HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1983-03-16, Page 16Serving over 25,000 homes in Listowel, Wingham. Mount Forest,. Milverton, Elmira, Palmerston, Harriston, Brussels, Atwood, Monkton, Millbank, Newton, Clifford, Wallenstein, Drayton, Moorefield and Arthur. Wednesday, March 16, 1983 -
Mel Webers' Century Farm prepares for Elmira Maple Syrup Festival
Four generations of syrup tapping
Official records, kept since 1944 at the Mel
Weber Century Farm indicate that Febru-
ary 19 is the earliest that the maple trees
have started to produce sap for collection
and boiling into maple syrup.
"It's very unusual," commented Mr.
Weber of this year's early season. Mr.
Weber represents the fourth generation to
tap the maple trees at the RR 4, Elmira
farm. In fact, some of their customers go
back two generations.
The records were started by Mr. Weber's
father who built the sugar shanty in 1944. In
four generations, an early maple syrup
season is probably not unheard of but keep-
ing records was not started until the shanty
was built. Each year since then, someone
has written the first date sap was collected
on the wall of the shanty.
In 1944 sap was first collected on March
21, in 1961, 66 and 79, sap started to run on
March 2 and 3. The wall of the Weber's
sugar shanty is an unofficial history of
weather for the past 39 years. Maple trees
•
require mild, above freezing days and cold,
below freezing nights to produce sap; 1983's
record early spring weather has sent syrup
producers back to their bushes ex-
ceptionally early.
That doesn't bother the producers and it
makes organizers of the annual Maple
Syrup Festival very happy. Some years the
committee has worried there wouldn't be
enough fresh syrup to satisfy the influx of
visitors who come to Elmira each year for
the "Granddaddy of Maple Syrup Festi-
vals".
If it ever happened that there was no new
syrup, the committee is prepared with
gallons frozen from the previous year.
Syrup retains all its qualities when frozen, a
good point to remember for anyone who
buys more syrup than they can readily use.
Since this year's festival will be held
Saturday, March 26, a time when winter
blizzards are not uncommon, the early sy-
rup season is probably especially welcome.
"We'll have lots of syrup for sure — new
by Kim
Dadson
syrup," said Dodie Hummel, president of
the Festival committee. Mrs. Hummel
heads up a 16 member committee which
meets almost year round to organize the
largest fund raising event in this town of
over 6,000 residents.
The population literally swells on Festival
day when thousands come to see crafts, uni-
que displays, countryside tours and also to
eat pancakes and apple fritters, smothered
in nature's own, maple syrup.
Visitors can also tour sugar bushes and
Mr. Weber has opened his sugar bush to the
public for a number of years. He welcomes
people to sign guest books and these provide
a record of a different type.
As well as coming from across Canada
and the United States, there are entries
from Mexico, England, Wales, South Africa,
Scotland, Hong Kong and New Zealand.
He enjoys explaining the process of boil-
ing sap into maple syrup. He is proud of the
history of his farm and the tradition of four
generations tapping the same bush.
Because he has the manpower to collect
the sap from the buckets on the trees, Mr.
Weber has not gone to the modern method of
collecting sap which involves linking all the
trees with a pipeline system and running it
to the shanty. Although a modern farm in
other aspects, horses are still used in the
sugar bush. Only a few miles from city and
town, one gets a feeling of being away from
it all standing at the door of the shanty in the
bush — the horses standing calmly in front
of a sled and the sweet smell of syrup drift -
through the air in the shanty.
It takes. about 35 to 40 gallons of sap to
make one gallon of syrup, depending on the
sugar content of the sap. A higher content
means less sap will be needed and vica
versa when a lower sugar content is present.
Like in any other industry, experiments to
improve the quality of syrup producing
trees are being conducted. Those involved in
such studies are attempting to find trees
with a high sugar content in the sap and en-
courage their reproduction.
Sap is brought into a holding tank in the
shanty where it is heated in a preheater to
about 180 degrees Fahrenheit. The preheat-
er, invented by a Professor Rathby at the
University of Waterloo, saves about 15 per
cent of the heating costs for the farmer. Mr.
Weber has used the preheater for about 10
years.
The sap is next boiled, an action which be-
gins as 211 degrees and at 219, it becomes
syrup, or in other words, the sap is now 66
per cent sugar.
A thermometer is one method used to test
when the syrup is ready. A hand held refrac-
tometer which tests a small drop of the
syrup is a second, more accurate method of
testing. The refractometer measures the
brix or sugar content.
Testing is important; if the sugar content
is determined to be less than 66 per cent, it
can be taken off the market. Syrup pro-
ducers have their own watchdogs"who help
regulate the industry and also protect
honest producers from those who would sell
something that kis not syrup. Government
regulations find their way' even to' sugar
shantys in the middle of bushes.
