Happy New Year
It has been far to long since I have written about maple syrup. To tell the truth have been pretty busy. I mean, I always use that as an excuse but I really was pretty busy over the holidays. I had a huge flash site to develop please check it out, funcheez.ca. Cheese shaped like dinosaurs and planets, pretty cool stuff.
Anyway I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who purchased maple syrup over the holidays It is really going to help this year. It really pumped me up for next Christmas. I guess I have a few different times of year to look forward to. Next year it would be great to have store front of some sort, I bet I could really make a go of it.
I also made a few batches of maple candy, I am 1 for 3 right now and I think I know what happened last time. I let the candy get way to cold before I put it in the mold. I have not yet recorded how to make maple candy on video yet as I don’t want to look completely inept at the process. We will wait until I can look really professional.
I have found the time to put together another little video from that last time I was up North. It is a quick little show of what our evaporator looks like and how it will work. It might look a bit weird because we have one pan stacked on top of another to keep it out of the way. I assure you It will do the job this season when the sap starts flowing. I hope that you enjoy it and have a safe and pleasant new year.
sap to syrup edit
Hello Everyone
Recently I found an online video on how to make maple syrup eggnog. I seemed like a nice enough recipe but what really got me was the fact the presenter was using fake maple syrup.
I decided to dub over the real ingredients that she was using, enjoy.
Remember there is no substitute for real maple syrup!
Sap to Syrup first Show.
Hello everyone
Well tomorrow is a very exiting day for sap to syrup. It is the first Christmas show that I have taken part in. I am really looking forward to showcasing all our products. The Toronto Business Development Center was part of a program I was involved in. They help entrepreneurs get businesses started and do a great job of it. This is how I moved my interactive business forward.
They have a blog about the upcoming show and I have a small write up in it. Link
Another great thing that has happened is that we have a new logo… Well not really NEW, more like our FIRST.
It was designed by a very good friend of mine Jesse Gibson who has worked as a professial designer for many years. You know why branding is so expensive?
It’s worth it.
new logo
I have plans to redesign the website and add in more interactivity.
Sugar shack work
Today started out great. We began the day by fixing up the sugar shack. We installed a rudimentary sink drain for the sink . Mike put in some more rafter braces and cut out a few more logs. The Sugar shack looks amazing, much more wide open.
We did not spend much time out in the bush today as the weather was not helping what so ever. We are going to be able to get a few small things done tomorrow before I have to head back down south to Toronto. I really wish I could stay up here from longer but I have to keep working away at my web development stuff.
We took some time to visit with Keith Brown and pay off some bills, we picked up a gripple tool and some mainline ties. We should be all set for tying on the lines early tomorrow morning.
After we came back we leveled out the main evaporator and put in a sink and counter. We also put some insulation between the roof and walls to hold in a bit more heat. It gets nice and toasty in there now.
I will be able to post some videos and pictures when I get back to Toronto.
Thats all for now.
Running main lines, we’re committed now
Well it has been a long time since I have posted something on the site. I am back up north for the weekend and Mike and I have a lofty goal of running all the mainline in the large part of the bush. This is about 350 taps and from now on it will called section 1.
I had the misfortune of cutting open my finger after buying a new Remington knife. Beware, I’ll post the picture when I am not on devil Dial-up. It flipped open on the car ride from the Sault less than 20 minutes after I bought it. Not a great start but I am sure it will get better.
The first stop we made on the island was Keith Brown’s. We picked up the wire spooler and the mainline wire. He was nice enough to let us borrow a gripple tool, this was an amazing and time saving device. It helped us get all the wire up in less than two days.
We then had Bill Smith take a walk through the our bush. He took a look at our layout and our plans and said it looked good to him. He did however have some real concerns about our evaporator. We have two really great stainless steel flat pans but there is no way that we will be able to keep up with 500 taps on a 2x 6 pan. We might have to pull back the number of taps we put in this year. It is either that or come up with $4500 for a new flue pan. We are keeping our eyes open for quality used stuff.
