The Rural Voice, 2002-04, Page 27tearoom. As well as their bakery and
their fruit and vegetable selection
they wanted a meat department, so
they leased space within the market
to a butcher shop.
They used entertainment,
sometimes involving crazy ideas, to
attract people to the farm. London
has its International Air Show so
they created the Bellamere
International Airshow, inviting
ultralight aircraft to take off from the
farm. London has its hot air balloon
festival so they had their own balloon
launch.
At one time
they transported
people out to
their pick your
own operation
on wagons
drawn by horses
but that was
labour intensive
so they created
their own "train"
built on an old
tractor chassis
and pulling up to
50 people at a time.
But farm marketing was changing
with fewer people interested in
picking their own fruits any more so
the family began looking at building
a winery to turn their fruit into a
value-added product.
By now the area where the farm
was located had been annexed
into the city and suddenly
getting approval for building the
winery became a major, three -year-
long process. Officials in the old
township had been so co-operative
that all they had to do was take in
plans sketched on shelf -paper and
they'd get approval. Dealing with the
city was a whole new matter and they
eventually had to hire a planner to
negotiate the zoning change required
by city planning officials.
At one point one councillor on a
planning committee actually said
"We really don't know what a
winery has to do with agriculture."
Eventually the winery was
approved and three tractor trailer
loads of timbers arrived and a second
timber -frame building went up
containing three rooms, one for retail
and two for winemaking and storage.
When the family started the
operation they didn't know what a
Dan Mader tells
how Bellamere
grew.
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Settling aux Cammuu.ity re gxeateat reeede P4 euex 30 years
APRIL 2002 23