Once the sap has begun to drip through a
spout bored about three inches into the tree,
there is little rest for the farmer until it
stops. It could mean working through the
night to keep up and it's a race to collect all
the sap before the weather turns too mild.
For a better product, sap should be collected
as quickly as possible and boiled for as short
a time as possible.
On March 4, when in other years the sap
has just started to run, Mr. Weber was con-
cerned that predictions of thunderstorms
would put an end to his production. "The
quality of the syrup goes down when it gets
too warm," he explains.
About 300 to 400 gallons of syrup are aver-
aged each year at the Weber farm. Syrup is
graded according to color, extra light, light,
mediusiii;atid&baking•syrup4thts,4 .est. w.
Mr. Weber is president of titeiocal Water-
loo Maple Syrup Producers Association, a
member of the Canadian Association. As
well as meeting to discuss common prob-
lems, the association sets a pricing scale for'
members to follow. Syrup will cost between,
$20 and $25 this year for a four litre can.
Syrup will be on sale in all sizes of con-
tainers at the Elmira Festival. The day be-
gins at 7 a.m. but work really begins the
night before when Arthur Street, the main
north -south road through downtown Elmira,
is closed and booths are set up for a mall
which stretches over one block.
Food is prepared on the mall and crafters
from all over Ontario will display their
work. The old fashioned method of boiling
down sap is demonstrated and will include a
free taste of maple syrup toffee.
Other events at the Festival in'`clude an
antique show and sale, an arts and crafts
show and sale, a coffee house with local
musicians, sit down meals and Old
MacDonald's farm.
The big attraction of the Festival is the
pancakes and includes this year will be a
slide presentation by the maple syrup pro-
ducers on how syrup is made. Mrs. Hummel
reports that 1,000 pounds of batter, 110 gal-
lons of syrup and 120 pounds of butter are
used Festival day.
Visitors can also take part in a country-
side tour and the sugar bush tour.
Areas of interest at this year's Festival in-
clude an antique truck display sponsored by
the Elmira Lions Club and the Antique
Truck Society of Canada, and CFCA will
broadcast from Elmira between 7 a.m. and
11 a.m.
All proceeds from the Festival are don-
ated to several charities in the Elmira area.
The first Festival, held 18 years ago, aimed
at raising funds for the local association for
the retarded. Today the association still re-
ceives -the major portion of funds but other
worthwhile groups benefit as well.
The Festival is planned for the family and
through the years attempts have been made
by the committee to keep a Festival atmos-
phere rather than a fair. It's a huge effort
put forward by a small town and all help is
voluntary.
Offers such as sugar bush tours by farm-
ers like Mel Weber, allcontribute towards a
successful event. Visitors are curious, not
only about syrup production, but about farm.
life in general;- and Mr. Weber enjoys the
rapport with people who come from around
the world.
In most communities, Minor Hockey is big
business, and without the volunteer help of
parents, that business just wouldn't operate.
However, parents can be the bane as well as
the boon of Minor Hockey.
Milverton has the type of Minor Hockey
system that has become exemplary of most
Canadian communities - a "cradle to grave"
system that has an age range of five to 19.
No system, no matter how well run, is
without problems, and the Milverton
organization has its share of problems with
parents and fans.
Kevin Reis is referee -in -chief for the
Milverton Referees' Association and also a
coach in Minor Hockey, Wearing two hats
has helped him see many of the problems
created by parents.
"They're always screaming at their kids
and the kid doesn't know what to 'do," he
says, adding the coach has often told die
player to do something else.
As a referee, Mr. Reis says his problems
with fans and parents has been more
pronounced. He has been punched, drenched
with beer and shouted at more times than he
cares to remember.
"Some guys can be really nice guys,
respectable in the community, and as soon
as you drop the puck they turn to animals,"
he remarks.
That observation is shared by Ron
Forrest, referee -in -chief in Mount Forest
and member of Minor Hockey in the town. A
referee for 13 years from house league right
up to the Ontario Hockey Association level,
he estimates lie has refereed over 1,000
games in some 40 rinks throughout this
area. He says some parents attending
games "have two different personalities and
you just can't compare them ... when they
get to the arena and their kids are playing,
they just turn wild."
"Some of them, their language isn't fit to
hear," affirms Mount Forest arena
manager, Bob Manion. "We've escorted a
few out of the arena for hollering and cur-
sing,"
When he is scheduled to officiate games in
two particular towns in the area, Ron
Forrest phones up ahead of time and asks
the police in those places if they will be there
at the conclusion of a game "so I can have
someone to walk out of the rink with."
"When you have to have police escorts out
of a town, it gets pretty bad," he says,
recalling that after one O.H.A. game, 50
people were chasing the referees down the
street, the town's police close behind
yelling, "Get running."
