Shannon O’Donnell was a highly successful administrator in the non-profit world, achieving success in leadership positions nationally, internationally, and in her home community.
Her life consisted of office clothes, a desk job, lots of board meetings, and the stress of constantly trying to meet tight budgets and please funders and stakeholders.
Now, O’Donnell’s workday begins with a 20-minute trek, with toddler and supplies in tow, to her family’s sugar shack in the woods. In a way, O’Donnell has gone back to her roots.
She grew up in Brechin, where she enjoyed a rural childhood and outdoor adventures year-round.
Following university and an interesting career in the non-profit sector, she returned home to the Orillia area, where she was Executive Director of Information Orillia.
This is when she reconnected with a friend from her youth, Matt Stewart, who grew up next door to his grandparents’ farm in Dalrymple. The couple married in 2013 and in 2016 decided to purchase the Stewart family farm.
With Stewart’s skills learned from his parents and grandparents, along with O’Donnell’s astute business and organizational talents, they began to rebuild the farm into “The Roost,” focusing on many of the same farming activities that supported Stewart’s grandparents.
With their children and lots of help from family and friends, the “O’Stewarts” (as they are affectionately known), have brought The Roost to life with their simple philosophy of growing “Good Food. For Real.” – the tagline you’ll see on farm products, including their delicious maple syrup.
The maple syrup season is one of the family’s favourite times of the year. Shannon and Matt, along with their three children, 12 and 16 years-of-age and a toddler, are all involved with the daily work of harvesting the sweet sap.
“They all really love coming out to the sugar shack,” explains Shannon. “This time of year – the transition from winter to spring – can be difficult, so to have some place to go and something to do gets them out of the winter funk. They’re on snowmobiles, four-wheelers and once the creek starts running, fishing for sucker fish – it’s just like an outdoor playground out here.”
With over 190 acres, The Roost has 900 taps on lines and 150 buckets for collecting sap. Last year the family constructed a new sugar shack to house a sophisticated evaporator that boils over 36,000 litres of sap down to approximately 900 litres of golden syrup.
It’s obvious that Shannon loves her new role as full-time farmer. When asked what she likes best about her job, she says it’s being outside and not having to do as much juggling.
“I no longer have to put a lot of effort into balancing work with the rest of my life, so it eliminates that stress," she says.
“Not that there aren’t challenges,” she adds. “It’s not easy, but with each challenge – which can sometimes turn into disasters – you learn to be a better farmer. If things are going well, you’re not learning!”
As Shannon and Matt have worked to rebuild the family farm, they have integrated new ideas to diversify their farm and help support a successful business.
In addition to maple syrup, The Roost produces pork and poultry products, farm fresh eggs, organic produce and preserves, and honey. They have also started growing hops and will have Christmas trees ready for harvest in 2023.
“All the things we’re doing now on the farm are pretty much the things we both did as hobbies growing up. And now we’ve just scaled them up into our business,” says Shannon.
