Maple Syrup better late than never

March 21, 2013 28d Comments

sapcan

I was speaking with my father yesterday- who lives the heart of sugar bush country – and it looks like syrup producers are poised and ready for take-off this weekend!

At long last!!

Ah, there is nothing like the maple syrup time of year, if you ask me, and I have spent more years than I can recall working the sugar bush. Times I will never forget..not easy work, I might add, but extremely rewarding!

What a blast it was – running lines, repairing breaks, tapping, watching the evaporator, taking the syrup off and even canning. The whole operation is a hoot right down to the moment when that first batch of syrup comes off…man it tastes great when its warm.

There is a definite science involved in any maple syrup operation; from understanding the sap’s sugar content at various times of the year, knowing the colour, taste and density of grade ‘A’ syrup, to skills like understanding how to build and maintain the perfect fire to keep your evaporator going steady.

Then there’s moment when the ‘webbing starts’ at precisely 7 degrees above boiling point of water, and your pure maple syrup is ripe for the picking, or pouring I should say.

Old school syrup producers have never used modern gauges and I’m sure never worried about it either. They can read more in the webbing off their ladle than a thousand sophisticated gauges could ever read..now that is science in itself.

sugarshack

The final product, well, it is a thing of beauty and there is really nothing in the world that compares to the taste of fresh maple syrup, or taffy on snow.

Canada produces 90% of the world’s supply of maple syrup(majority coming from QC) – a statistic we should be extremely proud of.  It is a big part of our heritage just like hunting, fishing or the fur industry.

Now get out there and enjoy some pure Canadian goodness!! (The forecast this weekend looks like -3 to -5 at night with a daily high around 4 -5 degrees C, and all of next week looks the same.)

Outdoorsguy

 

28 thoughts on “Maple Syrup better late than never”

  1. I did that for 5 or so seasons but we carried sap buckets (up hill, both ways, and we liked it!) The first boil was always special. There are still remnants of the shack and arch on my place, and on both my neighbours properties and I suspect most farms with a mature maple bush engaged in the spring ritual. Interesting to see trees now with spile holes 8-10 inches in from the bark.

    1. johan said “Interesting to see trees now with spile holes 8-10 inches in from the bark.”

      Is that seriously how deep they drill now…why?

      Chessy, any idea how the operation down the road from you does it?

      Outdoorsguy

  2. He only drills in as deep as the live part of tree 3 inches tops as the sap only travels in the live part of the tree . He had to replace all his lines and every year he uses new plastic taps as the bacteria heals the tree causing less sap to flow . The government gave him a grant to replace the lines he has a desalination to make his sap higher sugar content and cuts his boiling Time in half

  3. Outdoors guy – sorry I wasn’t clear, I meant when I am splitting firewood from the but end of the tree, sometimes the old spile holes are that far in. They were last tapped a long, long, time ago! These are maples that are dying off and are in excess of 34 inches at the butt. They all seem to be showing signs of dying but I will only take one of those monsters a year for wood if I even take one at all.

    1. Ohhh, I see what you mean. Its something you never think of..how the tree heals up over the years. The holes never really heal I guess, they just close off that part of the tree and form a protective layer around the old holes.

      Chess, I know of an operation back home that uses that method…it sure saves a lottt of time on the evaporator!!

      Outdoorsguy

  4. Yeah it was hard but enjoyable work. The best days you had to unload the large gathering tank at lest twice, and by the time you finished the bush you had to start over. You made syrup fast those days. There was a creek running through one of the bushes I helped with and once I went home with a fresh, bare-hand caught pike that had ventured up from the lake to spawn I suppose. I had many chances but they aren’t easy to hang onto I can tell you that.

    1. johan, that reminds me of the time I did a habitat mapping project for the MNR..on Wilmott Creek. I’d see all these big steelhead heading up in shallow water, so I tried a couple of times to ‘tail one’..not a friggin chance!

      As soon as they felt my hand around them, they were gone in shot!

      Outdoorsguy

  5. And from what I have been told why Quebec produces more syrup is government funding ontario guys can not compete with them

    1. Chessy, I suppose QC took a pretty big hit last spring when over 30 Million worth of syrup was stolen from the Federation’s reserve?? It was part of what they called the “global strategic maple syrup reserve”.

      Of course, a lot of that syrup has since been located..not sure I’d wanna eat it now though..hehe

      Outdoorsguy

  7. Never done a Maple syrup sugar shack thing but I’ve tasted it, and it’s wonderful. I was talking to a guy last week that works at the jail here called Holiday Innes, he has a farm and hunt camp near Westport and he told me they’ve had sap running for three weeks.One other thing about Maple syrup, I remember once being told the Maple syrup in Quebec isn’t as good as the Ontario stuff because it’s watered down, or not boiled as much. I don’t remember the exact details but whoever it was told me to always read the label to see where it was made.
    True or not true?

    1. Iggs, that sounds more like an ON producer taking shots at a QC producer. Sounds highly unlikely to me…syrup must be boiled to a certain point..I mean, it is fairly specific when sap becomes dense enough where it turns into syrup. If there were any watered down batches, you would know right away and they would be pulled from the shelves.

