Charles Summers
Special to Farmers Forum
(Twilight Zone Narrator Voice):
“Imagine, if you will, a tree that bleeds money. A tree that doesn’t have to be planted or pruned, which grows naturally in abundance. Although requiring tremendous effort to harvest its lifeblood, the bulk of the work is short and occurs at a lull in the seasons. Imagine now, an imaginary line, on which one side the people recognize the potential of this tree, and use it to enrich themselves and their communities, and on the other, they are blind to it: they cannot see the forest for the trees. That line is the Ontario/Quebec border, and you have entered… The Maple Zone.”
Until you’ve seen it for yourself, it’s hard to describe how deeply maple production is ingrained in rural Quebecois life. It’s not surprising: having lived there for almost 400 years, Quebec’s maple producers have an intimate relationship with their forests and have developed them into a giant, sustainable industry, where thousands of producers (many of whom make their sole living with maple) generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
Perhaps it’s because Ontarians are relative newcomers to their woods, but despite having far more potential taps than Quebec (which is running out), we lag behind them by orders of magnitude, making only 3 % of Canada’s total syrup. Heck, little New Brunswick makes more syrup than us (shameful, I know). We are letting a tremendous resource go to waste.
Bucking this trend is a young man named John Tomory. I met John because we both work for upstart Quebecois maple equipment companies: our company made something his didn’t, which he needed, and I have been fascinated with his operation ever since. Working with his brothers, (who like John, are lifelong sugarmakers, and all trained as engineers), they operate Pefferlaw Creek Farms, near Uxbridge, and I can’t think of too many families as competently and confidently making strides in maple as they are. Seven years into full time operation, “we are making our passion, our profession” John says.
In the spring of 2022, John and the boys harvested sap from 40,000 taps. Then the Derecho came through last May and in a matter of minutes destroyed a rented bush and took thousands of trees from them. Nature zigged, and so Tomory zagged: formerly operating largely on leases (the going rate being $1-1.50/tap), the brothers purchased a property in Haliburton, and managed to successfully replace on the new property all 11,000 of the taps they had lost.
The addition of the northern site is a master stroke in my opinion. Not only due to exorbitant Southern Ontario land prices, and the absence of large tracts of bush, but by splitting their operation between two climate zones, the brothers spread out risk and almost double the sugaring season — not to mention giving themselves lots of room to grow and making the most of their 7 ft. x 20 ft. evaporator at home. Mind you they do have to haul their 30 Brix (per cent sugar) concentrate sap an hour-and-a-half from their Haliburton site to Uxbridge.
This inconvenience is balanced by the farm’s position on the doorstep of the giant market of Toronto. Thousands of people tour their farm during weekend Maple Festivals each March and April, and they are able to retail a substantial amount of their massive crop at high value. Certified Organic, Pefferlaw Creek’s marketing is fairly evenly split between retail sales, wholesale to grocers, and bulk sales by the barrel. This is also augmented by John’s equipment business, turnkey installations and consulting.
So, what’s stopping other families here in Ontario from emulating their success? Nothing practically, but it seems to boil down to culture. In my experience, Ontario producers tend to look at maple as a labour of love, rather than a moneymaking enterprise: an expensive addiction, something special to share with the kids and a great pretense for drinking with your buddies. They look at Quebec’s supply managed industry with disbelief and suspicion. In many ways, Ontario farmers should be grateful for the cartel: it provides a high and reliable price for syrup, while giving producers here like John free reign to expand as their budget and ambition allow.
Another impediment to maple’s growth in Ontario is a scepticism towards high production technology. Reverse osmosis (whereby the bulk of the water is removed from the sap before boiling, tremendously improving efficiency) is probably the most contentious issue. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard producers sternly tell me that they “don’t believe in RO”, as though I’m a Jehovah’s Witness in their doorway. I’m not trying to get you to join a cult! How much do you like making firewood? RO will let you tap four times as many trees with the same evaporator.
“Awww, it spoils the flavour. It should taste how grandpa made it.” To begin with, it doesn’t, but surely these men also milk their cows and by hand, cradle their oats with a scythe and put up loose hay! Although quaint, this dedication to tradition prevents the profitable undertaking of syrup production. Reverse osmosis is to maple what the combine harvester is to grain growing. You are not going to raise soybeans with a rototiller and take them to market in your wheelbarrow.
So not only is maple hard work, and takes a certain amount of technical aptitude, it’s not terribly cheap to get into (wow this really sounds like farming!). But run the numbers: with high vacuum yields like John’s, of 1.5 litres of syrup per tap, and bulk prices over $9 per litre, even rolling barrels out the backdoor becomes enticing.
But here’s the rub, Ontario farmers: because maple is such a viable business, if we aren’t interested in growing the industry, someone else will; either producers from Quebec, or large financial interests like logging companies and hedge funds. It would be negligent of us not to: in Quebec, maple is responsible for over 12,000 jobs and $1.2 billion in economic activity. Not only is maple a wonderful product, a magical process, and a great form of forest stewardship, there’s good money to be made in it: get out in your bush and start counting.
Charles Summers owns Salt of the Earth Farm, a direct-to-consumer operation selling vegetables at the roadside, near Lyndhurst, Ontario.
