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THINGS WE LOVE
Heritage Bee Co. Honey
How local is this honey? Made-in-your-backyard
local, if you choose! Heritage Bee Co. helps you
host bees at home, or away, so you can enjoy
premium, raw, unpasteurized, hand-processed
honey directly from your beehive, along with
the satisfaction of knowing that you are making
a world of difference for the bees! The Mulmur,
Ontario, company takes care of all aspects of
hive delivery, setup, maintenance and honey
extraction so you can enjoy the benefits,
including super-pollination for your gardens,
while helping to improve your local environment
and ecosystem and restoring local bee
populations. The company practises 100 percent
natural, organic beekeeping, which means using
a smaller, natural honeycomb-cell size, which
allows bees to return to their natural size, making
them stronger against pests and disease. The
company’s beekeeping practices also include
not putting anything into the hive that the bees
do not put there themselves, and only removing
true honey surplus. Urban foodies can also opt to
have their hive hosted at one of the company’s
certified naturally grown apiaries. The only
downside is that you have to sign up early: the
2019 season is already full.
heritagebee.comSt. Jean’s Cannery & Smokehouse
If you’re lucky enough to be fishing on the West
Coast, give St. Jean’s Cannery a try. The Nanaimo,
British Columbia, company takes your catch and
preserves it for you to enjoy later. Just have the
lodge send your catch over, or drop it off at one
of the depots on the West Coast. Founded by
Armand St. Jean, who combined his love of West
Coast seafood with smoking and preserving
knowledge that he learned from his family in
Quebec, the company has grown into the largest
cannery serving the sport fishing industry in
British Columbia and the largest salmon cannery
in southern B.C. In 2012, the company acquired
Raincoast Trading, known for its sustainable
fishing practices and gourmet seafood. And in
2015, majority ownership transferred to a group
of five West Coast First Nations, who have a long,
proud history of being stewards and participants
in B.C.’s seafood economy. While the cannery has
grown and today sells canned seafood, frozen
seafood, sauces and spices, the canned oysters
and seafood are still hand-packed—just like the
early days, when St. Jean was working out of his
own kitchen and a smokehouse in a shed. H
stjeans.comDEBBIE GRAY (HERITAGE BEE CO.)