Author Archives: Fortune Farms

2024 Maple Season in Review

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Our earliest start ever and a very good season for us!

Spring has arrived in the maple woods and we are now busy cleaning up. The tasks involved seem more pleasant when we’ve had a good production year! It’s also a special time in the forest as wildflowers and spring plants are emerging and birds and mammals are returning to their summer habitats.

We have changed our store opening to summer hours as well.  We are open on Saturdays from 10 to 2 for farm visits and purchases.  We continue our on-line sales, customer pick-ups, shipping and regular deliveries of course.  Customers are welcome to visit the farm and walk the trails on Saturdays when the store is open.

Cleaning the pipeline systems is not difficult, but it is a thorough process which involves plenty of hiking. Our pipelines remain in the woods year-round.  The first step in cleaning is to backwash the mainlines using a combination of fresh water and pressurized air.  This combination “scrubs” the inside of the mainlines and the manifolds where the tubing is connected, removing old sap and any deposits of minerals (think white slime).  This takes one person a couple of days. 

The next step is removing the spiles from the trees, and with the vacuum running, injecting food grade isopropyl alcohol into each dropline and then plugging the spile base onto the tubing.  The combination of alcohol and suction lifts any deposits from the inside of the tuning and fittings.  Once plugged, the alcohol settles in tubing loops and the lines are closed off so that alcohol vapour permeates the entire system and prevents the growth of mould or more white slime. This process takes four (4) people about five (5) days.

The pipelines will remain sealed until we tap again next winter, unless a falling branch or tree, animal or something else creates a leak.  We monitor and repair issues throughout the year to maintain the integrity of the pipeline networks.

This was the first year where we had meaningful involvement in the farm business by all four generations of the Fortune Family – now spanning seven generations of maple farming!  Pretty cool. 

Ray is a consultant and researcher, while he and Ruth are both sales agents.  Generation five (Sherry and me) runs the operation and my brothers and sister are all involved in sales and emergency work. Generation six – our girls and their partners – help with social media and sales. Now the eldest of Gen7 (that’s what we call the grandkids) are at the point where they can help in the woods and the camp.  Grandkids have advantages over Grandparents. They are built low to the ground so they can easily walk under pipelines and pick up stuff in the woods. They provide spare hands to carry tools. They fit in tanks and enjoy cleaning with the squeegee or mop. They love riding on any machine and provide lots of laughter. Good thing because they are all big syrup, sugar, and taffy eaters!

We will have syrup available throughout the year so please call or order on-line whenever you need some.  Everyone is welcome at the farm from 10 to 2 on Saturdays while the store is open.

Here is a picture of grandson Angus helping clean up and repair a shattered vacuum line after a tree fell on it.

Our Closing Weekend & the End of Production

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We are getting ready to wind down, but will be open for the Annual Maple Weekend event Saturday, April 6 and Sunday April, 7, from 10 to 4 both days. (Please note that our store will be closed on Monday, April 8th due to the eclipse.)

We will not be making syrup this weekend, but our farm will be open to visitors to tour our operations, explore our trails, taste our products and enjoy maple taffy.  The Kettle Boys and Shanty Men are finished for the season as well.

The Production Season is Over

Sap flow has been declining and the syrup developed “off flavours” this week so our production season is over.  We were surprised that we were still making table quality syrup until April 2nd.  We have been producing syrup for over 5 weeks and surpassed our farm’s average annual production level.  We have had a very good season and will have enough syrup to supply our customers for the year. 

Note: we have sold out of golden and very dark grades, but we have ample supplies of excellent quality of amber and dark syrup available.

How do we know when the maple production season is over?  As trees begin to grow, the tree is mobilizing hormones, amino acids and other compounds in the sap which are responsible for the growth of leaves and flowers.  The syrup produced when these compounds are present in the sap has a bitter flavour and it is unfit for use.  Producers refer to this as the “syrup has gone buddy”. 

“Buddiness” is detectable in the aroma of the steam from boiling sap and is confirmed by a bitter taste in the syrup when it is drawn from the evaporator.  Once this happens, the pumps and evaporator are turned off and we declare the end of the season for maple production.  We have a sample of “buddy” syrup in the store for anyone who would like to try a taste!

Researchers in Ottawa are developing a litmus style test which can be used on sap to determine when it has gone “buddy”.  This research is in the final stages and we expect the test to be available soon.

Another reliable indicator is the singing of spring peepers. These small frogs are present in wet areas and emerge from hibernation when the soil temperature rises to the point that these cold blooded creatures are active.  Over years of observation, we have found that the frogs are a very reliable indicator!

