Oh, give me a home
Where the buffalo roam

Ash Esufali with a few of his herd of buffalo

I was walking along Queen Street, the other day and noticed a taxi with an ad for a buffalo ranch in the rear window. After pausing and wondering what the connection was, a simple telephone call gave me the answer.

“Come on over,” a voice said. “My name is Ash.” Still confused about the connection, I ventured from the security of downtown Port Perry and drove to the outskirts of the Island, toward Ghost Road (a story in itself).

Finding the driveway I travelled the kilometre long dirt road, passing a number of buffalo behind a fence. The end of the long lane ended at a rustic house directly beside the water.
As I was about to get out, a full size German Sheppard came running out and put his front paws on the window ledge of my SUV.

Thank goodness for cell phones, because there was no way I was getting out of my vehicle. A woman answered my call suggesting the dog was harmless. “He’s only ten months old,” she said.

While pondering the prospect of getting out, suddenly the door opened and there stood Ash. He smiled and called the dog off and I bravely walked toward the house. Once inside I met Ash’s wife Marleen, who offered me a coffee.

“Marleen runs Island Taxi and I look after the buffalo,” Ash explained. Now it was coming together for me. Ash and Marleen own Island Taxi as well as the Lake Scugog Buffalo Ranch.

Now I must explain that Ash, somewhere in his mid-40s, has long, shaggy black hair, a grayish beard and a dark complexion, which all made sense when he told me he was from Sri Lanka. So naturally I had to ask how someone from south central Asia finds their way to Scugog Island, runs a taxi business and starts a buffalo ranch.

Ash laughed and explained that he came to Canada when he was 16 and through a friend had a job driving a limousine in Toronto, while he lived in Scarborough. Ash enjoyed the job but wanted more and soon purchased his own limo and obtained several large, corporate contracts. In 1987 he married Marleen, who had recently arrived from the Netherlands.

One autumn Ash was helping a friend build a cottage. They received a call to lend a hand with the construction of a pole barn on Scugog Island. When they arrived Ash noticed the property was for sale. He fell in love with the location and it was soon there after that he bought all 140 acres.

The house was in need of a great deal of repair and Ash worked on the place for three months before he told Marleen he had purchased it. “That was one of the worst winters I have ever experienced,” Marleen said, in between telephone calls for the taxi company.

“The four of us were huddled together in one room while we fixed up the rest of the house.” Ash and Marleen have two children; a daughter who attends Guelph University and a son who still lives at home.

I was curious how this developed into a taxi business. “When the money ran out,” Ash explained, “I had to decide what to do. I could return to limo driving in Toronto or drive a taxi up here.”

Needless to say it was the latter and Marleen and Ash have never looked back. They now have five taxis and cover Scugog and beyond. They still have the limo business in Toronto, which keeps them in touch with the city.

In 2003 Ash became friends with Andy Startek, a buffalo rancher from the area. It was Andy that got Ash started on buffalo. He purchased 17 head and the learning curve began. A year later Ash drove to Saskatchewan where he bought ten more and brought them back on a trailer. This continued for a few years and now Ash’s Lake Scugog Buffalo Ranch has eighty head, with eight to twelve due to give birth in the next few weeks.

Ash took me out in his truck to get up close and personal with the buffalo. I had no idea how big they were, as I stood next to them. We talked about the future of buffalo meat and Ash was quite enthused. He currently sells to a number of butcher shops, including Herrington’s in Port Perry.

He says that out of all the different meats, including chicken and salmon, buffalo is the lowest in cholesterol. “It has the highest percentage of protein and is the easiest to digest because of the grain,” Ash explained as he gave me a portion of ground buffalo to try.

“I owe everything I know to a friend and his son who also farm on the Island. When I started I didn’t even know how to cut hay. I was used to a push mower in Scarborough. They showed me the ropes.”

My thirty minute interview lasted several hours and I was intrigued and surprised at the entrepreneurship of Ash and Marleen Esufali, a couple who literally took the buffalo by the horns.

Jonathan van Bilsen
Focus on Scugog