As a young man, Alexander Robert (A.R.) Stirling would make the long trek from Scotsburn, Pictou County to visit his two great aunts at their farm in Greenwich, Nova Scotia. He would spend his summers helping out on the farm. In 1917, at the age of 17, he bought the farm and moved to Greenwich to live. There, he met a young schoolteacher whom he married in 1923. Together they raised a family of five boys and two girls.

His first enterprise was Willow Hollow Dairy. He delivered 200-300 quarts of milk by horse and cart to Wolfville residents. After a fire destroyed the dairy barn in 1928, A.R. decided to devote his time and resources to his love of the land. He nurtured the farms’ fruit trees and expanded the apple orchard. A large warehouse and apple grader were installed to facilitate shipments to other parts of Atlantic Canada and Great Britain.