No matter the method, the end point is the same. Maple production is finished for the year and we can take a bit of a break and start cleaning up.

Sugar Maker Tim Couturier filtering the last tank of syrup for 2024

Back in production & Easter Weekend plans!

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Now that the cold spell is over and the weather has warmed up, the sap is running again – and so are we!

The farm is open from 10 to 4 daily throughout the Easter weekend. If you would like to visit the Kettle Boys and Shanty Men, you should plan to come this weekend. Given our levels of production and the quality of the syrup we’ve made, we’re having a good season.

We had a terrific haul of sap on March 26th and 27th prompting our first all night session of the 2024 season.  We are hopeful that the sap will continue to run and yield palatable syrup.

There was a lot of interest this week in the news that Canada’s strategic maple syrup reserve is just about empty.  We got a call from CTV Toronto who wanted to know what this means for maple syrup producers.  Good question! 

The strategic maple reserve is a fancy title given to the surplus syrup that producers in Quebec generate. They have established a supply management system which is overseen by their Producers’ Federation.  The Federation controls the purchase of all the bulk syrup produced in Quebec, and manages this supply to ensure that producers get a fair price  and the commercial interests that pack and export syrup have access to a stable supply.  It seems to work well enough for all those involved as its been in place for many years now. 

So, what does a depleted inventory mean?  Well, there could be shortages of bulk syrup for major packing companies in Canada and the USA.  In Ontario where there is no supply management system or bulk price controls, producers with bulk syrup to sell could see higher prices. I think this will be good for farmers.  As for consumers, buy enough fresh maple syrup from a local farm and you will not have to worry about Canada’s strategic maple reserve!

Here is a classic photo of our 10,000 litre sap tank with about 9,995 liters in it.  It was a good time for me to show up!  When the sap runs like this we are grateful for our reliable, efficient equipment and our talented sugar making Team!

The cold weather is most welcome!

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We have been busy at the farm making syrup and entertaining visitors! We are open daily from 10 to 4 and in full operation on weekends. Our walking trails are open, the Kettle Boys and Shantymen are here and we have plenty of fresh maple product in the store. There is no snow left in the woods and our trails are in good shape. There is a little mud here and there, so dress for the outdoors and wear waterproof footwear when you visit.

The hard runs of sap that we had early last week were followed by steady flows through the weekend and we made lots of syrup. We have been producing dark and amber grades steadily with excellent flavour.  Had the warm weather continued, the temperatures in the soil and the trees would have increased bringing the trees out of dormancy and possibly ending the flow of edible sap. 

However, this cold spell has stopped the advancement in the growth of the trees and we expect it will trigger strong flows of sap when the days warm up again. The forecast looks good for maple production – fingers crossed!

A noteworthy factor affecting this year’s production has been the low sugar content in the sap. With our warm winter, there was less conversion of starch to sugar in the tree tissues as cold temperatures trigger sugar formulation. This means we need more sap to produce a litre of syrup.  At 2% sugar content, the ratio of sap to syrup is 43:1, at 1.6% sugar which is what the sugar content has been lately, the ratio is 54:1 or 26% higher! Thankfully, we can concentrate the sap with our reverse osmosis machine so our energy costs remain reasonable, but it takes a lot more sap to make syrup. 


Our early spring has also brought our red-shouldered hawks back. They are normally here around the 25th to 30th of March. This year they arrived on March 14th at the Clayton farm and on the 15th on the home farm. They nest in our old growth forests and can be seen and heard as they circle over the woods. They have returned annually for over 50 years now.

We look forward to another busy weekend and plenty of sap when the weather warms up again!

Link to Jim’s photos: https://adobe.ly/3VmzeVU

Big sap runs this week & great fun at the farm!

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We know it’s been mild, but the weather continues to look good for sap flow and farm visits for the coming week. Production has been strong and we look forward to seeing you at the farm!

Every season we have a few days when the sap runs really hard. I am delighted to report that with the cold nights and warm days, we had strong runs of sap on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. In total we gathered over 2.5 gallons of sap (10 litres) per tap, over 75,000 litres in total.

It’s stunning to see just how much liquid is moving in the trees during these events. I’m sure the lights were on in every sugar camp in the valley over the last couple of nights as farmers boiled to “catch up” on their sap.

We’ve had many visitors to the farm and people are enjoying the trails, our demonstrations and lots of taffy and syrup tasting. The Shanty Men and Kettle Boys are here Friday through the Monday this weekend so it’s a great time to visit the farm. We are open from 10 to 4 daily. We’re making lots of amber, rich tasting maple syrup these days. We also have plenty of fresh golden and dark grade syrup.

