Three Tall Maples

Maple season in the County has arrived

Maple season is one the busiest times of the year in the County. It’s also the first sign of spring. Forget about the groundhog seeing it’s shadow, the first sign that spring is on the way around here is when the maple sap starts to run. It’s based on temperature. The ideal scenario for a banner maple season are cold nights followed by warm days. The constant fluctuation of cold to warm daily is what makes a maple tree start to produce its bounty. It’s an intense time of year for the maple producers, who remain on constant alert and ready to react based on the weather. In an hour, things could change from no sap, to it flowing full bore. The producers are also constantly checking in with their tap lines. Back in the day, maple producers would go from tree to tree and collect the sap from the buckets hanging off. These days, each tree is interconnected through a series of lines and tubing, and a vacuum system brings the sap from each tree into a collection tank. It’s a brilliant way of using both gravity and suction to bring the product back to the sugarshack, but it also comes with its own problems. Using pressure means that if an issue arises, every connection and every inch of line must be checked. Critters are also an issue because the tubing is something they like to chew on, especially considering what’s inside.

Brian and Jane Walt stand outside the Sugar Shack.

Maple tapping is a tradition deeply rooted in the County with some sugarshacks producing maple syrup for nearly a century. Maple in the County is a relatively new festival, but has quickly emerged as one of the premier events that this region has to offer. People now come from Oshawa to Ottawa to see the maple run and stock up on one of the sweetest offerings that nature can provide. This is the first of a two-part series on Maple producers in the County. This edition is focused on three of the legacy producers that have been around for decades. The following edition will focus on the newcomers.

With 18 years of maple tapping, Brian and Jane Walt are still considered the new kids on the block. But what they lack in years they make up for with energy, fun and an innate nature for welcoming visitors. Brian takes a second as he’s speaking about the history of the sugarshack to welcome guests coming through the door.

“Hey, folks! Take a look around, go anywhere ya like. There are no rules here. Coffee’s on and you’re welcome to whatever you can find.”

Even though the “big” weekend is two weeks away, Walt estimates that he has been getting 80-100 people every Saturday and Sunday coming to tour the operation and walk around the property. This is primarily a passion project for the Walts. In fact, Brian states that if it ever becomes a hassle, then they will stop doing it.

“It’s basically a hobby that got out of control. We started with a budget of $10 and it’s gone way up from there. The first year we produced 46 litres, and now we are up around 1,700 litres,” says Walt, who sells beef and pork primarily. This passion project is highlighted every year by a two-day extravaganza that has become the marquee event of Maple in the County. Over 80 volunteers and staff come together to help Walt’s Sugar shack execute their vision of a fun family weekend revolving around maple syrup. Live music, horse drawn carriage rides, and a full maple breakfast with sausages and pancakes are the highlights, but it’s really all about the volunteers and the energy put forth by the people running the event. It’s fun, relaxed and very busy. Every year the lineup of cars down the road grows, and every year the reviews are the same. “We had the best time!”

Clifford Foster outside the tap house at Fosterholm Farms,

Over at Fosterholm Farms, Cliff Foster is manning his operation solo. At 87 years old he greets people coming in, but is also watching the weather to see if it’s getting warmer. It’s in the morning, and the temperature hasn’t risen above the freezing point yet. So, for now, the operation is quiet. Fosterholm is one of the County’s oldest and largest maple producers, with over 8,000 taps. The property is so large that the vacuum system has a series of four pump stations running on a float system that will activate when one station gets to a certain level. His longest line is over a mile long, so patrolling the lines at Fosterholm is a full-time job in it’s own right. This season so far has gotten off to a good start.

“We are about halfway to where we want to be as far as volume goes. We have a had some good runs so far. There was one day where in five hours we produced seven barrels. It was runnin’ that day!” Foster says with a smile.

Foster has been doing this all his life. His parents started the operation in 1924, and with their neighbours, the Coopers, they built the first tap house in 1946. Foster bought the property from Garfield Main in 1966 and there have been a series of expansions based on need since then. The most recent one being a warehouse that included a cold storage fridge that can bring the temperature inside down to minus 10, which helps speed up the process of extracting the syrup from the sap. Foster’s son and his grandson work with him at the tap house, and they hire a small staff to do the bottling and work in the store. He still lives in the same house he grew up in. He has never moved. He has dedicated his entire life to maple syrup.

“I’ve always lived where I was born and I’m not going any where and I love my job. They’ll have to carry me out feet first,” Foster says lovingly.

Just down the road from Fosterholm is Vader’s, which is the oldest Maple syrup producer in the County. It started in 1910 when Amos Vader and his family moved from Coe Hill (near Bancroft) and bought the farm on the south side of East Lake because of the impressive sugarbush it had on the property. It is currently operated by the husband and wife team of Todd and Susan Vader and have close to 3,000 taps running right now. When we caught up to Todd Vader, he was getting off a tractor and was in the middle of figuring out to do with the rest of his day. It was later in the morning now and the temp had risen to above the freezing level. The sap was beginning to run. Most of the tress on the Vader property are across the street from the tap house, so they use the vacuum system to a holding tank across the street, and then truck the sap across to the tap house. Todd and Susan run the operation almost entirely on their own. Today, on top of the normal runnings of the farm, they are carting glass over to the tap house to get their stocks up and ready for Maple in the County weekend. Maple syrup is obviously a big seller, but maple butter, candy and assorted jams and jellies are also big sales items. The Vaders know that getting ahead while you can is important.

“It’s a huge weekend for us and you have to be ready for it. You always look three steps ahead in this business. If you wait until the last minute, it’s bedlam,” says Todd.

The old guard seems to have everything on track and ready for the big weekend.