      Of course there is a wide range of syrup quality ranging from very light and clear all the way to amber in colour. And for those who know what they’re doing, there is a slight difference in taste as well. Quality does not differ between one side of the river and the other, more to do with the trees themselves..or at what point in the season they are tapped.

      We always found quality dropped right off at end of the season when it got too warm out, but others might notice diff things. When a batch of syrup came off that was ‘too dark’ it was put aside in large drum and sold to the candy companies at a fraction of the price. We quit boiling when it got to that put. (Btw, we only quit because the operation was funded by the local school board, and they didnt want to keep paying men to run the evaporator when the quality was down.)

      Outdoorsguy

    2. Iggy, I’ll try to throw a can of ‘QC Syrup’ into your prize package, depending how much they make this year…

      Outdoorsguy

  9. Jeff, we still run our own little operation for personal use only. We’ve managed to draw off enough sap to make 6 litres of syrup so far (approximately 240 litres of sap). Looking forward to the nicer weather coming this week so we can get some more done. Our goal is 1000 litres of sap / 25 litres of syrup.

  10. Thanks Jeff, I wasn’t trying to knock the QC maple syrup, just repeating what I was told, I’m checking into it.

    Meantime, don’t forget the Carp Spring Hunting and Fishing Show is coming up April 5th
    I’m guessing you’ll do a column and a blog on it, but just for your information, I hear Adrian Hare the Turkey Guru and Quker Boy rep is coming up to do the show, and another Quaker Boy Rep, Mark McRury is also going to be there. Mark also does guiding for turkey in the Ottawa area, his web site is
    http://www.cityslickers.co/
    I don’t know if it’s OK to plug that but just to give you a little info on Mark, he has a turkey, shot in this area, done up by a local taxidermist, with 5 beards, yup 5, if I’m not mistaken it’s some kind of record
    He’s also headed to Nebraka and Kansas this spring to finish up his Grand Slam
    Oh and to boot, he’ll be at Sail today rep-ing for Quaker Boy

    1. You can plug those guys anytime Iggs, I’ve done it myself!

      I read about that gobbler, and if I recall it is a FROW record..Rick would know. Most Ive ever seen around here was a double beard.

      No worries Igg, I knew you had nothing against QC syrup..and I’l make sure the can has mostly French wording on it..hehe

      Outdoorsguy

  11. I can read it, and speak a bit of it, but it gives people the giggles

    btw, that’s a triple bearded Tom, not 5 hehe

  12. Was up in Quebec last Friday and stopped in to see my farmer friend. They have all their lines and equipment set up but nothing is running yet. 12,000 taps, plastic lines, 3 huge holding tanks in the bush, a new reverse osmosis unit in the shack, but still a wood-fired evaporator, gotta love that hint of wood-smoke in the syrup.

    Bring on the sugar snow.

    1. 12,000 taps Maple? Holy jumpin, that’s a good size operation!

      This must be a different farmer friend from the one where you deer hunt, right? I thought your farmer friend, where you shot that big buck this fall, was up the Valley on ON side?

      Speaking of the big buck, did you ever decide to get that big boy mounted? I ended-up doing what Rick calls a European mount with mine from this past fall..and get this, Mrs. Outdoors Guy actually let me put it up in basement near my other big buck…shussh, not sure she noticed it yet…hehe

      Outdoorsguy

  13. Ah yes, the liquid sweet GOLD! My Step-Aunt runs a shack producing their own and dear Lord it’s the best stuff going (any syrup from a shack is great!). I protect that bottle in our fridge viciously. When our kids have sleepovers, their buddies get the store bought stuff.

    Seems cheap of me, but #1, I find the kids (not mine) prefer the store stuff (ewwwww), #2, they waste more and #3, ya…I’ll admit it’s cheap of me! lol
    I’m a share share boy except for a few things like my hunting time and syrup! 🙂

    Speaking of sharing, I picked up a dead tom today. He was a big bird – 9 ” beard and 1.25 ” spurs. I felt bad – would rather have shot him. He had just been hit between Stittsville and Kanata. Still warm. Minimal damage. Funny how people will look at me like I have 2 heads for picking up roadkill yet if I lived in the country, I’d get the same look if I didn’t pick it up! lol I shared half the breast with a neighbour who doesn’t hunt turkeys and the other half (of the damaged side) is marinating in the fridge. Tomorrow I’ll shake n’ bake it (best option after cutting out some of the damage).
    Calling the MNR tomorrow to get a number for it.
    yum yum!

    Cheers,
    keebler

    1. Good for you Keeb, way to be in the right place at the right time!! Oh I’m sure those poor, uninformed passers-by don’t phase you too much, at least they shouldn’t.

      Man, since the warmer weather arrived, the gobblers around my place have gone nuts!! (Time to pull out the video cam case one attacks me..hehe) Had some hens walking all around our property and the Toms were gobbling up a storm this am!

      It’s a sure sign of spring and a ‘sound for sore ears’ you might say.

      Outdoorsguy

  14. Just a shameless plug… The rainbow trout are really starting to jump at the ladder in port hope. best viewing time is mid to late afternoon as it is warmer . this weekend should be good for a quality show of them leaping out of the air on there annual migration up stream. and there is lots to look at in the down town and make your way right down to the bottom of town to do some fishing ..

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