WORDS & PHOTOS BY CHRIS TIESSEN
When Christine and John Veit (along with their two daughters) sold their family home in Fergus in 2020 to purchase a lovely twenty-five acre farm plot just outside Belwood, they had dreams of becoming homesteaders. They would engage in a bit of subsistence agriculture. A touch of husbandry. Some honey. Canning. All in the family. ‘We started with a few chickens for eggs and a vegetable garden,’ John tells me while he and Christine and I chat inside the farmhouse. ‘Soon enough,’ he continues, ‘we added broiler chickens [raised from chicks], some pigs, a few lambs, two geese named ‘Shake ‘n Bake’, and bees [for honey and beeswax products].’
Soon it donned on Christine and John that they might begin offering their wares to a broader audience. And so, in 2023, they opened a farm store on the property and named the entire operation ‘Wicked Welly Farm & Apiary’. These days you’ll find all sorts of fun products in their store, from pastured meats (like whole roasting chickens, grass fed lamb, and more) to wildflower honey.
And the store’s not all: ‘Wicked Welly Farm & Apiary’ also offers a sixteen-week CSA membership (which includes vegetables and microgreens, maple syrup, fresh herbs, cut flowers — and weekly recipes) as well as workshops and events (including ‘Seed Starting’ classes and ‘Mead & Meander’ walks through the farm trails).
Like so many other remarkable farmers, producers, and food businesses that dot Guelph and Wellington County, ‘Wicked Welly Farm & Apiary’ is a partner of Taste Real — a County of Wellington program that promotes local food and facilitates valuable connections among farmers, food businesses, and consumers alike. That includes homesteaders like John and Christine, whose business is a fantastic example of small(er)- scale husbandry and agriculture. Learn more at wickedwelly.ca and tastereal.ca
