting and reloading these 20 pound boxes.
And you'd be doing that 6, 700 times a day, right.
You might stop long enough to have a sandwich.
If not, you just make do with the 4 or 5 pounds of
Blueberries you'd eat every day.
[laughing]
It's not just the locals who love wild blueberries.
It's the local wildlife.
Bear, birds, seagulls, geese.
You get a hundred seagulls, they land and they're just
Going like that steady, swallowing berries.
So, they eat a lot of berries.
Seagulls, they said, terrible.
They said a flock of seagulls could pitch down and
Decimate a field in minutes.
I always thought if you're trying to keep seagulls away
From a field of blueberries, could you not just like
Lay a plate of fries over here?
[laughing]
Dwayne said the most effective method that he's seen to keep
Seagulls away is to hang a balloon in the field.
And on this balloon, you paint the eye of an owl.
I can't help but think like...
'hoo'... Came up with that one?
[laughing]
♪
Moving from the middle east to canada's east coast
Surely can't be easy.
I had a chat with alia kamareddine and
Zaynah mohamed.
[cheering & applauding]
Alia and her husband fled lebanon
During a civil war there in 1988.
Coming to canada had a host of challenges.
When I first moved to canada,
It was like very, very hard for me...
Yeah.
Because the weather was too cold.
The language, I don't know any english.
I only know 'thank you'.
Also, for muslims who practice ramadan—
This is 30 days of fasting.
From sunrise to sunset, we go no food,
No drink, nothing. Just—
And of course, this far north, we go from
Very short days in the winter...
To very long days in the summer.
So, during ramadan, you could go 16 hours
Without having a bite to eat.
I can't imagine how 'hangry' you would be.
And just watching the sun, waiting for it to disappear.
And what if you have an east coast fog?
What if you can't see the sun?
You know, does east coast fog literally create
A gray area for ramadan? You know what I mean?
"oh, my god, I'm starving."
"okay, I'm gonna have a bite to eat."
"no, wait, is the sun fully set?"
"well, I can't see it." "yeah, but are you sure?"
"I said I can't see it!"
[laughing]
There's that cultural difference and the
Misunderstanding, I think.
That's kind of what makes it ramadan a little harder
In a rural area.
And for zaynah, as a kid, she's going to school.
She's the only arab kid at the time.
My mom would be cooking me meals,
And I'd bring them to school and people would be like:
"what is that?" like,
"what are you bringing to school?"
They're used to their sandwiches or their soups and salads.
And I would be bringing like dolma.
Kids, they just— they don't want to be different.
They just want to fit in.
I would be fasting and go to school,
And it would be lunch break.
Everyone's eating and they're like,
"why aren't you eating?" and I'm like,
"I'm fasting, I can't eat."
She goes from the kid with the weird lunch,
To the kid with no lunch at all.
[laughing]
At the end of ramadan, they'll have a feast.
So, we thought it was a great opportunity to display it to
The people in the community.
They'll invite people from the community to
Come and share in it.
And people can learn a little bit about their faith and
Their culture and try some of the traditional food.
And how did they take to it?
- They loved it. - They loved it.
While we were talking about it, I felt like an idiot because
I knew there was a name for this feast at the end of ramadan.
But I couldn't, I couldn't remember it.
And it's eid mubarak, sometimes referred to simply as eid.
But I said to alia, I said—
At the end of ramadan, the end of the fasting,
What's the name for the..?
It's eid. End of fasting is called eid.
And she said eid.
And I said, "yeah, when you can eat, what's the name of it?"
[laughing]
In 2015, canada began accepting refugees from syria and
Cities and towns all over this country found
Places for newcomers to live.
And oxford was among these towns that stepped up.
There are several syrian families living here now.
When they first came, most of them, they can't go anywhere,
And they can't speak the language.
I used to help them, take them to hospital,
To dentist, to grocery shopping.
Alia said to me that she knew it would be a great comfort for
Other muslims, if they could have a place of worship.
It means a lot to them, like, it's mean like,
You know, like home.
And of course, since the community centre was closed,
You don't really have your pick of gathering places.
So, alia got together with a couple of local ladies.
Eventually, they found a place where muslims could worship.
Where in god's name?
♪ [angelic] ♪
Well, in your united church.
[laughing]
♪ [prayer] ♪
Well, it's unusual.
Certainly unusual, that goes without saying, I suppose.
Yeah, it's just like the little mosque on the prairie.
I haven't been this impressed since they put
The swiss chalet and the harveys together.
[laughing]
In fact, I think if you have another unused space in the
Church, you could put a buddhist temple in there and
It'd be real spiritual turducken.
[laughing]
People of oxford were not about to take it lying down.
Although maybe you should have, 'cause if you lie down,
You spread your weight, you disperse your weight
Over more surface area... - [laughing]
Less of a chance of falling through.
Just saying, just saying.
The town is trying to raise money to build
A new community centre.
And I got to speak to a couple of the organizers,
Leta macdiarmid and chrystal mcnutt.
[cheering & applauding]
When the sinkhole happened, and the park was closed,
And the community centre was closed —
What was the vibe around?
It was devastating, yeah, absolutely.
That's where everybody came to congregate.
That's where the town got together.
Yeah, it was very upsetting.
The community centre, it's the main gathering place for
Everything, from weddings, birthday celebrations.
The lake was used for swimming, and skating in the winter.
The old playground is exactly where the sinkhole appeared.
Basically, different business owners and
People from the community came together and...
And said, we really need to, you know, fill this void...
And have something for everyone to gather and congregate in.
What I was able to attend was a blueberry bake off.
Blueberry bake offs have been kind of a fun way to get out
And, you know, have a good time and try something new.
These gals, their attitude for a new centre is,
"bake it 'til you make it".
There's all kinds of things you can make blueberries from,
You know, muffins and loaves, to cake and cobbler and crisp.
We have pie today, we have cheesecake.
Maybe you'd like to try my to-die-for blueberry muffins.
Leta's to-die-for muffins.
It's sort of a nod to her profession.
She runs a funeral parlor.
[laughing]
Do you die for them or die from them?
We'll have to see.
- What a day for it, hey? - It's perfect.
I ate so much, oh, my god. I got to try muffins and
Cakes and cobblers and crumbles.
And I was willing to eat it all.
If I got to fill my pie hole to
Help with your sinkhole, I'll do it.
- [laughing] - I'll do it.
♪
Under your ground, mother earth laid down
Some tracks of soft rock, but don't resent her.
Maybe a community is a bit like a donut,
It can be great without a 'centre'.
The attitude of the people who live off this land
Matters more than the caverns underneath.
Bake it 'til you make it, but go easy on the sweets
Or you might have cavernous holes in your teeth.
Or try lebanese food in a mosque in a church.
I know that sounds kind of radical.
But all can feel blessed in oxford, ns,
The world's wild blueberry capital.
Thanks for coming out to the show, everybody.
You've been great!
[cheering & applauding]
I laughed 'til I was blue in the face.
I like talking knowingly about food even though
I don't really know anything.
Well, thank you for the laugh, jonny. It's nice.
♪
Geology and puns go hand in hand and, jonny nailed it.
♪
Jonny, you were...
You were great.
Love you in murdoch mysteries and you were great live, too.
♪
The to-die-for muffins, has anybody actually died from them?
Not that I know of.
It's likely he literally knows us all.
- Exactly, yeah, absolutely. - In under a week.
It's like he's from our hometown.
♪