Kenton Moore is a North Thompson Valley author who has returned home to the family farm in McLure to live with his mom Shirley and stepdad Al Wiley on the family’s three generation 20-acre farm known as Wiley’s Buzz Farm.
The family dream is to one day be able to open Bone Hill Meadery at the farm. In 2021, the 45-year-old, had returned from a career as a defence contractor with the Canadian Navy to learn more about what had previously been a hobby, making homemade wine. Moore and his parents began the planning for the meadery, but ran into a few costly obstacles, although they have not given up on the dream.
A meadery is a place where mead, a honey wine, is produced and sold commercially. A meadery is a production facility that specializes in making mead, often in various styles like fruit meads and traditional meads.
Wiley’s Buzz Farm as the name implies, produces very special honey which goes hand in hand with the plan to produce honey wine in the meadery.
Moore connected with others online in various mead making groups and met his mentor, Kristeva Dowling, the owner of Stolen Harvest Meadery in Grovedale, Alta. who invited him to visit her operation to learn more about how to produce the wine commercially.
The author is in the process of writing and promoting a number of books he hopes will eventually assist in subsidizing the commercial meadery. His current book, Vallen, is the focus of his book tour throughout B.C. and Alberta, with his latest signing at Indigo – Chapters store in Kamloops on April 27.
Moore works remotely for the BC Lottery Corporation, intent on working hard towards the realization of Bone Hill Meadery and has written a book called The Road to Bone Hill, which outlines his journey into the art of homebrewing what he describes as “humanity’s oldest fermentable beverage – mead.”
The book is what Moore says is “part memoir and part instruction manual” and even includes some recipes and how far the project came until it was put on hold in 2023. The dedications to his family attest to his devotion as a son and father of two pointing to where he draws his inspiration from. “My mom Shirley being my biggest fan and even my daughter assisted in the editing process,” he said, adding, “My daughter and son love it here just as we did as kids. My stepdad – who is ‘dad’ has passed on his knowledge of beekeeping, sharing that with me. Even our chickens are happy here!”
What followed was an inspired new venture, writing, “I found a renewed purpose in my gift of storytelling,” said Moore when speaking with Black Press recently during an interview with his parents Shirley and Al and their two dogs, Annie, and Duke romping on the lush lawn beneath the deck. “We haven’t given up on the hope to see Bone Hill Meadery come to fruition. For now, I’m still creating new wine, mead recipes for our own enjoyment, promoting my books and working at my nine-to-five job and throwing sticks with my buddy Duke. It’s a good life.”
You can find Kenton Moore’s book Vallen sold on Amazon or at Indigo – Chapters. He can often be found volunteering in Barriere with the Seniors Society, at a variety of books signings throughout B.C. or walking the hills with Duke pondering his ‘next chapter’ that may just include farmer’s markets and “opening a meadery sometime down the road.”