The woodland trails are in good shape. There is a bit of mud and water around so sturdy waterproof boots are required in the woods. We have added some features to our trails. As we have mentioned before, wind storms and tree diseases have taken their toll on our forests. With many hours of hard work over the last couple of years we have dealt with hundreds of diseased and fallen trees. We have added signage along our trails to explain what has happened and marked the stumps of trees to demonstrate the extent of these impacts.

Thanks for reading and we look forward to seeing you soon!

Ray Fortune visits the Kettle Boy and Shanty Men

Warm weather makes the sap run

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The sap has been running around the clock since the weekend.  This is wonderful and we have been making full-bodied, rich flavoured amber and dark grades of syrup.  

We are in full operation with The Kettle Boys and Shantymen here on weekends and our trails and farm store is open from 10 to 4 daily.

We’re often asked about the effect of this warm weather on the maple season. To this point, the warm weather has stimulated sap flow and the trees have fully thawed – which is good! The forecast is for a return to more normal temperature ranges and colder nights next week. This is welcome as another week of much warmer than normal conditions would cause the trees to come out of dormancy and could end the maple production season prematurely. 

So, we are grateful for our production to date and look forward to cooler weather and normal freeze / thaw cycles to trigger a long period of sap flow.  If the weather unfolds as forecast, we should have normal levels of production. 

Many customers look forward to our dark syrup.  Because the sap was so warm due to high daily temperatures, the microbes in the sap were active and converted some of the sucrose in the sap to glucose.  As glucose darkens at a lower temperature in the boiling process, it’s presence results in darker grades and stronger flavours in syrup.  This is the “art” of maple syrup making!

Signs of spring are everywhere now.  Among them is the return of red-wing blackbirds.  These territorial marsh birds are common in our area.  My father Ray, wrote this poem to recognize their return:

The Blackbird
 
With coal black wings and flash of red, the Blackbird claims his nest
A dusky female comes along and puts him through her test
She makes her choice, they make a date and raise a family
With parental care they raise four chicks successfully
Now Blackbird will come back again next spring
And once again we’ll see the beautiful Redwing

Ray Fortune, March 2024

The 2024 season has begun!

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The 2024 production season has started, our earliest ever! We’ll be opening our store and trails Saturday, March 2nd.

We made some syrup last week, but the warm weather this week triggered good runs of sap throughout the day and night.  We made very nice syrup in golden and amber grades.  The sap stopped when the temperatures dropped below freezing and the trees are now re-charging so the sap will run well when it warms up again this weekend.

The mechanism of sap flow has been studied.  The maple tree has unique cell structure from the roots to the branch tips which enable the flow of water from the ground to the tree and starches from the leaves to the roots during the growing season.  We tap the trees and collect sap when the trees are dormant. At this time, there are gases in the cells as well.  When the weather is cold, the gases contract and the tree is under negative pressure.  The tree will draw water up from the roots (which picks up stored sugar and minerals as well) to equalize the pressure with the tree.  At this point the tree is full of liquid and gases.  When the temperature warms up, the gases expand and the tree is under pressure so sap is forced out into tap holes.  This sap will now “run” until the pressure in the tree is the same as the surrounding atmosphere.  The daily freeze/thaw cycles which are typical of spring weather create regular sap flows.

The core of maple production season for us falls into a 6-week window from early March to mid-April.  The weather from this point onward will determine the quality and quantity of our crop.  We are always optimistic!

Now even better news: along with opening our store and trails Saturday, March 2, the Kettle Boys have appeared and will be in action this weekend too!  When you visit the farm, please dress for the outdoors and have waterproof footwear.  The trails are snowy and slippery so ice cleats are a good idea for hikers as well. 

We have lots of fresh syrup and maple products now and we look forward to seeing everyone!  We are open from 10 to 4 daily.  Orders can be placed online as well.  Back to the woods now and we hope to see you soon.

A tapping we will go…

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The decision of when to start tapping can be difficult.  Ideally, we would like to tap our trees a week before the first runs of sap.  If we tap too early, there is a risk that the tap holes will “dry out” and sap yield will decline prematurely – meaning we lose syrup production at the end of the season.  Tap too late, and we miss the first strong runs of sap and we lose production at the beginning of the season.

Over the years, the date of our first boiling is occurring earlier in the year.  So, we watch the weather forecasts closely and tapping in the last week of February has worked well for us. 

This year, the warm winter that we have experienced has resulted in little frost in the ground and recent warm spells in early February triggered sap runs in our area.  Some Ontario Producers are reporting their earliest production on record! With the return of colder weather, it looks like the next warming period will arrive around the end of February.  So, it’s now time for us to tap our trees!

