Maple Syrup
Hop Hill has a small sugar maple bush but thanks to collaborative neighbours, we have been taping more and more trees each years. The flow has been good but exceptional this last season in 2016. Kyle (Kate’s husband) has built a sugar shack and the team essentially lives in the “shack” for as long as it takes to get the sap boiled down. The pancake breakfasts have become part of the local culture and legend. The new plastic lines have been a great addition but there are still buckets to empty. Our product is for local consumption to be shared with horse loving friends as a very special event. We plan to continue to expand.
Apiary Honey
Hop Hill is a herbicide and pesticide free farm that is rich in wildflowers and tree blossoms. On a very small scale, we began to produce honey from our land with just 2 hives in 2015. We are slowly expanding as we learn about beekeeping. The recent observations about colony collapse syndrome have led us to read about bee societies and possible explanations for the loss of bees. The good news is that things seem to have stabilized in the last year. The genetics of honey bees, in particular, interest us. We are watching the Genome Canada project which is funding bee DNA sequencing from a 1000 Canadian colonies and correlating the findings with 11 traits found in our bees. Who knows but we may soon have a Canadian bee! The latest addition is a Flow Hive from Austraiia which is innovative but so new there is general skepticism about how well it work.