We have also made some major modifications to the sugar shack. We replace the rough log roof supports with regular 2×6. This allows us to cut off all the huge logs that run the width of the sugar shack.
Tomorrow we will do some more finishing touches to the sugar shack and put up the main line. We really wanted to get blue line run in the bush but it was not possible to get it here on time, we had to settle for the black stuff that was in stock. There is nothing wrong with the product it just takes a bit more effort to clean.
That’s all, will post tomorrow.
New Design – fresh maple syrup
I wanted to take this time to congragulate the new maple syurp website of Tig Tillinghast for his new web design.
The site looks amazing and is much easier to navigate, really an amazing job.
Tig has some really great stories and ideas on his website which is why he is number one on my blog roll. I love his last idea of putting maple syrup in kegs, I really hope he figures it out.
Love the new URL and the site design Tig, keep on boiling!
Videos – marking trees and mainline
I posted two videos a few day ago of mike and I running around in the bush marking trees and putting up main lines.
As I said I would here they are
Enjoy.
Marking Trees
Marking Main lines
Off dial up
Well I am back in Toronto and back on high speed internet.
This makes me very very happy indeed, but of course I miss the bush. There was a ton of stuff that we accomplished over the weekend I was up north. Once I got a chance to get to know the bush I understand a lot more about what Mike was talking about.
I think that we are in a great place right now because we have been laying everything out and planning things together. Every tree that we want to tap is marked with red or pink tape. Where we are going to run the main line is also marked with blue tape and leveled. Mike and I had a great time chatting about how we were going to run the lines and what trees we were going to tap and how. If we were ever going to kill each other that would have been the time but we came out of it smiling!
We shot lots of great video and took lots of great pictures. I will be posting them soon.
That’s all for now
Main line Plan
Well Mike and I have been incredibly busy the last few days, mostly clearing brush. Our plan is to eradicate every single balsam on the lot. We also finished layout the rest of the bush. We marked out our 500+ taps with taps with flagging tape, to good new is it was in a much smaller area than we though it was going to be.
This morning we are going to be marking out where our main lines are going to run. I am glad I am up here from this, it is really the foundation for a good bush.
We were chatting last night about how we were going to attach the main line cable to the trees. We don’t want to hurt them but we also don’t want to get too complicated. We agreed on strips of cedar from now as they are quick, cheep and simple. If there are any other ideas out there I would be happy to hear them.
Again it is difficult to deal with this dial up. To make matters worse the website is having trouble uploading pictures. Another thing on the list of things to fix up.
In the new Bush
First full day in the bush and Mike and I are stoked. Started off kind of bad as the plan we had come up with was rendered futile. We wanted to keep busy so bad that we ended up starting to work before we knew what to work on.
I leaned how to weld which was very helpful, tomorrow I will lean to use a cutting touch to undo everything. We needed to elevate the holding tanks to create a gravity feed to the evaporator because we needed to get the sap up higher than the evaporator. We welded brackets onto a huge trailer frame in order to hold two 400+ gallon tanks.
The first thing that we did was to move the intended vac shack to its new location. The shack was about 14’ by 14’ and was not easy to maneuver in a bush where the trees are 12’ apart. We were going to move it all the way to the other end of the yard and then pump the sap back to the camp in order to boil it. Good thing we did not move it all the way. When I am not on “devil dial up” I’ll upload some amusing video of the moving process.
Keith Brown was nice enough to come to our bush and inspect our prospective operation. He put us on the the right path on a lot of the issues in the bush. I am sure everyone has heard of the KISS principle before, we just needed a push in the right direction.
Now we are going to put the vacuum tank in the garage that we were going to use as our sugar shack in the next few years. He than suggested that we just boil in there as well…. you know “where the sap is”. Both mike and I felt a whole lot better after having him inspect everything. We both feel confidant that we are on the right path.
After Keith left we decided to mark all the trees that we wanted to tap in the bush. We marked them with flagging tape until it was too dark to tell the trees apart. The count so far was 268, I think we are going to hit 500 tap goal in a smaller area than we thought.