We use a battery powered drill and make a small hole, 2 inches deep and 5/16 inches wide through the bark and into the sap wood on the tree.  Trees need to be at least 10 inches in diameter to be tapped.  The number of taps placed in a tree depends on the size (diameter) of the tree and it’s health.  Our largest healthy trees, over 24 inches in diameter support 3 taps.

Once the hole is drilled we place a new, clean spile in the tree which is connected to our pipelines, and “tap” it in with a hammer so that it fits snugly and won’t leak. We work in teams of two, with a driller and a “tapper” and move systematically up and down our pipelines so that we don’t miss any trees. 

With good conditions a team insert up to 1,000 taps in a day and we can get our 8,000 taps done in 5 days with two teams.  We enjoy being in the forest,  seeing the tracks of wildlife in the snow, and inspecting our maple trees and pipelines.  Sleep comes easily at the end of the day!

We are opening our store and our trails for the season on March 1st from 10 to 4 daily until the end of April.

Stay tuned to our blog for updates on the season, conditions in the forest, and the arrival of the Kettle Boys and Shanty Men!

Preparing for the 2024 Season

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Things are happening at Fortune Farms!  We’ve had a busy off season in the woods cleaning up and managing our forests.

We concentrate our forestry efforts on one section of our forest at a time, and then take the opportunity to replace the pipeline systems in the same area. This rotation enables us to maintain the health and vigour of our sugar bush and the integrity of our collection systems.  This is a lot of work but the results are impressive over time as the forest responds with the next generations of seedlings and improved growth rates. 

With El Nino parked off the west coast, our weather patterns have been non-traditional, to say the least. 

We usually start tapping in the latter weeks of February to be ready for the first strong runs which normally occur in early March. If the mild trends persist, we may be tapping and boiling sooner than usual this year.  Oddly, our earliest start dates have coincided with leap years past.

We’ve also been busy with sales and our stocks of syrup are getting low.  Good thing the season is around the corner! 

We encourage you to place orders for the coming season through our website, www.fortunefarms.ca, or call the farm at 613-256-5216. 

Our family and friends, the Kettle Boys and Shanty Men are all looking forward to a busy spring season. Please plan to join us and share the wonders of spring in the sugar bush!

End of the 2023 Sugarbush Season

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Our 50th production season has come to an end and we are pleased to report that we had a good year.  The volume of our crop was above our long-term average and the quality is excellent.  We did not make as much dark and very dark syrup as we wanted, but that is beyond our control. The unseasonably hot weather brought the trees out of dormancy very quickly, changing the chemistry of the sap and rendering it unusable.

It was a challenging season in the woods dealing with the effects of last summer’s derecho and then the ice storm in April.  This is the fist time we have experienced damaging ice conditions during maple season as well as a prolonged power failure.  We managed to clear the fallen branches and trees and get the pipeline systems back into shape over three days and gathered a lot of sap once the power was back on.  We will investigate back up power options as electricity is critical in all aspects of our production systems. 

We enjoyed seeing all our friends and customers and appreciate your positive feedback on your experience at the farm and our maple products.  It’s so nice to connect with folks every year and catch up on news and events!

Once we stop collecting sap, the cleaning begins.  All the taps are removed from the trees, our lines are back washed with water and then injected with alcohol to sanitize the network.  The alcohol vapours remain in the pipelines, keeping them clean until we tap our trees again next spring.  We scrub our sap collection tanks, clean the pump houses and service our pumps (there are many pumps!).  The  evaporator is drained and cleaned carefully as well as the reverse osmosis machine and membranes.  All the clean-up takes about three weeks and seems to go quicker when we’ve had good production.

In the forest, the leaves are emerging and we are pleased to see flowers on some of our maples.  The wind and ice storms have created many openings in the canopy and a good crop of maple seeds means that future generations of maple trees will be established where others have fallen. The woods are alive with birds, who unlike us, are looking forward to the arrival of insects.

Buying / Ordering Syrup

As of May 1, we will no longer have daily hours in the store but plan to be open on Saturdays from 10 to 2. 

Syrup can be ordered and picked up anytime at the farm from our lock boxes.  We have also started making deliveries and ship syrup around the world to customers far and wide.  We have a good supply of golden, amber, and dark syrup as well as our other maple products.

The Fortune Family, the Kettle Boys, Shanty Men and staff at the farm would like to thank everyone who visits the farm and enjoys our products.  Sharing maple season with you is a tradition we all enjoy.