{"id":24105,"date":"2019-06-28T11:41:29","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T15:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24105"},"modified":"2019-06-28T11:41:38","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T15:41:38","slug":"market-musings-94","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/market-musings-94\/","title":{"rendered":"MARKET MUSINGS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jan Freedman<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Saturday was another lovely day at the Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market with blue skies and temperatures in the low 20s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only thing missing for us was the fact\nthat it was designated as our annual Strawberry Festival but our farmers have\nno strawberries yet. The cold, wet spring has caused about a two-week delay in\nthe usual ripening time. Nevertheless, we continued with our plans for a\nSpecial Event, minus the berries, with the Aurora Community Band playing and a\ndraw for a market bag. We are eagerly anticipating the arrival of fresh, local\nstrawberries soon but they may not have a dedicated day to celebrate them this\nseason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I mentioned previously, we\u2019re going to\ntell you about some of our long-time vendors who haven\u2019t been described in\nseveral years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the next vendor you haven\u2019t heard\nabout in a while is Andre Flys of Pioneer Brand Honey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been almost 90 years since Charles\nSauriol began tending his first bee hive at the Forks of the Don River in\nToronto. When he bottled honey in clay pots, \u201cPioneer Brand Honey\u201d, in honour\nof the Pioneers of the Don, was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were saluting those who blazed the\ntrails ahead of them and who brought \u201cEuropean\u201d honey bees or Apis Melifera on\nthe boats with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until then honey bees did not exist in North\nAmerica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Charles\u2019 grandson, Andre Flys, is\nthe one who bottles honey under the \u201cPioneer Brand\u201d name in Nobleton. Andre is\ninspired by his grandfather and his father,\nJohn, who share the passion for keeping bees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andre tells of\nspending the first Monday of each month with his Dad attending Toronto District\nBeekeepers Association meetings learning from their peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For almost 20 years,\nAndre and his dad were volunteers and organizers with the Royal Winter Fair\nHoney Bee education program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advocacy and\neducation became more important to Andre as environmental concerns began to\nseriously impact our pollinators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He currently serves\nas President of the Ontario Beekeepers Association and teaches Apiary\nManagement at Niagara College\u2019s commercial beekeeping program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also manages about\n300 colonies of bees for their business, Pioneer Brand Honey. Beekeeping on\nthat scale requires trips to almost 20 locations where they keep \u201cbee yards\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andre\u2019s wife, Kerrie,\nwith daughter, Peyton, is managing their booth at the Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market\nthis season. His dad, John, works at their farm gate store in Nobleton serving\nup honey samples and conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their products have\nexpanded since Grampa Charles bottled one size years ago. Today they have pure\nOntario Wildflower honey, Buckwheat honey, Blueberry blossom honey, skin cream,\nbug repellent, foot bars, deodorant and lip balms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, they\ncarry dozens of different beeswax candles, bee pollen, royal jelly and\npropolis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, beekeeping is\na considerable challenge with fragmented forage space from development, highly\nintensive pesticide use in modern agriculture and an ever degrading natural\nenvironment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there might be\neasier ways to make a living, Andre is committed to carrying on for a few more\ngenerations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His young children \u2013\n10-year-old Peyton; five-year-old Wesley; and three-year-old Breen all seem to\nhave a keen interest in the bees. Andre feels that they will continue to be\n\u201cbee farmers\u201d and advocate for their honeybees and native pollinators for\ngenerations to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do drop by their\nbooth on Wells Street to see what they have and to talk to Kerrie about bees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re working on a\nplan to have Andre visit us with the bees and talk to us about the dangers that\nbees face today and what we can do to help. We\u2019ll let you know when that visit\nis scheduled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See you at the Market!<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jan Freedman Last Saturday was another lovely day at the Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market with blue skies and temperatures in the low 20s. The only thing missing for us was the fact that it was designated as our annual Strawberry Festival but our farmers have no strawberries yet. The cold, wet spring has caused about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6gN","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 01:05:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}