Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Sap is flowing from trees across Lennox and Addington, signalling an early start to the season for local maple syrup producers.
An much milder than typical winter meant Corey Stanton, owner of Maplescapes Farm in Odessa, was able to start tapping on Sunday.
As with any farm operation, maple syrup production is very much at the mercy of Mother Nature. A colder start to spring typically means more sap, but Stanton says he’s ready to roll with the punches.
“I’ve been doing this for four or five years and every year I see social media, Facebook groups saying ‘it’s going to be the worst year ever.’ People have been saying that for 50 years,” said Stanton. “In some way, shape or form, it works out. This year you might have a good year. Last year was an okay year. The year before was not good. It always works itself out.”
Stanton has about 1,000 trees tapped-all by hand. He’s seeking opportunities to lease another sugar bush to expand his operation.
“I don’t stress too much about it,” Stanton said of the mild weather in late February. “I can’t control it. Just work with what you’ve got and that’s all there is to it.”
Odessa’s Maplescapes Farm has everything needed for a pancake breakfast. Photo by Adam Prudhomme.
Maple syrup production is often a ‘hurry up and wait’ process, which can have farmers scrambling one day and then methodically boiling the next.
“All of our maple syrup is wood fired,” said Stanton. “We burn wood to boil the sap and then we finish it. We house it in barrels then we bottle it as the season goes along. My main focus is getting the sap through because I don’t want the sap going bad. I can bottle three weeks after the season’s over. It’s roughly 40 to one as the ratio. You get 40 litres of sap to get one litre of syrup. Sometimes it could be a little better, sometimes it could be a little worse. The season starts off you’re getting a light golden into an amber then to a dark as the season goes and then maybe a very dark. Dark is usually what people want, that goes first.”
Maple syrup connoisseurs will say each farm’s syrup has its own unique flavour. Stanton takes that one step further, experimenting with the natural taste and adding his own.
“A few years ago I was just playing around with jalapeno maple syrup and then I gave a bottle to a friend and they said this is good. Now we sell a pile of it,” said Stanton. “People are putting it on chicken and waffles. Wings. AquaTerra restaurant is now carrying it as like a speciality syrup.”
Once the production season wraps up Maplescapes Farm will be hitting the farmer’s market circuit such as Kingston’s Market Square (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays), Frontenac (Fridays) and Amherstview (Saturdays). They also sell directly from their property at 923 Maple Rd in Odessa.
Other local syrup producers in L&A County include Newburgh’s Eagle Rock Farms (322 Dowdle Rd), Tamworth’s Salmon River Sugarbush (180 Gilmour Rd) and Denbigh’s Denbigh Farms (59 Marquardt Rd).
For more on these local farms, visit the County’s website https://naturallyla.ca/explore/honey-and-maple-syrup/.