First sign of spring for maple syrup producers in Powassan

For maple syrup producers, spring has arrived and although the weather has taken another plunge below freezing, experts say the pre-work is done. March 14/21 (Alana Pickrell/CTV News Northern Ontario)

NORTH BAY — Whether you prefer to pair it with pancakes or waffles, this year’s batch of local maple syrup is starting to flow in Powassan.

“We want below freezing at night, above freezing in the day and when that happens the sap will flow,” explained Dave Matthews from Matthews Maple Syrup.

“We’ll turn on our vacuum pumps and the sap will come to our tanks and then we’ll start to process it.”

“We’ve already made 190 gallons of syrup so far,” he adds after the area saw a few warm days last week.

For maple syrup producers, this is the first sign of spring. Although the weather has taken another plunge below freezing, experts say the pre-work is done and now they wait.

“We’ve got everything tapped so far about 2100 trees,” said Dan Costello from Bella Hill Maple Syrup.

“That wind storm the last couple days gave us a bunch of extra work. We had to go up and pull the trees off lines and such, so we’re basically ready to start boiling whenever the weather warms up and it starts flowing.”

“Basically we’re set to go,” adds Lori Costello who runs the operation along side her husband.

“We’ve got the tanks cleaned out. The sap tanks each one holds 1700 gallons so they have to be mopped out and than pressure washed and they’re good to go, so we are set.”

Both facilities say they’ve been at it for over a week now getting ready for the short maple syrup season ahead and with full-time production just days away, local producers say they’re excited to be back in the sugar shack. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hinder what they are used too.

“Normally we have sleigh rides, we have the boy scouts here doing hot dogs and we entertain the people that are here,” said Matthews.

“I miss it a lot because I like to show and explain. There’s a lot of stuff, a lot of science behind what we’re doing here in making maple syrup and it’s not just straight boiling water,” he adds.

Bella Hill Farms has also had to limited visitors during the past year.

“In the past we’ve had school tours and other types of tours,” said Lori Costello.

“Last year we didn’t have anything, so that was a change.”

“We won’t have any formal tours [this year], like we’re not conducting any big tours. But if we get a call in that’s a family that want  to come out, enjoy the fresh air, we’ll show them the shack and what’s going on,” she added.

Dan says it makes production slightly different.

“We like to see people enjoying what we’ve done here,” he said.

“A lot of people like to go for a walk in the bush and there’s a lot to see up there and see the lines and such, so that’s just seems to be part of the process.”

Although the pandemic has limited visitors, it hasn’t seemed to limit sales.

“We do farmers market in North Bay and farmers market has been going strong ever since the twenty fourth of May basically when they opened up the summer market,” said Matthews.

“Our sales were above what they were the year before. So people did come out. They didn’t get syrup here during the spring, but they definitely got it at the farmers market and even our winter markets are way above what they were a year ago.”

“The public are really supporting local, so that’s great,” he added.

This is a similar trend that’s been since at Bella Hill Maple Syrup who also takes part in the local farmers markets.

“We were lucky that the farmers market was able to pivot, as they say, and get us all at the train station,” said Lori.

“I do the Wednesday farmers market in North Bay so with all the protections in place, it was pretty busy and we did okay.”

“It seems to be quite popular. People really support us and you see it in a grocery store and think the price of our syrup is quite high compared to some of the other ones, but it still goes off the shelf,” added Dan.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Powassan’s annual Maple Syrup Festival has been cancelled for the spring of 2021.

However, experts are hopeful that by fall they’ll be able to start welcoming groups back to their facilities and that the festival will move forward in 2022.