Tag Archives: Lanark County

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!

Warm weather has arrived along with dark maple syrup

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It’s been a very busy time at the Farm!  It took us four days to clear trees and branches and repair our pipeline networks following the ice storm.  We missed a couple of days of production as we were without hydro, however, we had lots of visitors at the Farm over the Easter and it seems that a good time was had by all. 

The warm weather has reduced the flow of sap. It is still running this morning, April 12.  We expect that the end of the production season is close.   We will make this decision to turn off the pumps and start  clean-up based on the conditions of the sap and the quality of syrup that we are producing.  With no frost at night and high daily temperatures, the trees will start to come out of dormancy, and when they do, the sap will change chemistry and the syrup will be bitter and unpalatable.  The surest sign that the season is over is the signing of chorus frogs and spring peppers – none yet in our area!

Golden, amber and dark syrup from Fortune Farms

Golden, amber and dark syrup from Fortune Farms

The early mornings are special at this time of year as birds are in full chorus marking territories and attracting mates.  We also have a yellow-bellied sap sucker trying to drill holes in an aluminum ladder at the camp – not sure what it’s thinking, but it is persistent!  Our bluebirds are back at the farm and have claimed their nest boxes.  They are a joy to watch as they raise their broods throughout the summer. 

With the warmer weather we have started to make dark syrup.  This is good news for our customers who have been waiting for the darker grades.  I’m not very confident that we make much very dark grade given the weather forecast, but we will see what happens over the next couple of days.  We are filling our orders for dark syrup now and will be contacting customers for pick up.  We are open daily from 10 to 4.  Our phone is also working again if you want to give us a call – 613 256 5216.

Our birds are coming back

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Our Red Shouldered Hawks appeared on schedule this week to our Clayton property as well as at the Lanark Farm.  These birds are philopatric, meaning they will return and nest in the same area year after year.  Prime habitat is old/mature hardwood forest with high crowns. 

The Derecho damage at the farm occurred in the vicinity of one of the traditional nesting sites so we will see if this disturbance affects where the hawks eventually settle.  The hawks have a characteristic cry and can be regularly seen and heard circling above the woods.

I have seen the first bluebirds perched on the wires along the roadway.  They regularly use  the nesting boxes around the neighbourhood, including a couple at the farm.  We’ll watch to see when they set up shop.

On Wednesday morning, large flocks of migrating Canada geese were passing high overhead.  Geese leave the wintering grounds along the Atlantic coast and head north to breeding areas as ice melts and food sources become available.  These flocks were heading east – likely in search of open water and food as the lands further north remain ice and snow bound. 

There are plenty of robins, turkey vultures, grackles, and blackbirds about and we have also seen sandhill cranes and blue herons. The sun is getting stronger and the snow continues to recede.  The birds are telling us that warmer weather is coming!

We experienced the heaviest sap flows to this point in the season on Tuesday and Wednesday and were busy making amber grade syrup.  The winds and snow squalls on Wednesday evening were dramatic and a few branches came down on pipelines requiring inspection and repairs. 

Looking at the forecast, it looks like the sap will be running well.  We are open daily from 10 to 4 with our trails, Shanty Men and Kettle Boys all operating.  There is still plenty of snow in the woods, so we recommend people wear winter footwear and dress accordingly.  We are celebrating Maple Weekend as well.

In Memoriam: Tom Stephenson

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With a very heavy hearts we announce that our dear friend, mentor and kettle boy leader Tom Stephenson passed away early Sunday morning, March 26th.  Tom was a close friend to our family as he made Fortune Farms his spring home for the last 25+ years.

I met Tom at Forestry School at Algonquin College in Pembroke in 1981.  Tom was a unique professor, stressing the need for human relationships, attention to detail and pragmatism.He had a low tolerance for slackers and challenged many students over the years to do better. He focused on the need for useful skills in forest fire fighting, forest industry operations, safety, and surveying.  He had an extensive network of contacts and helped many of his students secure their first positions with the Ministry of Natural Resources and launch their careers. Tom’s infectious enthusiasm and energy were contagious, and we became good friends.

Tom Stephenson with Jamie and Sherry Fortune at Fortune Farms sugarbush.
Tom with Jamie and Sherry Fortune at Fortune Farms in March 2020, explaining how tapping affects trees.

In the 1990s when Tom’s “sugar bush” at Achray Station was closed down, I invited him to bring his kettles to our farm.  Not only did he bring his kettles, but he also brought countless handmade toys and a few of his friends. 

My mother, Ruth, branded Tom and crew the “Kettle Boys” and the rest is history!  The Kettle Boys entertained hundreds of people each spring at the farm and branched out to cameo appearances at Winterlude, local fairs, and maple events.  Tom traveled far and wide collecting maple items, making friends and telling stories the whole time. He is widely known and will be fondly remembered by many.

Tom was a character with many names – the “Jigger”, “Red”, “Soupy” (his middle name was Campbell),  and Kettle Boy “Shorty”.  I have a vivid image of Tom one Easter weekend walking from lunch to the Kettles wearing his Easter bunny ears fashioned from old fire hose, his coveralls, felt hat, and a fluffy white cotton tail while yodeling. What a guy!

We gathered at the kettles Sunday evening and toasted Tom with fresh kettle boy syrup, recognizing how he brought us all together and that his legacy lives on. 

We are grateful for Tom’s friendship and the wonderful times we had together and extend our sympathies to his family.

Jamie Fortune