Over the years, he says, "We've been spit
at, cursed at, had pop, paper cups and tin
cans thrown at us. And in one incident,
we've had a referees' room door knocked
completely off the hinges.
"We can handle the kids, we can handle
the coaches, we can handle the managers,"
he relates of his on -ice experiences. "But
some parents are continuously cursing."
Mr. Reis notes that the problem is com-
pounded when players see their parents
yelling at referees. The players then start
abusing the officials, often resulting in their
expulsion from the game. He adds that
parents believe referees in small com-
munities are getting good money, and they
Although a modern farm in other aspects, horses are still used in the Weber sugar
bush to collect the sap. The bush is open to the public on Festival day. Tours leave
downtown Elmira on Festival day, March 26, regularly.
(the parents) are doing the officials a favor
by letting them referee.
"They are not being paid that much to
take the verbal abuse they get," says Brian
Elmslie, president of Minor Hockey in
Wingham and referee -in -chief there.
Protests are sometimes made, he says,
because of what some feel is "bad
refereeing", especially when it comes to
handing out penalties. But referees, he says,
are "more qualified to do the job than the
people in the stands."
Referees in the Ontario Minor Hockey
Association, Mr. Forrest points out, have to
take courses and write exams each year to
upgrade their refereeing cards. While ad-
mitting referees can never be perfect, the
calibre of officiating at games is now quite
high, he says.
Most of the problem, according to Mr.
Reis, comes from parents not watching the
entire game, but just their player sons. He.
says they don't take the game as a whole
into perspective and then yell about
situations they are really not clear about.
"The more parents yell, the worse it gets,"
Mr. Reis says. "And sometimes referees
retaliate against the parents' kids by calling
penalties on them, just because the parents
were yelling."
DISGUSTING SITUATION
As reported recently in the Toronto Star,
t e Metropolitan Toronto Hockey League
( THL), has sent letters to four teams
there, each naming a parent and saying he
should be banned if abusive behavior con-
tinues. The executive of Pleasantview, a
North York house league, has considered
barring all parents or at leastrestricting
them to glassed -in areas.
The sugar shanty, built by Me! Weber's father in 1944. On a wall in the shanty, a
record of the date when the sap started to run each year has been written.
The president of the North York Hockey
League, an MTHL affiliate, said the
situation there is "disgusting". He related
an incident in which a parent chased a
referee across the ice because he disagreed
with a call the referee had made.
A man who hit a referee during a kame in
January in the Monkton arena was recently
fined $200 in provincial court in Listowel,
after he pleaded guilty to a charge of assault
causing bodily harm. The man, from the
Monkton area, was a spectator at the game
and had climbed over the boards and
punched a 30 -year-old referee from Listowel
in the back of the head.
Conversely, Mr. Forrest explained, if a
referee ever laid a hand on anyone who
physically confronted him, "that referee
would have his card pulled so fast, he
wouldn't be a referee anymore."
Mr. Reis says parents have to learn to be
civilized. When he was punched, it was by a
12 -year-old who had been listening to his
mother abuse him throughout an entire
game. The result was that both the mother
and child were suspended from entering the
Milverton Arena for "three or four years".
Referees have the power to eject people
from the arena, which Mr. Reis feels may be
the only method to educate the parents. "We
( referees ) should throw people out
quicker." he recommended, mentioning
that if a fan doesn't leave, the referee has a
right to forfeit the game to the opposing
team.
Drunkenness at games involving older
teams is also a problem in the arena, he
says. and more stringent controls are
rnimisiimememosomossimilm
needed.
Mr. Reis warns.that if the verbal abuse by
parents does not stop, Minor Hockey will not
be able to secure any senior referees in
Milverton. The result could spell economic
disaster for the Milverton system, which
would then be forced to pay mileage to
referees from out of town.
The PeeWee team in Milverton, he says,
has had the most problems with parents. "I
can't get referees to do their games
anymore, they've gotten that bad a
reputation," he states.
Mr. Forrest says he has seen a lot of good
officials in Mount Forest and elsewhere
"just quit hockey because of the abuse they
had to take from the spectators.
He believes that abuse is worse now than
ever before, and he offers an explanation:
thereare now more "superstars" in the 21 -
team National Hockey League as compared
to the old clays of the six -team NHL. "The
parents feel now that their child is going to
be a superstar," he has observed. In some
cases, consequently, parents have become
more excited, intense, than ever before.
"I think some of them (parents) are
trying to relive their glory through their
children," offers Mary Lou Pfeffer, a parent
whose son plays minor hockey in Ayton,
south of Hanover.
"Some of the parents ridicule what the
coaches tell their son," she adds, with the
result that the son is caught between ttvo
authorities.
PARENTS SHOULD BE EDUCATED
Dave Shearer, another member of
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