Fall In Love With Maple at family-run sugar bush
After just four years of producing a Sunday morning table topper, the Beers family turned Maple Grove Syrup in Severn Township into one of the region's largest maple syrup producers.
In 2012, Brent and his wife Amy bought their home located on 50 acres of land on a whim, taking a gamble on the unknown.
"An elderly man had owned it, and it was literally walk in off the road and asked the gentleman if he wanted to sell," said Brent.
"We knew it was kind of a sugar bush, and we could see the old sugar camp from the road but didn't really know how many acres it actually had or how good a sugar bush it was," he added.
It took five years for the Beers to fully tap the land to its full potential, starting with 35 taps and buckets and growing it to more than 1,100, all while making about 2,000 litres of syrup annually.
Brent said they first started boiling sap after a neighbour had stopped by and mentioned syrup hadn't been made at that camp since the 1980s.
"We were quite honoured to kind of have that going again and thought that was kind of something special," he said. " To have that happening again in this bush to liven it up again, bring it back to life."
RECOVERING FROM DISAPPOINTING SEASON AND PANDEMIC
The family is looking to continue bringing the camp to life.
While tapping trees and making syrup, the Beers would occasionally host group tours at the sugar bush, giving syrup lovers a look behind the scenes.
But last year's mild winter and spring temperatures resulted in a disappointing season.
"Probably the worst season we've experienced so far," said Amy. "We found that the temperature didn't cooperate with us; it wasn't fluctuating the way we needed to see it."
When they tested the sap for its sugar content, they found it only had half of what they were expecting, pushing the couple to make alternative products along with syrup with what sugar they had, including candies and butter.
The sugar content was just half of the couple's problems with activity reduction on the farm with the pandemic.
"Because of COVID and the way things have been the last couple of years, OMSPA normally hosts an event in the spring called maple weekend, and that's been cancelled for the last two years," said Amy.
At the same time, guests hoping to get an up-close glimpse at the syrup making would have to watch the process from a distance through a window outside the sugar camp.
With the fall colours upon us, the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association (OMSPA) hopes to get people to 'Fall in love with Maple' all over again and bring them back to the Sugar Bushes across the province.
"This is really the first organized event that we've been able to do in two years," noted Amy.
"It's brand new, it's completely different seasons, so we're not actively making maple syrup, but we do have the walking tours, the bush and the pipeline, and you can kinda see what the setup is before the season."
Fall In Love With Maple runs from Sept. 25 until Oct. 3.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Saskatchewan households will continue to receive carbon tax rebate: Trudeau
Households in Saskatchewan will continue to receive Canada Carbon Rebate payments, despite the province refusing to remit natural gas levies to the federal government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer filled with relief and grief following acquittal in death of Toronto police officer
'We hoped for this day, but we were scared that it would not never ever come because it took so long.' That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
Senate expenses climbed to $7.2 million in 2023, up nearly 30%
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko won't play in Game 2
The Vancouver Canucks will be without all-star goalie Thatcher Demko when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
Pedestrian, baby injured after stroller struck and dragged by vehicle in Squamish, B.C.
Police say a baby and a pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a vehicle struck a baby stroller and dragged it for two blocks before stopping in Squamish, B.C.
North Bay doctor accused of assaulting patient, threatening another
A North Bay doctor is facing charges after allegedly assaulting a patient with a weapon and threatening another person at the hospital, police say.