Sidebar 4: Cathy McKay, 55, South of Port Perry (Durham Region)

McKay is the main operator of Nature’s Bounty, a farm which she owns with her husband, Marvin Stevenson. They have one son. An apple orchard is the 100-acre farm’s primary focus. She also grows pumpkins, squash, gourds, decorative corn and the operation includes 40 ewes, pasture and alfalfa. In the mid-1990s, the couple shifted the farm from exclusively wholesale apple sales to on-farm retail and wholesale. 

Greatest success. Implementing the transition from wholesale to retail and transforming the farm from a money loser to a profitable business.