Our  Pure   Music
Garlic  Story

I wanted to share with you all a little about me.

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I grew up in Bracebridge, Ontario where my family of 4 had a small hobby farm raising chickens. We all worked hard as a family with the upkeep, taking care of all the livestock and gardening, while also enjoying a great mix of play time added in. This means that we hatched our own eggs in an incubator for a new flock of chickens, and we also processed our older chickens for food.  My mom preserved everything from veggies, all sorts of pickles, and we even made maple syrup. If my brother and I wanted to skate on the ice we had to help build our own skating rink.  In other words, what I'm trying to convey is that everything was made from scratch.  I dreaded catching a chicken or getting attacked by our rooster, let alone sterilizing jars to can goods and dealing with bugs in the garden.  Growing up in the country was not all hard work, my Mom volunteered for everything in our community,  so naturally I had to volunteer for everything.  When I was a teenager I solemnly vowed never to be just a housewife and stay at home to cook and clean, or lend my spare time to every organization that needs people to work for free for those in need.

 

Once I graduated from high school I couldn't wait to move to Toronto to live on my own and go to college.  That was also the year my Mom passed away.  My first 6 months I was home sick, my next 3 years I was still not the person I felt I could be.  I had no passion in life, everything seemed so lacklustre.  The best thing I could do was to move out of the city and get back to learning who I was all over again.  Then I met my husband, Paul.  He had just bought a small acre of land outside of Shelburne and after a couple of months asked me to live with him. I found myself going back to my country roots and relearning all those life lessons I refused to grasp before. I didn’t know how to cook, since I never watched my Mom prepare a full meal, or to do household jobs while still carrying a part time job.  That was hard when you didn't have someone to call. 

 

Later that year, we lost our little house to a fire.  Again we rebuilt our life, and our home.  We started a family and finally found our forever home in Grey County.  Our 100 acre farm and small century home brought us both back to our country roots.  I started volunteering again for a couple of theatre groups in Meaford when our daughter Kassidy showed an interest in joining a couple of acting groups.  I even broke out of my shell more so by learning to be a director and even landing a couple of lead roles for myself. I joined our local agricultural society in Rocklyn when Dalton and Kassidy became interested in 4-H.  We even started to raise chickens for our personal needs, and Paul started growing garlic.  For the next 5 years we built our tiny crop up to an acre of certified organic "Music" garlic, and even had a potential contract. Again, disaster struck and we almost lost the whole crop due to environmental failure.  I could go into details,  but I refused to give up and asked Paul if I could use some of the slightly damaged garlic for a new idea that I had been thinking about for a while.  In a couple of weeks, Pure Music Garlic was born like a phoenix out of the ashes.  

 

Sometimes, you have to go back to your roots and live like our parents did but in a more productive way.  Sometimes, you have to wait for half a lifetime to find your inner drive and passion. Sometimes you have to move forward when it's hard to do so and learn to let go.  Would I have changed a thing looking back in my life?...not one bit.  I give thanks to my Mom  for hanging onto material items such as my 15 year Girl Guides of Canada pin; a letter from a certain Prime Minister thanking me for 100's of volunteer hours when I was a Candy Striper at our hospital in Bracebridge, and many more personal achievements.  In 2023, we gave our Daughter's hand away to an incredible man who loves her as much as we do.  Our oldest son Dalton found his personal passion and started to work towards a new career as an arborist and l was honoured to be awarded the Agri-Business of the Year, among many other hard working and well deserving nominees in our region.  Paul is working hard on a beautiful new business venture that will certainly benefit all who cares for their health and longevity.  I certainly haven’t started to slow down and will continue to produce incredible garlic products that taste exactly like nature intended. 

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Thank you for coming along on this wild ride that is this life. We thank you for supporting our dreams and hope that you continue to enjoy our products as much as we enjoy crafting them for you.