to the table. Now, working to improve and expand it has brought us closer together. Brenda is our master gardener, expanding on our outdoor, garden and all creative matters. Dad is our business man and head brewer, keeping things running smoothly and creating good beer. Fraser, although living in Saskatchewan as a mechanic, brings a mechani- cal and practical perspective on all our projects. We have so many ideas that we see happening on the farm and everyone has a part to play. “It’s worth coming out to see how we’ve made this incredible property into something beautiful and sustainable. How everything is handmade, hand-labeled, and hand-bottled; everything comes together when you see it for yourself.” Regardless of any ups and downs, at the end of the day, we get to relax over a drink or product or meal that we created together on this beautiful farm and that’s pretty amazing. On that note, I’ve always believed that the brewery was a natural progression on the farm. We had all these resourc- es, all these product ideas, and we needed a place to invite people to come and share in the experience of this beautiful farm – and to sell right here a finished product produced in every sense on-site. The brewery made sense for us. Having a store and tasting room to feature all of our products is a natural step for us. We broke ground for the brewery in the summer of 2013, opening our doors in the spring of 2014. The building of the brewery was, like all things around here, done by hand. My mother’s father, my grandfather, Hugo, was a carpenter and taught my dad everything he knows about carpentry today. When my parents were first married, they bought old fixer upper homes to renovate and my grandpa would be there most days to help. When they bought the farm, he would come out and help build cabinets and renovate the house here too. Unfortunately, he passed away before we built the brewery, but my dad built that brewery from the ground up, with help from our community, and used everything he learned over the years, and more, to build it. It wouldn’t have been possible without that relationship they began to build 30-some years ago. We even dedicated our first brew to him, my grandpa Hugo. We called it Lunch Box, because he brought his lunch box with him every day he came. That’s very touching, Campbell. I suppose that’s where your family gets their collective will to work together from, right? AB: We work closely as a family and we work closely with other businesses in our area. It’s important to come
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2017
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