We all have a past. You read that line in the past. You’re reading this one in the present and you might read the next line in the future but there's no way to say for sure. Orchard Productions Is Evolving. OP is still pretty young. This is a new project. Our family is growing and we are very excited about what the future may bring.
Here’s a bit of our back story. Little history on some of our family members. Back in the 1960’s there was a Hippy movement. A lot of American men weren’t very excited about the idea of going to war. Some of them ran away and went to Canada to hide out. The lucky guys found a nice Canadian girl to marry and they started new families.
One of those kids was born in Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada. A beautiful place to live. This little boy was raised in Eureka by his hippy parents and had a wonderful life on a big piece of land. He spent his days wandering the forest, building tree houses and cabins, picking berries and playing with his siblings and the family dog.
His Dad was an incredible carpenter, he owned a very successful contracting company. The boy’s father encouraged him to build forts and cabins in the woods. Dad gave the boy lots of used nails and tools to play with and he taught the boy how to build some stuff. As the boy grew up, his father nourished their relationship by teaching the boy more carpentry skills and would often pay him a nickel a board to remove all of the nails. The boy liked candy, so he was happy to pull nails and collect nickels.
As the boy grew up his dad taught him a lot of new skills. When the boy was in his youth, his father gave him a part time job. They sure did build a lot of houses together. Maybe even your house! Maybe you’ve heard of the Hector Heritage Quay 🍎 in Pictou, Nova Scotia?
When that building was under construction the rambunctious young man loved swinging by a rope from beam to beam and hoisting building materials way up to the roof with a fully system that his brilliant father had devised. Good thing site inspectors weren’t around very often in those days. Dad might have been scolded.
Many years passed, the boy moved out at 16 and went to Florida where he built a house boat and lived on it for free. Mom wasn’t very excited that her son left home and quit school but she is loving and supported him anyway. A few years later the young man came back to Nova Scotia and lived in Halifax.
When he was 20 years old he opened a bicycle shop, the bike shop sold new and refurbished bicycles. The bike shop was very popular. The bike family was very close. They were very connected to the cycling community and their focus was sustainable, affordable transportation.
Their popularity quickly lead to being awarded “best bike shop” in The Coast, a local paper. The young man was foolish with his earnings and spent money recklessly. The bike shop was pretty much a decade long party. What a way to spend your 20’s! Bike shops don’t make much money in the winter, the young man fell on hard times but his family helped out.
The young man enjoyed cooking healthy food. He was pretty good at it too. His mom was the Captain of a pirate ship in Key West, Florida. One cold winter evening, when he was living in the bike shop to save money on rent, he called his mom for a chat. She was concerned about his financial situation. Being a Pirate ship’s Captain, she had great knowledge of the seas. She had seen huge yachts owned by the richest people in the world! She dared not commandeer these yachts for her cannon was only packed with black powder and cotton. The man’s mother suggested that the owners of these yachts are probably are so rich that they can afford to hire a private chef!
Mom knew her son liked cooking so she suggested that he go to Ft. Lauderdale Florida, where these yacht owners like to get together and show off their big boats. Maybe he could get a job cooking for one of these rich people to help pay the bills and support his bike shop family.
The young man packed up his backpack and bought a one way plane ticket to Florida. He had no idea how to get a job on a yacht. He slept in an alley, beside a luxury hotel on the beach. He looked at the yachts and saw many happy looking crew. He wanted to be one of the crew so he bought some clothes that looked like what they were wearing. He sure looked like a crew member in his new clothes.
The young man was walking around one day and saw a really big sailboat. He liked sailing, he wanted to work on that boat, but how could he get a job there? when he got closer to the boat he noticed there were security guards, uh oh.
Fortunately, since he was dressed similarly to the boat people, he just walked right by the security guards and they didn’t ask him any questions, now he was right beside a huge and beautiful blue sail boat.
He noticed that someone had painted words on the front part of the boat, the words were “M/Y Chardonnay” he thought to himself, wow, whomever owns this boat must like wine, as he was admiring the boat someone appeared on deck. She politely said hello and the young man replied, “oh, hello there, I’m your new chef, is the captain on board?” the lady was very confused but replied “um... yes... stand by please, I will fetch him for you” the young man thought that wording was unusual, “fetch” is she really a dog? is this all a dream? She returned moments later accompanied by the Captain, the young man said “hi there, I’m your new chef!”
The captain buckled at the knees with laughter, he caught on to the mischievous way the young man had managed to draw him to the gangway. He invited the young man aboard and they talked and laughed together for 2 hours. The captain offered the young man a job.
This job lead to what became a 15 year long career for the young man. He became a freelance chef and travelled the world working for the elite. He sold his Bike Shop and it disappeared a few years later but he wasn't concerned with that, it turns out that cooking on a big boat is pretty fun. Rich people are just like us, they just have more money. Lucky them.
He made a lot of great friends and considers many of the yacht owners and crew members to be a part of his family. After 15 years of working with the richest people in the world the young man wasn't so young anymore, he had reached middle age and accomplished many goals.
He had a lot of fun and experienced unimaginable things aboard those yachts. In fact, he had to sign dozens of non disclosure agreements to be considered for employment, even before he know who he would be working for. Many of those stories can never be shared or he may face severe consequences.
A lot of the stories can be shared though, and let me tell you, they are wild stories. If you sign up for a subscription, you might get to read some of those stories too. A few years back, the man stopped cooking on boats and went home to live in a cabin in the woods with his dog, where he could build stuff for fun and play in the forest just like he did when he was a little boy.
That guy has lots of hobbies and interests, he has many dreams of what the future might bring. If you stick around 🍎, you’ll likely hear a lot of stories down the road.