When I began interviewing John Sousa, I thought I was going to talk about our shared love of gardening. But it soon became apparent that there was much more to this man than the edible plants that proliferate the five acres of his Pitt Meadow’s hobby farm.
We should probably start with his wife and better half, Maria, who exudes an ‘old world’ generosity that is rare these days.
John and Maria live near my place of work and can often be found walking over to give me some fresh figs or invite people over to pick blueberries. I, in turn, visit to help John troubleshoot any fruit tree problems, and over time we became friends.
John and Maria emigrated from Portugal – specifically, Sao Miguel Island of the Azores – in 1957. John spent his first two years in Canada by himself. He arrived in Gander, Nfld. and signed with CN Railway, which eventually brought him to Winnipeg.
After contracting severe food poisoning, he decided that this was not the life for him, so he took $36 of his last $47 to buy a bus ticket to Vancouver, staying in the Savoy Hotel on Hastings Street for $1.75 a night while looking for work, which was scarce at the time.
When he got down to his last $2 he used most of it to purchase a one way bus ticket to Port Coquitlam.
His working prospects improved here with contracts with CP Rail, mill work, shoe-repair and part-time employment on the Port Mann Bridge construction.
When work was plentiful, he did double shifts, labouring on the bridge during the day and the mill at night.
During times of scarcity, John would have to resort to sleeping in the rough down by the riverbank for a lack of rent money – today we call that being homeless.
But to John’s thinking, it was just a temporary setback. But there were decent people looking out for him, like the owners of Batty’s Shoes, who had him over for one good meal a week.
John eventually got a full-time line at the mill, but after an injury decided to go back to his former profession as a seaman, working as a boat pilot hauling log booms throughout the inside coast.
Long before this, Maria had joined him and they lived in their Port Moody home, eventually buying Batty Shoes as the family business.
They moved to Pitt Meadows around 1980, although there was little on site but some ‘Bluecrop’ blueberries, the house and a heritage barn.
Now you can find persimmons, plums, grapes, figs, apples, pears, kiwis, raspberries, medlar, strawberry guava and his pride and joy, sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa).
The latter are lovingly grown by seed from the large central nut and then carefully grafted several years later with more productive scions.
He also crafts his own wine, some of it from grapes grown on site, such as ‘Merlot’, ‘Black Muscat’ and a variety he calls ‘White Concord,’ which I think is ‘Niagara.’
Despite his 1.2k ‘Italian Heart’ tomatoes and huge squashes, he doesn’t consider himself a gardener, just someone passing the time in the yard.
By the end of the interview (and a glass of his fine red wine), I realized that I was in the presence of a successful immigrant, a man deeply concerned about the current state of homelessness, a person who equally loves both Portugal and his adopted country, and a pretty good vintner.
It turned out that John was much more than just a gardener.
Mike Lascelle is a local
nursery manager
and gardening author
(hebe_acer@hotmail.com).