The sweet perfume of a sugar bush
A sugar bush in the fall has a beautiful odour of crisp leaves that have begun to fall to ground, the smell of the assorted trees mixing togeather to produce the seeds being sown for next years crop of young saplings. Combined, all create an amazing perfume that is indescribable and is something to behold. It is the feeling, it is the ora, the majesty and the favorite time of year of mine to be outdoors in what mother nature has worked to create for eons. It belongs to the annals of life. The bush comes alive with the stirings of creatures gathering food for their winter hardships to come. Its is full of the sound of mating rituals, arguing hiararchys, and the distant cries of migrating birds. The feel of the chill in the air of the northern winds send goose bumps up your arms and across your neck. The sight of wood stove smoke gently drifting across the canopy awash in brightly painted leaves, sparks an awe inspired smile on ones face. It takes on a new strata of meaning for one and all. Just being able to expirence it is one of the greatest things that my forefathers could proudly pass on to me, and I accept it with my own sense of wonder and respect. I love it ! Fall is to me the best times of my life. How humbling it is to see this magical transformation from the interior of the artisans studio.
Well in a few weeks David will be on my door step and the Vac shack will be renovated to facilitate the vacuum tank and pump. I am looking forward to this as Dave has not really got a chance to see what is going to happen in the bush side of operations yet. Fear not we will be ready for spring in the lines department. Its the evaporator side of things that has got me thinking. We have an old 2′X6′ arch and two 2′X6′ flat pans that my grandfather had set up from his years in the buisness. The trouble is he was retired had all the time in the world to boil and didn’t really worry about efficency. We on the other hand can’t run like this! To add to my delema when I went to move the arch into the sugar shack the bottom and all the fire bricks fell out. I was bummed out but to tell the truth not too much because it was the first real hurtle I am faced with and it is easily fixed, Just requires some time. Anyway I have the parts I need coming and will have it operational in a few more days. The pans however are a problem. We only have flat pans which are used for the finishing of syrup. We need what is called a flue pan. Aflue pan has a series of small channels that the sap falls into in the bottom of the pan, and it protrudes into the fire below to increase the boiling surfaces and therefore increase efficency. I priced one out and they’re not cheap. I also have been hunting for a used one and have had no luck so far. But we can still make syrup it will just take longer thats all. I plan to build a stand for one pan attach a couple of propane burners for our finishing pan. The other pan will be the evaporator. It will need a hood so I am going to talk to Keith Brown on what I could use for a temp hood and if I have to I will build one. So that is what has been happening around St JOE Gotta go.
Enjoy Mike
Sap to Syrup Business Plan
Alright so I’m sitting here, procrastinating really, getting ready to write a business plan for our Sugarbush.
There’s been a lot of stuff happening in recent days. Mike and Steph (Mike’s fiancee) have successfully cut split and piled 15 cords and wood which will be our fuel this year. This is a definite load off my mind. Mike keeps me really well-informed but I still feel a little apprehensive as I haven’t seen anything, Mike still is not taking any pictures. (I think he wants it to be a surprise)
I have the daunting task to write the entire business plan for the Sugarbush. This is going to help us organize everything that we need in order to push forward. It’s also going to solidify the plane both Mike and I have.
It still doesn’t mean that I am going to enjoy this, I’m written business plans before and boy do they ever take a lot of effort, but I guess that’s why they’re worth it.
alright I’ve killed enough time doing this.
Boiling it down
Do you wonder why maple syrup is so expensive? Well the reason that it’s so expensive is because a great deal of energy goes into making it. Below is a video that shows exactly how much wood it takes when you fire boiler. We fire one side of the boiler at the time this way there’s minimal heat loss.
we put about that much wood in the archway every 15-20 minutes, that means that we are firing the boiler every 7-10 minutes. This is of course depending on the different types of what and how dry it is. This year was a bit of a disaster as we ran out of wood and had to spend some of the time burning some not so dry popular.
Mike stumbled across a great website called http://www.woodheat.org This website is full of information in regards to firewood. My favorite part of the website is the energy per air dried cord or in thousands of BTUs. This gives a list of the most efficient types of firewood to use.
