The Goderich Signal-Star, 1985-03-27, Page 271
IA'
Maple
real'$v
As spring approaches and the nights a
below freezing and the days grow warmer,
pancake lovers smack their lips in
anticipation.
A sweet substance starts to run through
the veins of the maple tree into the buckets
or holding tanks of th maple syrup.
producers.
Near St.' Augustine, Bill Ro son runs a
maple syrup operation. He has th _bushes
and one major boiling plant with all the
equipment needed for the trahsformation of
sap into syrup.
To start a maple syrup operation it would
cost around $85,000 to buy all of the
equipment according to Mr. Robinson.
However there, is more to syrup making
than just having new equipment. Mr.
Robinson has made maple syrup 17 years.
This year is&his loth crop on his own and he
supplies syrup for retail sale to stores within
a 90 mile radius of his bush.
Mr. Robinson has over 7,000 taps and over
25 miles of syrup hose throughout his three
syrup bushes, He puts 450 gallons of sap
through his syrup facility in one hour and as
a result he gets 11.5 gallons of syrup.
This year the syrup is selling for $8.75 a
. litre or $29 for a four litre can. When Mr.
Robinson first started on his bush you could
buy a gallon of syrup for $14 or $17.
"The general trend for syrup is that it
goes up about $1 a year," he said. '
Mr, Robinson has three full time people
working with him and they often work
anywhere from 12 up to 20 hours a day
during the season.
The syrup season usually runs from the
middle of February to the middle -of April,
but according to Mr. Robinson it just
depends on the weather.
"We don't have many serious problems.
Occasionally a limb will fall off of a tree and
knock a tap out. A major problem we have
been running into are the squirrels chewing
through the lines," he said.
K'E +ia diti LA s yu&irr W 1►D44, w it,l v v 61aC
er m the hose as it costs only nine cents
a foot. However it takes a lot of time to
locate and fix the leak.
Robinson says there is no real way to
determine how much he loses because of the
squirrels nibbling on the syrup hoses.
However he estimates that he loses upwards
of 25 per ' cent of his production from
squirrels.
Despite the, problems, Mr. Robinson runs
the business with the help bf his father
Edward and his wife Susan. For the most
part, the bush is run by the family.
However, Gerald Jefferson is the lone hired
hand.
"My father wasn't that keen on syrup
making, but now he's helping and he's
enjoying it more than heanticipated," he
said.
• The •Robinsons have a number of groups
tour their bush every year. The area schools
bus the kids to the bush and the Robinsons
show them around and give them a taste of
syrup and maple butter.
The spring trip t he sr bush a
tradition and many , schools'ke the
kindergartens and grade ones to the' bushes
and show them how it is made.
Last Friday, Brookside Public School
visited the bush and it was quite a treat for
the kids.
"It is ones f the few times of the year when
the kids are taken out of the classroom; it
makes learning easier," said Janet
Blanchette, grade one teacher at Brookside.
The syrup season is short and one cannot
live producing maple sugar alone. In the off
syrup season Mr. Robinson farms and does
odd jobs.
The season will soon be over and thct�
pancake lovers will have an ample supply of
the smooth liquid until next season. Mr.
Robinson says that some people have
experimented withautumn sap, however it
is not economical because it only runs for a
short time.
k
go
ka
Story and Photos by Todd Mowatt
They're all smiles! That was the way it was for
approximately 40 students of Brookside public
school as the kindergartens and grade ones
visited Robinsons sugar bush last Friday. The
kids were taken on a tour of the bush and then
they were shown how the sap is boiled into syrup.
The kids were also shown how the sap is col-
lected through a intricate network of hoses and
sucked into a main storage tank. From there it is
boiled into syrup ready to be distributed
throughout Huron and Perth counties. The kids
were treated to a cup full of syrup, a popsicle
stick hill of apple butter and a generous helping
full of maple taffey. The kids had a good time
and the treats helped to make,. there visit to
Robinsons a sweet but sticky success.
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4