Stephen Gleave

Working with bees is some of the most rewarding work you can do on a homestead. If you also have an orchard, you will see immediate growth in fruit. If you have cattle, the bees are more likely to pollinate it and make a much thicker and more rewarding grassland for your herd. This is not even mentioning the output that a bee can give in its main product – honey. The sheer amount of honey produced can actually be overwhelming, especially to new apiarists that don’t know what to do with it. Of course, if sealed properly with methods like pressure canning, honey can last for decades or even centuries , but if harvesting only for yourself, the amount of honey in your larder can begin to pile up if you’re unable to use it all by the following year. Some bees produce so much honey, you can even harvest a jar in the middle of winter . There are more ways to use honey than simply having it in your tea with cream or milk. Here are just a few of the recipes that can help make that farm-fresh ...

There are many points of entry on Bruce County’s beautiful Saugeen River. There are 102 kilometres of easy paddling, stunning shorelines and cliffs, and perhaps most importantly – some of the best fishing in Southern Ontario.  The Saugeen River is a massive river system and one of the best fishing spots for brown trout, brook trout, rainbow trout and other fish species in Ontario. Many of the river’s sections can be over 50 feet wide with plenty of fish to catch. Bruce County is home to many great fishing spots, but this river in particular is one of the best.   Once you get to the lower half of the Saugeen River, it’s better known for large salmon and musky fishing. In both sections of the river, there are both fast rapids and long slow meadow sections, deep pools and good hatching spots in early spring and summer. It’s the characteristics and biology of the Saugeen River that make it such a rich place to fish. Fly fishing just so happens to be one of the most enjoyable forms...

There’s just something magical about forests. Walking through them in the late afternoon, the sunlight filtering through the leaves. The quiet murmur of animals scurrying about. It’s contemplative, healing even, to spend time within them. I have an orchard of plum, apple, pear and cherry trees on my 100-acre farm in Ancaster, where I also care for old Carolinian forests and am growing new forests with Tulip trees, Kentucky coffee trees and other antique trees. So, I spend a lot of time in and around forests. And I’ve found their benefits, to humans and the natural world, are virtually endless. I can’t imagine my property without its beautiful trees. Consider orchards. Today, most of the world’s commercially grown apples come from just a handful of varieties. But start a small orchard on your property and you can begin to diversify the kind of fruits you and your friends may sample. And once a single tree is established, it can provide a substantial yield of fruit for decades.  Of...

2 years ago, my family decided we were going to introduce cattle to our 100-acre farm in Ancaster. There were a lot of choices. We researched and researched the best breed for our needs.  Researching many of the 250 recognized cow breeds (Maine Anjou, Red Angus, Shorthorn, Blonde d'Aquitaine, etc.) was no easy task, but it was important that we found animals that would be happy living alongside our family at the farm.    We decided Scottish Highland cattle would be best for the farm. Choosing the World’s first registered breed of cattle wasn’t a difficult choice given their qualities and their ability to thrive in Ontario’s climate –during both cold and hot spells. And since Canada has roughly 10,000 breeders of registered beef cattle of all breeds, there was  no shortage of places willing to sell us our first herd of cattle.   We are ranchers, kind of, now that we have 12 Scottish Highland living on the farm.    A group of Highlands is called a “fo...