I thought that the best wood to use was iron wood, I might have the wrong name for it though. As I can’t find it anywhere in Ontariotrees.com. it’s very dense wood that doesn’t grow very large, it has kind of a flaky bark as he gets older. Maybe somebody can help me. The bark looks a bit like Black Ash when it’s older, but I don’t think that’s right.
Spiles
There always seems to be new innovations out that say they are going to increase production and save the industry thousands of dollars. This blog post is dedicated to Alan at globurban.com. He sent an amazing list of all the different maple syrup festivals that are going to be happening around Ontario, thanks Alan.
Alan had great question about spiles and pointed me into the direction of the University of Vermont website. Apparently there has been a new innovation called to check valve spout. It works like this if the vacuum system is turned on than a little ball that’s inside of the spiles is pulled away from the tree allowing the sap to come out. When the vacuum system is turned off the little ball rolls in front of the opening and blocks bacteria from getting back to the hole. Alan’s concerns seem to be that you’d put excess pressure on the tree by not letting the natural bacteria seal the hole thus taking more sap than the tree is able to lose. Read the full story here.
We will see if this spile will even work this year. I suspect if you are going to try new product that says it’s going to take more sap from the tree then a producer would tend to under tap.. Most of the syrup produces that I’ve talked to basically baby their bush, if there is something that has the potential to take more sap out of the tree I’m sure it would be tried in moderation. I’m sure it was the same when they came out with a vacuum system. If it works for these innovators than I am sure it is going to catch on.
There’s also been a number of innovations that tried to solve this bacteria problem. Leader Evaporators, which is the company that is selling these new spiles, already has something on their website to try to combat the problem of bacteria.
“designed to be an inexpensive bacteria free throw-away fitting to put in the tree for maple sugar makers looking for maximum production every year. This rugged extension features a female cup which will accept almost every 19/64 and 5/16 diameter spout on the market”
So will this new little device work, who’s to say? There is also another type of this spile that we are looking into for our bush, it is a stainless steel spile. Here’s a video of Bill Smith and Keith Brown discussing it.
To Market
Well today was a pretty full day of trying to get maple syrup sales going. I have been working on creating online shopping cart in order to sell my syrup off the website. I’ve got something together the only problem is shipping, I don’t really know exactly how to charge for shipping, still working out the bugs.
I did however get a chance to go into the post office and I found out exactly how much one liter of maple syrup weighs.
I’ve also been trying to get in contact with all the different farmers markets that are around Toronto. I contacted an Anne Freeman at Dufferin and Grove Park. She was very helpful even though she they already had a maple syrup producer that was selling product. She said that she would pass my name along to some of the other Farmers markets.
I found man named Chad at the Trinity Bellwoods open market. He was an incredible wealth of knowledge explains me about how to get involved in these farmer markets and what it was like selling maple syrup in a downtown area. (insadently he is the one that sells his syrup at Dufferin) It is nice to know is that my prices are pretty much dead on with his.
That’s the nice thing about the maple syrup industry, most producers are happy to help each other out which is fabulous for a newcomer like me, thanks again Chad!
Stay tuned for an update on Mike in the Bush. I had a nice long chat with him today but we won’t get any real news until about Friday a very special visitor is coming to take a look at our operation.
More info on the Famers markets in Toronto.
Hello All
My name is Mike Garside. I am the bush operations guy in this adventure. Dave wants me to start a Blog about what I am doing in the syrup trade. I first should give a little info on myself. I spent 7 or 8 years working for the second biggest Maple syrup producer in Ontario, Doug Thompson’s Maple Products. I tapped trees, cleaned tanks and pans, added mainlines, spur lines, tap lines, repaired squirrel damage check the bush for leaks, worked on the steam system, vacuum system, filtered syrup and I even changed a motor in the old bush truck. During my time there I saw a lot of things that can come up in the bush, so I have a pretty good idea what we will be up against. In my career I have a back ground in electrical and work for a company called Brookfield Renewable Power which owns and operates hydro electric generation stations. I am part of the Maintenance team that keeps the power flowing.
