Raccoon Dance
July 14, 2010
This gift was made from a video shot right in front of the sugar bush. He is mocking you Mike!
I want to be on Wipeout
June 30, 2010
So I am applying for this game show called wipe out. The grand prize is $50,000 so that will help us expand the sugar bush.
I think this is going to be great. Check out the video I submitted for it:
Cheers
Wanted poster
June 22, 2010
Hey Mike great post on the new scourge of the sugar bush. I agree Completely:
Some Posts to Recipes:
http://www.ma-eppc.org/morerecipes.html
http://www.fosc.org/GM-Recipe.htm
I love what these guys are doing:
A New Enemy In Our Midst
June 19, 2010
A new enemy has emerged for Maple Syrup producers. It sneaks into the sugar bush without the producers knowledge, it takes hold of the precious nutrients in the soil and slowly kills the team players will to produce sap, it multiplies rapidly and without warning, before anyone can do anything the invading army has imposed its will upon the land. But its edible.
I am refering to the invasive species, Garlic Mustard. In the recent weeks a few articles have described the new found threat discovered on St Joe that has the Maple Syrup industry worried. Garlic Mustard is an edible plant brought over by European settlers for gardens and has since escaped the boundaries of rock and wire to roam freely about the province.
It seems garlic mustard produces toxins that contaminate the soil hampering the trees ability to grow and produce sap, at the same time multiply rapidly to out compete the native vegetation. After a few years the area invaded is dominated by the plant. It is a tough one to get rid of because of the fact when the plant is broken or cut off it is able to regrow quickly below the cut line and when left to its own devices can produce large amounts of seeds and destroy the ecosystem invaded. The seeds can remain viable in the soil for up to 5 years.
I haven’t had chance to do any patrols in the sugar bush yet but rest assured if any of these edible little devils make an appearance in Sap To Syrup’s slice of heaven they will end up in my kitchen.
Maple Producers Beware
Enjoy
Mike
World Cup
June 14, 2010
It is great to live in Toronto during world cup. This city is so unique in the fact that there are people from all around the world in every corner of the city. You could not help to be part of it as cars drove around honking, waving flags of the victorious country.
We at sap to syrup are very exited about the world cup this year. Until Canada makes it to the world cup we want to get into the spirit by rooting for a team. This year we are rooting for Italy which play there first game today against Paraguay.
Good luck Italy sap to syrup is rooting for you.
Schedule:
Italy vs. Paraguay - 14 Jun 2:30pm (ET)
Italy vs. New Zealand - 20 Jun 10:00am (ET)
Slovakia vs. Italy - 24 Jun 10:00am (ET)
We would love to hear who you are rooting for, let us know.
UPGRADES ON THE WAY
June 10, 2010
Hello folks
With firewood done for the year and the setup in hibernation, Dave and I have been relaxing as much as the off season allows. But it won’t last long. We have acquired some things to upgrade the operation. There should be some interesting posts coming up.
Enjoy
Mike
Lead testing part II
May 20, 2010
I have given each company I emailed some time to respond and here are the results.
The first person to email me back was Dave Lachance from lead inspector, he responded on the weekend with the following:
“hello dave,
thanks for the email and your inquiry.
the kits would be great to test the solder for lead.
regards,
dave lachance”
Not a huge response but it was a positive one, he also responded the quickest.
The second response was from Jennifer McIntyre from homax who simply emailed me back that they no longer carry this product.
Other than that I have not heard from anyone else. As it stands now I am ordering the Abotex lead inspector but I will continue to look for other ways to test for lead.
If anyone has information they think would be helpful please feel free to leave a comment.
Lead testing part I
May 11, 2010
Mike and I are in the process right now of upgrading our equipment so that we can bring more of the sweet nectar of the Gods to you.
The problem with a lot of the used evaporator pans out there is that they are lead soldered which is considered to be a health risk.
We want to provide our consumers with the best quality product that we can so I thought I would post some of the research that I have done in this respect.
First I found this great consumer report.
