The Rural Voice, 2005-03, Page 18•
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Bill Robinson, top in front the evaporator, has made maple syrup in everything from a sugar kettle to steam pans. He's
one of the few Ontario producers who make their living from syrup. Below, Susanne Robinson shows some of the
products she processes and sells from their 12,000 -tap operation.
14 THE RURAL VOICE
Occupation and
obsession
Bill and Susanne Robinson have been
making a living for gears making maple
syrup, a farm commodity usually looked
on as a sideline or hobby.
Story and photos by Keith Roulston
The new sugar house at Robinson's Maple Syrup near
St. Helen's in northern Huron County instantly tells
you you've come a long way from the days when
making syrup was a small sideline on many Ontario farms.
Take for instance the lunch room where we're sitting as
Bill Robinson tells of the latest updates in one of the
largest syrup operations in Ontario. The second floor room
for workers looks down through a large picture window on
the syrup -making equipment, gleaming in a bright light of
the two-storey main Work area. Off to one side is a boiler
room where steam is generated to heat the pans. On
another side is the room holding the three reverse osmosis
units that, if they're running at full capacity, can take 40
gallons a minute of water from the sap flowing into the
sugar house.
"The nice thing is this building is all insulated," he says.
"The other building wasn't so you had problems with stuff
freezing up."
But the biggest advantage of the new building, entering
it's third syrup season, is the convenience of being right at
the main bush with half of the sap flowing right to the