Introducing Yip's Raspberry Spritz

The youngest of Yip’s three sisters, Susan, was born in 1924 in the Mackay family house overlooking the Kennebecasis River in Rothesay, New Brunswick. Throughout her long life, she was captivated by the magic of the Kennebecasis and Saint John Rivers.

In the early 1930s, Susan attended what was known as the Farm Camp, a camp for kids under 12 located on the Long Reach of the Saint John River, downstream from present-day Yip’s Cidery. The camp, run by the McKeen sisters, consisted of sleeping tents, a house where meals were served, and an old barn that served as the playhouse. Older boys stayed in a log cabin later owned by Colin B. Mackay.

Susan Mackay loved the Farm Camp so much as a young girl that when her father came to pick her up, she refused to get out of the water. She stayed right there until he drove back to Rothesay, only returning sometime later in the summer to finally take her home. Years later, she would return to the Farm Camp to visit Gordon Fairweather and her cousin Colin B. Mackay to enjoy days swimming in the river, evenings by a beach bonfire, and dinners on the deck of Colin’s log cabin. Yip Mackay, Hope Mackay (Hunter), Stit Mackay (Inches), Janet Mackay (Hart), and Mary Ives Anglin (Mackay) were also part of these cherished summer gatherings.

In 1941, after graduating from Havergal College in Toronto, Susan briefly attended McGill University in Montreal before enlisting with the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRCNS, famously known as the WRENS). Stationed at CFB Cornwallis on the southern shore of the Annapolis Basin in Nova Scotia, Susan was named Queen of the Apple Blossom Festival in nearby Kentville in 1942. Soon after, she shipped off to England, where she served as a driver for military officers, and a truck mechanic. From Queen to grease monkey!

After the war, Susan returned to Rothesay, where she reunited with her cousin Janet Mackay and other childhood friends as the working crew of the PACWAN, a large sailboat owned by Janet’s father, Saint John businessman Colin Mackay (1889-1973). The PACWAN would sail up and down the Saint John River with its all-female crew expertly tending to the engine, the wheel, and various other jobs above and below deck. Wearing matching sweatshirts bearing the name of the boat on the front, the friends were overjoyed to be back together on the river after several years at war.

In the 1950s and '60s, Susan lived in Montreal with her husband, Peter Leggat, and their three children. They returned to New Brunswick each summer for the next thirty years, spending time at their camp on the Kennebecasis as well as at the Mackay family camp at Beasley’s Point on the Long Reach. She was often spotted in Yip’s raspberry patch, picking berries for raspberry jelly and jam, as well as for crumbles, cobblers, buckles, and grunts. 

A full and busy life in Montreal, the Laurentian Mountains, and the Eastern Townships of Quebec never eclipsed Susan’s love for the Saint John River, nor for her childhood friends and family. For her, the Long Reach was always home (and she never left home without a bushel of Paula Red apples in the trunk of the car).