Post by Rick (Admin) on Mar 10, 2013 13:59:54 GMT -5
Sweet relief for sap producers
POWASSAN - The sap is flowing and so is commerce for local maple syrup producers who are getting sweet relief at the taps after a bitter season last year.
Unseasonably warm daytime temperatures in the 20s shortened the 2012 season resulting in high quality syrup, but lower quantities, and it was the same throughout the province.
Highs for this time of year are usually just above the freezing mark, and slightly warmer temperatures than that late had producers hustling to tap their maples by boring holes in the trunks to collect the sap which for many started flowing Thursday and Friday.
Warm days and cool nights are ideal, and colder overnight temperatures later this week might slow sap production and give producers time to maintain equipment and get some rest.
Or extended cold could stop the season, says Dave Matthews who runs Matthews Maple Syrup with his wife, Audrey.
Matthews in Powassan hosted a kickoff to this year’s season with a ceremonial tree tapping and family activities, leading up to the 16th Maple Syrup Festival April 27.
It’s usually cooler out during the March kickoff, and unique to hear the sap rushing heavily through about 70 kilometres of pipes leading from 15,000 maple trees on the Matthews property to another 15 km or so of larger pipes that carry the sap to the sugar shack.
They had their first boil of the season on Friday.
Producers faced rain or snow late last week depending where they’re located in the district, and they agreed the weekend would have been busy to make up for a forgettable season last year.
“I don’t think it could be any worse than last year,” said Andy Straughan who owns Sugarstone Farm with his wife, Shelley.
They have about 1,600 taps on vacuum and the sap was running a bit Thursday where they’re located just south of Trout Creek. They started collecting Friday morning and expected a busy weekend especially with the rain on Sunday.
Andy Straughan has been making his own syrup for about five years, but has worked in the industry for 15 years.
“It’s been a big learning curve,” he says, crediting the camaraderie among producers to share tools and advice.
They try new recipes and products, while pushing the health benefits of a natural sweetener and feeding the growing demand for buying local and seeing where the syrup is made.
Local producers often sell locally, whether it’s farmers’ markets, retail stores, the upcoming maple syrup festival or sales at the farm gate. Some also sell to wholesalers, especially in southern Ontario where there is more demand than trees, says Lori Hubbert.
She owns Hubbert’s Maple Products with her husband, Bill, with more than 11,000 taps in Sundridge.
She’s hoping cooler temperatures next week will give them a breather after a hectic weekend in an industry where producers can’t predict what grade of syrup nature will offer them.
“You just go full tilt for a few weeks, and then you collapse,” she said.
Coming off a bad season, there are producers with precious little leftover from last year, and that’s both a blessing and a curse depending on demand this year.
Bella Hill Maple Syrup in Powassan doesn’t have a single litre bottle to show for 2012, and the forecasted rain is welcome to help shore up supplies.
The operation has grown from 150 trees to more than 1,700, and plans to increase that to 2,000 next year, said Lori Costello, who runs Bella Hill with her husband, Dan.
Golden Treasure Maple Syrup Products near Trout Creek doesn’t usually have much leftover from year to year, and owner Burghardt Koch expected that to change this weekend after installing more than 14,500 taps on his property.
Koch takes three months off work during the syrup season and sells much of his product in bulk, mainly to wholesalers in southern Ontario.
www.nugget.ca/2013/03/10/sweet-relief-for-sap-producers