Graeme graduated from Georgian College with a diploma in Advertising. He went on to work for an agency, Dentsu, and worked on the Lexus account. Living in Toronto, completely out of his element and not enjoying the direction his life was going, Graeme began to question his early career choice. Realizing his happiest moments in life were making maple syrup, he quit his job and moved home to try to turn what had always been a hobby into a small business. 

Maple Syrup:
Some of Graemes earliest memories are making maple syrup. That first spring his family lived at the farm, he had chopped all the wood he could so his mom thought making maple syrup could be a fun activity. There was fire involved so Graeme was all in, a young pyro at the time. Days spent collecting sticks, spilling sap and burning syrup batches. It was by no means an efficient syrup operation but it was the ground work for what would become the Tapped Out Small Batch. Cooked in the woods, over open fires, in small batches. Each batch an expression of mother nature at the time it was made. Wanting to keep his close connecting with the forest, Graeme resisted mechanizing his syrup operation and stayed true to the original methods used when he was a kid. No vacuum lines, reverse osmosis system, and for sure no oil fired evaporator. Tapped Out was born in the woods over an open fire with sap collected by hand, and it will always stay true to that.
Today Graeme runs around 400 taps and produces a limited quantity of his syrup each year. He has made maple syrup every year since he was five years old and has no plans of stopping.

Beekeeping:
While Graemes mom Liz was pregnant with him, she tells a story of a bee swarm building a hive outside her bedroom window. All summer the bees hummed and could be heard inside the room. Maybe it was a subconscious memory of the sounds of the bees that drew Graeme to beekeeping. Having finished his first official Tapped Out maple syrup season Graeme was thinking of what to do next and decided he would be interested in beekeeping. He decided to build a top-bar hive and Just as he was putting the finishing touches on it, a family friend called to say a bee swarm had just landed in their tree. It was a serendipitous moment and just like that Graeme became a beekeeper. That summer was a summer of love, love for the bees that is. Graeme fell in love with the art of beekeeping and realized he had found his true calling.
Growing slowly at first, Graeme now runs 200 hives and produces around 100 queens a week In the summer months. Graemes’ honey is unique as his harvesting techniques create what he calls single meadow origin honey. His honey is often considered the best honey by anyone who tries it. Staying committed to what is best for the bees he focuses on organic beekeeping practices with diseases and mite resistance through selective breeding instead of antibiotics or chemicals. Graeme continues to grow his beekeeping expertise and practices every year, always striving to be the best beekeeper he can be. 

In growing his beekeeping business Graeme started to venture into other beekeeping related products. He opened a meadery at the farm in 2021 and has a few more projects planned in the coming years. 

If you run into Graeme on the farm he will likely be sticky and in propolis stained beekeeping clothes or in the meadery brewing a batch of mead.