HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1978-04-06, Page 14Page 14
Citizens News, April 6, 1978
800 gallons of syrup this season
Maple sugar bush is a big operation
The approach of spring
once again heralds that age
old tradition of the boiling of
sap of Canada's most
famous softwood — the
Maple tree and the produc-
tion of that elusive elixir
that we all know as maple.
syrup,
More than 150,000 gallons
of syrup were produced last
year in Ontario, according
to Statistics Canada. John
Butler, a maple syrup
specialist with the Ontario
Food Council says 90 per-
cent of the syrup sold is as
maple syrup while the
remainder is marketed as
taffy, maple butter and
maple sugar. There are
between 2,000 and 2,500
maple syrup producers in
Ontario.
All maple syrup sold in
Ontario must be labelled
"Maple Syrup" or "Pure
Maple Syrup." It's 100 per-
cent pure. The name and ad-
dress of the producer or the
packer and the quantity of
maple syrup must appear on
the container.
In Ontario, maple syrup is
graded at the option of the
packer. The grades Canada
No. 1, Canada No. 2 and
Canada No. 3 are an indica-
tion of color and flavor.
Canada No. 1 maple syrup
with its light to medium
color and delicate flavor is
ideal for table use. Canada
No. 2 maple syrup with its
darker color and more
pronounced flavor is ideal
for cooking. Canada No. 3
maple syrup is used
Few accidents
Only four accidents were
investigated in the area this
week, two of them being hit
and run incidents in Zurich.
There were no injuries in any
of the collisions and damage
was minor. •
Monday's ice -coated roads
created havoc for -motorists,
but most escaped unscathed.
The lone accident reported
involved a tractor -trailer
which jack-knifed just south
of Exeter on Highway 4.
Driver of the vehicle was
Thomas H. Thompson, RR 1
Tiverton. Constable Don
Mason investigated the
collision and set damage at
$1,500.
Both the hit and run
accidents in Zurich were
reported to police on
Saturday morning. The
damaged vehicles were
owned by Donat
Beauchamp, Zurich, a1d
T.B. Cann, Exeter. The
latter had been parked at the
arena lot, while the other
was damaged while parked
on Goshen St.
Damage to the
Beauchamp vehicle was
listed at $250 and $75 to the
Cann car.
The only other accident of
the week involved two
vehicles on the parking lot at
the Hensall Hotel. Damage
was listed at $400 to the
vehicles of James Hutchings
and Sarah Hoy.
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SPORTS & RECREATION LIMITED
VARNA, ONT. 1-262-5809
primarily in the commercial
food industry and is not
generally available to the
consumer.
One of the largest
producers of syrup in this
part of the country is Albert
Schilbe of RR 1, Bayfield.
The Schilbes have
been in business for seven
years and have between 60
and 70 acres of land. They
tap approximately 30 acres
of that land per year.
From the 2,700 taps which
are in place, 36,000 gallons
of sap will wind up in the
evaporator to come out as
800 gallons of syrup.
Schilbe says that the quali-
ty of the syrup this year has
been excellent with a high
sugar content. Syrup usually
contains between one and
four percent sugar.
When the sap starts run-
ning, which it has been for
three weeks, "its a 24 hour
operation," Schilbe says.
The evaporators which
are manufactured in
Quebec, burn enough wood
in three days to heat a home
for an entire year according
to Schilbe.
This modern equipment
makes it possible to boil 130
gallons of sap per hour when
the sap is flowing at its full
rate.
When asked if the constant
tapping would disminish the
trees capability to produce
sap, Schilbe replied no, but
that he lases three to four
trees per year for various
reasons.
In the Schilbe sugar bush
nary a cast-iron spigot or a
tin pail are present in the
bush. Instead, purple tubes
are strung from tree to tree
puncturing trunks before
falling away to the next tree,
tubes joining the forest's
lifeblood with huge silver
tanks, all over the throb and
pulse of the vacuum pump.
The plastic spigots allow
the sap to flow into one main
plastic tube. This bush.
resembles a convention of
clothing line manufacturers
rather than an old fashioned
softwood forest.
Everything has purpose,
reason and efficiency as the
vacuum pump draws the sap
from the trees to the central
storage bins where it awaits
the boiling tank. The tubes
are purple for a reason, they
attract enough heat to thaw
those lines on cold spring
mornings, but they do not at-
tract too much sun as black
tubes will causing the sap to
mould.
The plastic spigots are
high on the trees this year.
They were put in place early
in February and there was
so much snow the freezing
men on snowshoes were
forced to put them in high on
the trees. Now the snow has
melted and the tubes are left
hanging like some sort of
purple moss many feet from
the muddy earth,
The lines which are made
of soft plastic and are
transparent, make it easy to
find any leaks. The vacuum
quickly falls in pressure and
it is a simple job to see
which of the main lines is
carrying air instead of sap
and follow it back to the
source.
The entire operation
would please even the most
ardent energy conser-
vationist as little is wasted
in the sap's transformation
into syrup. The steam from
the boiling of the syrup is
used to heat copper tubes
which in turn heat the sap
before it gets to the tanks
where it must boil to get to
the syrup stage.
The sap itself is used to
soften the crusts of sugar
which have boiled hard on
the insides of the boiling
tanks, Sap is allowed to sit in
a holding tank outside for a
few days and it turns milky
and then vinegary. This sap •
is then run into the boiling
tanks and let sit for quite a
few days. This. softens the
residue boiled hard on the
inside of the tanks and when
the tanks are drained it
takes little scrubbing to
have them spotless.
While the process behind
the making of the syrup may
have changed one thing has
not: the maple syrup still
tastes the same over a
plateful of pancakes.
IMPORTANT MECHANISM — In a modern sugar bush one of the most important parts is the
pump which ensures that the sap gets from the trees to the evaporator. Checking the pump
over is Bert Schilbe, the owner of the sugar bush located north and east of Bayfield.
Photo by McKinley
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