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/2007/10/testing-the-lea.html
It rates 4 different lead inspectors and how they work, the following is taken from the consumer reports website:
“Homax Lead Check, $8
Lead Check Household Lead Test Kit, $18.45
These two kits consist of cigarette-shaped swabs, made by the same company, that turn pink when they detect lead. They were the easiest to use and identified accessible lead in toys, ceramic dishware, and vinyl or plastic. If lead concentrations are low, these swabs can take up to two hours to change color, but in our tests high concentrations produced immediate results. The eight-swab Lead Check Household Lead Test Kit pack is a better bargain than the Homax two-swab pack. Its packaging was less susceptible to being crushed.
Lead Inspector, $13
Swabs turn yellow, brown, gray, or black if lead is detected. It can take up to 10 minutes for a color change to occur at low lead levels. The kit, with eight tests, identified accessible lead and might be a good choice for painted metal jewelry. It also might be superior for pink or red items, because if those shades of paint bled onto a Lead Check swab, it might falsely appear to be positive. Have good ventilation and wear gloves to protect skin from chemicals.
First Alert, $13
The four test swabs provided are similar in design to those used in Lead Inspector. But we experienced some false negatives for accessible lead.
Pro-Lab Lead Surface, $10
This kit was less sensitive and more difficult to use. Two small pieces of treated paper are cut to create six tests. The paper is moistened and rubbed on the object, but we found the paper often fell apart before the two-minute rubbing time was over.”
Both Lead Inspector and First Alert have videos which showcase these kits
The following is a copy of the email I sent to all the these lead testing kit suppliers:
Hello
My name is Dave Chapman and I am a maple syrup producer. Over the past few years our industry has been phasing out lead soldered pans for producing maple syrup.
We are currently looking to upgrade our equipment but want to make certain that any used equipment we buy is lead solder free.
does the testing kit that you carry have the ability to do this.
Thanks and I hope to hear from you soon.
If anyone out there knows of another company that provides these testing kits or you have had experience in these matters please let us know.
Jesse and the sugarbush
May 5, 2010
Jesse was a great big help this year in the Sugar bush. Mike and I were really happy to have him pull such a long haul. I think Mike was the happier one of the two of us as he had been living in the sugar shack night and day for almost two weeks before we showed up.
Running and evaporator efficiently is no small task, it may seem like nothing is happening but you have to keep things “dialed in” or you loose your fire, flood the pan or burn the syrup. There are also strange things that can happen when you least expect them. Check out this vid of Jesse dealing with something called a steam lock. This happens when the sap in the pre-heater boils causing the pressure to block the flow of sap.
Thanks again
April 22, 2010
Hello out there.
Thanks Mike for that amazing post, I completely agree with everything. Thanks to everyone for helping us out as much as they did.
Thanks to our Mom’s most definitely for helping out with keeping us fed, Mike and I would forget to eat without you.
Also thanks to Bill Smith for saving us when Canada “stupid” Post messed up shipping our thermometer. The stuff that we did not ship express showed up on time, the priority package took an extra day, which happened to be on a friday, messing up the whole weekend. Without lending us your spare we would have had to rig something up that would have never worked as well, thanks again.
Thanks to Kieth Brown for all the great information he gave us from day one. It no doubt saved us a ton of time and money. Also thanks for giving us the idea to put the sugar shack in a place with 4 walls instead of a wood shed.
Thanks to all the other syrup producers on the island that gave us equipment and advise. Dave Stadnic, Chess Wallace, Don Mancher and Kris Desjardins just to name a few.
Thanks to everyone that was there when I was not. Cody,Spenser, John,Steph,Kurt and everyone that was there to help Mike out.
Thank you to Jesse for making the 8h trip north to work in the sugarbush for 3 days just to take a 10h bus red eye bus ride back. Also the logo is phenomenal, your dedication is amazing.
Also thanks to both of our Fathers. My Dad who made it possible to get all 130L of maple syrup back down south. Also thank you Roger for your calm intelligence and problem solving skills. We will most likely both be living longer from the stress you prevented.
Thank you to my Girlfriend who has had to deal with traveling and spliting tons of firewood.
I would also like to thank my business partner and friend Mike for the insane amount of enthusiasm, resourcefulness and hard work. You alway had a positive attitude even when I did not. It has been a real treat working in a sugarbush steeped in your families history.
I look forward for many more years of syrup production!