I will start giving Dave so material to post when I get a chance. They maybe few and far between, as I am in the middle of a big project at work, and a million little projects at home. I also only have dial up and that is not going to work for anyone so if you’re interested in what I have to tell stay tuned.
lets get selling
So I’m all ready to start selling my maple syrup through Craig’s list. I must say that I am pretty happy about how it’s going so far. I can’t decide whether I should sell it all directly myself or whether I should find a health food store or grocery store in the area that would like to purchase it. There is still the online way of doing it but again I have a limited supply.
I’ve also noticed that there is maple syrup in this area that is certified organic. I don’t really know how to go about getting my maple syrup certified organic but I can say it was probably made more “organically” than any other type of syrup in the area (wood fired).
I have uploaded a picture of all of the stuff I brought back from St. Joseph Island. I also finished up the labels that I’m going to put on the maple syrup to drive people to the website so they can see exactly where this maple syrup comes from. I think this is a real selling feature to the product.
Things to Think about
Well there are so many questions to be asking when putting together a new Sugarbush. Right now I’m having a bit of trouble trying to find the right size bottles to sell Maple syrup in.
The 250 mL bottle seemed to be the most popular but as it turns out I only have one left. This means that I’m most likely going to have to break up some of my great big 4 L jugs into 250 mL. Fortunately I have all the equipment I need to do this. I have also found a comprehensive manual which gives the process of hot packing in detail.
In and I’ve been thinking about is what we are going to name the new Sugarbush. I was thinking about keeping the same name as the URL that I have now, sap to syrup I still want to get some feedback and not necessarily do with that in 100%.
Most likely will come up with a short list and then maybe have a poll to see which one wins.
Mike has a good priceless together of all the equipment that were going to need. It’s pretty good starting point and I think that we can cover a pretty comfortably.
The start of something beautiful
Well it looks like I’m going to be expanding my maple syrup career. I was up north on St. Joseph Island and I got to talking with a very good friend of mine Mike Garside. Mike is on the far end of the island at a beautiful hunting camp in the middle of the woods. his grandfather and father both used to work in the Sugarbush that is on the property. Mike and I started chatting and thought maybe we should revisit the Bush and bring it back to life.
Mike and I go back a long way our first adventure together and commerce was our firewood business. My father had logged are old property and the logger had left all the tops of the trees in the back of the Bush. After leaving all these tops four a year Mike and I collected an old truck, wood splitter, a chainsaw and a hell of a lot of work. It was one of the better working relationships I’ve had in my life.
We had a chance to walk the Sugarbush and made a rough estimate of about 800 taps in full Bush. In the first year though I don’t believe we will try to put in all the taps for now we would be content with 400. Some of the old equipment is still there like a beautiful stainless steel boiling pans. It also helps that there’s power out there and a cornucopia of odds and ends that you’d don’t know you need until you need them.
Well are on our way for another adventure that’s for sure. At least now I’m going to have something to talk about on a regular basis on my blog. It’s incredible how much I’ve been lacking in the last little while I apologize to anyone who has come here hoping to find new content.
I plan to be investing a little bit more time and effort into this website I know I always say that by this time I’m going to as I want to begin selling our beautiful woodfired maple syrup online.
Stay tuned for some more updates and check out my broken bone.
The scaphoid is broken
Maple Syrup Pear & Chicken Salad
So I know I keep saying that I am going to post more often and than I don’t. Well I am posting today, again I put up new content as often as I can.
A friend of mine at blue band media had an amazing recipe with salad and pear chicken that I would love to share with you. It is the most impressive thing that I have ever heard maple syrup used in.
