Under the Canopy

You probably don’t think about gravel until a dump truck slows traffic or a new pit proposal sparks a neighbourhood fight, but the truth is bigger: your roads, sidewalks, schools, hospitals, and even the concrete under your feet all begin as stone, sand, and gravel. We connect those dots with Sharon Armstrong, executive director of the Ontario Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association, and unpack why aggregate is a “natural resource hiding in plain sight” across Ontario infrastructure. We get prac...

Cheese gets called “simple food” right up until you hear what actually goes into making it. We start with a bit of real life under the canopy, from sore muscles and gravel work to staying sharp outdoors after close calls with coyotes. Then we pivot into a full-on, listener-friendly breakdown of artisan cheese, because there’s a lot more happening in that wedge than most of us realise. Haley from Ontario Cheese Union joins us to talk about Ontario farmstead cheese and the makers behind ...

A rebar job should be about steel, skill, and showing up on time, right? We learned it can also be about trust at a level most people never see. Garrett joins me for a real-world update on life, work, and fatherhood, then walks through what it looks like to apply for access at Darlington OPG, where nuclear power plant security screening can take months and digs into years of travel history, identity checks, and multi-stage background reviews. We also get practical about chaga mushroom use an...

Tea talk gets weird fast: “orange pekoe has orange,” green tea is always low caffeine, and tea bags are loaded with microplastics. We wanted real answers, so we brought back tea industry veteran John Snell to help us separate myth from chemistry and hype from what’s actually happening in the leaf. From Sri Lanka to India, East Africa, China, and Vietnam, John explains how tea terroir works, why monsoons and elevation change flavour, and what tea “tips” really are when people talk about silver...

Cold drinks dominate the world, but most people still treat tea like it only belongs in a mug. We go the other direction and get specific: how we make Chaga cold brew that actually tastes good, how long we steep it, and how you can do it at home without turning it into a science project. You’ll hear the two blends we’ve been sampling at events, including a green tea and matcha option, plus Ruby G, a deep ruby mix built around hibiscus, red beet, chicory, lemon extract and Chaga for a refreshi...