The days are growing shorter, Labour Day has come and gone, and school is back in session. If you’ve got kids at home, this means you’re back to making school lunches five days a week—and by June, that adds up to a lot of lunches! Even if your children are old enough to pack their own lunch bags—a truly underrated parenting milestone—it means stocking your kitchen with family-friendly, school safe items that will actually get eaten. It can be a challenge, but your local butcher shop is here to help.

Summer always seems to fly by—year after year, the stretch between Canada Day and Labour Day passes in an instant. Whether you’re ready for fall or clinging to the last few weeks of this gorgeous season, we hope you’ve got something fun and relaxing planned for the long weekend. And if you haven’t made plans yet, might we suggest an end of summer BBQ?

When it rains, it pours—but sometimes, that’s a good thing! It’s been a busy summer at Olliffe, and there’s no sign of things slowing down any time soon. Believe us, we’re not complaining. Between an exciting television appearance, some Haldimand County farm tour planning, the last stretch of summer holidays and the fall season ahead, there’s a lot going on at your favourite neighbourhood butcher shop (and it’s wonderful).

Here are a few quick updates from the Olliffe team. Thanks for reading—we hope to see you in our Yonge Street butcher shop soon.

Farm tours are happening soon

In case you missed it: Cory Van Groningen will be welcoming customers, food service operators and other local food enthusiasts to Hillview Farm every Wednesday afternoon in September. Cory is a farmer, holistic management expert and local food advocate who co-founded Harvest to Gather (Olliffe is part of the Harvest to Gather family of companies alongside Rowe Farms, VG Meats and Ecosystem Hub Ontario). Cory and his family live at Hillview Farm where they raise cattle, poultry, lambs and more. All of the farm tour details are available here—we hope you’ll join us! And if you have any questions or require assistance signing up for a farm tour, just let us know. Our team would be pleased to help.

We were on TV last night!

Did you catch Harvest to Gather on episode 3 of the new culinary program, TASTED HERE? It aired on CHCH last night! Cory and Kyle Van Groningen both appeared in a fantastic segment on Ontario beef. We’ll post a link to watch the episode online as soon as it’s available—keep an eye on our social media channels for the clip! We’re excited to share it with you all.

We’re hosting more events

Olliffe is pleased to share that we’ll be hosting a number of in-store events in the weeks ahead including butcher and cooking demonstrations, sampling events and more. Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram for more details—we’ll share timing, dates and information about the event itself. You can also speak to one of our culinary experts in store—we’d be glad to see you in our Yonge Street butcher shop and welcome your questions/feedback.

It’s almost Labour Day

While we’re hesitant to say goodbye to summer, we do love a long weekend—and Labour Day is coming up fast. Olliffe will be sharing long weekend meal ideas on the blog next week but in the meantime, you can start stocking up on our pastured poultry, handmade sausages, burgers, kebabs and more. You can also register your FREE Solar Dollar Rewards account to gain access to exclusive offers, flash sales and more!

Back-to-school season is coming

With the end of summer comes the return of school days. That means planning lunch boxes, easy weeknight dinners and after-school snacks for the whole family. We’ll focus on this topic in an upcoming blog post, but let this serve as a reminder: stock up on your favourite local products now, because that school bell will be ringing soon!

Thanks for shopping local

Thank you as always for choosing our family-owned, independent, Canadian business. Olliffe has been serving Rosedale since 1975, and we’re proud to be a part of this beautiful community. Stop by our Yonge Street butcher shop to choose from a large selection of high quality, delicious Ontario beef, poultry, lamb and pork products—we look forward to serving you.