Good Luck
Ingredients
Mixed Greens
Halved grape tomatoes
Cucumber diced
Red pepper diced
Chicken breast
Bosc pear cored and thinly sliced
Dave’s maple syrup
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Green pepper corn mustard
Sea salt
Fresh ground Pepper
Feta cheese
Make salad dressing
- mix 2 parts balsamic
- 1 part cold pressed olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- tbsp of green pepper corn mustard
- half cup of finely crumbled feta
bbq chicken breast
- chop up
The Pears
- take cast iron pan (5″)
- heat up
- add 2 tbsp of Dave’s Maple Syrup
- once hot add pear slices
- toss in maple syrup
- medium heat for 5-7 min
FINAL
- Place salad in bowl with chopped veggies
- Add pear slices on top
- Pour salad dressing over
Eat and be happy!
The Price of Maple Syrup
Since I have come back from N.O. I have been trying to figure out what the price of maple syrup is in Toronto. I only brought about 10L back with me and have been worried about making sure the price I charge is accurate.
I figured I would go somewhere that is known for the Low Low prices and see how much they were selling it for.
Turns out that 250 ml of Amber sells for $6.37 and 375 ml sells for $8.17. So this give me a bit of a base to go on, I think. I still have a number of other place to check out in the area but at least I can start doing some figuring. I still have to factor in how I am going to get all of this stuff down here.
On another note I received an email Thursday the 16th from a friend on the island. Turns out that time they were still making Light and extra light in most of the bushes last week. I can’t believe that the season is lasting so long, it’s pretty wild.
He was talking about putting together a small operation at his hunting camp next year. It sounds pretty cool to me but once you have a vacuum system it is hard to go back to collecting buckets again. Still it makes a lot of sense to put together a nice little operation like this, try to do something relatively on my own before I invest in a large bush. Of course everyone this year is thinking about expanding because of how amazing it has been.
Next year I hope to employ a few people from Toronto at Bill’s place, it might give me some time to work in more than one bush (I am sure that I am being very naive). Regardless I have started crunching some numbers to see if I can make this into a viable business. Lord knows there is a demand down here.
Back to High speed
Ohh how I love high speed internet, I can just log in and post something in about 30-40 seconds rather than hours and hours.
So I am back in Toronto and ready to head over to a buddies place for Easter Sunday supper. I had a bit of a problem at the airport as I loaded up my bag to much with syrup. The nice ladies at the check in said they would get rid of some of it for me. The one nice thing about syrup is that everyone wants it no matter where you go.
I was checking out one of my favorite design website when I came accross this picture.
It makes me think of all the time I spend screwing with firewood this year. Hopefully next year it won’t be an issues. I guess if you are going to make wood fired syrup than you have to split firewood.
Last post from the Island
Well yesterday was a good boiling day. We had some workers out at the camp again to give us a hand with fire wood. Fire wood has been the story all year, not enough wood to keep the fire going. We have always been playing catch up, finding wood when it is light and burning it when it is dark. I don’t know what Bill is going to do when he burns all the stuff that he has at camp. There is little to no accessible dead standing in his bush anymore so I guess it is up to the weather to get rid of the snow. The lack of wood is not really Bill’s fault as he was injured when he was suppose to be stockpiling for this season.
As for sap there is a ton of it. I thought I was going to completely miss the season turns out it is going to be running for a few more weeks to come, at least that is what the word is. Everyone is still making light and some medium, yesterday’s boil was no different.
I was able to take a tour of a few other operations on the Island, one was Stadnick’s and the other was Chess Wallace’s. Chess is one of the old timers who has seen it all, It was quite amazing to check out the old operation. He is running a diesel powered steam boiler. The steam is heated up and pumped though tubes at 100 psi these tubes than go into a the boiling pan to heat the sap. His vacuum system runs at about 20-25 psi which is much higher than Bill’s bush(13-15). He also has a reverse osmosis machine that gets the sugar content up to about 10% which makes boiling off a lot easier. It is a really slick looking operation.
Today I spend most of the day helping out at the maple syrup festival at the legion hall. My mother is one of the board members at the Children’s Library so she was selling all sorts of things for fundraising. That place was insanely busy, line ups out the door.
I am going to be heading out to the sugar bush for the last time this season in the afternoon. I am really going to miss it here but I will be back next year. This is going to be the last post that I have to deal with this stupid dial up internet but it is also going to be the last one from the island. I can’t wait until next year.
