Tapping into nature

Maple syrup farmer, Robert MacLean, explains the process of making maple syrup at his sugar bush operation on the family farm, Hallaig Farm on the J. Angus MacLean Road. -There are two or three taps per tree.- Mr MacLean explains the boiling process.


By Charlotte MacAulay



It’s a sure sign of spring when the sap starts running said maple syrup maker Robert MacLean.
Mr Maclean and his wife Melissa Mullen have been harvesting the syrup from a seven acre area on their heritage farm, Hallaig Farm on the J. Angus MacLean Road, for the past seven years.
“It’s a nice product that people look for and it’s a great way to get a bit of income and leave the forest standing,” Mr MacLean said.
Mr Maclaen said the forest has never been clear cut as far back as he knows.
“It was 90 years ago when my grandfather cut down one of the trees and saw it was 400 years old at that time,” He said.
In that same forest today there are 1,250 taps all connected to a tubing system that winds through the trees and brings the sap from the sugar and red maple trees to a large vat with the help of a vacuum pump.
The ideal weather conditions to have a steady flow of sap are nights below freezing followed by days that are a couple of degrees above zero.
The season can be anywhere from 2 to six weeks and that all depends on how many good days said Mr MacLean.
He said 15 more days of running this year will make it a good season for yield.
Once enough sap is gathered it is pumped into an evaporator and goes through a series of boilings until it is just the right consistency.
One has to be very precise with the temperature or it will be too running or burn said Mr MacLean speaking from experience.
One of the first batches he made got too hot and was burnt.
“It was heartbreaking to see, but we learn from our mistakes,” he said.
The evaporator, which resembles the oven one would image the witch used in Hansel and Gretel, is made of stainless steel and the bottom sits directly on the fire.
Mr MacLean said they go through 10 cord of wood in a season. A batch can come to a boil in a half hour or less then it moves to another section of the evaporator for another boiling session. The last stop before bottling is through a filter and a third boiling.
It takes 45 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.
Mr MacLean and his sister visited sugar bushes throughout the Maritimes and read up on the subject when they first came up with the idea.
Mr MacLean said advice of others in the industry is ongoing and that is the main reason they added the vacuum pump to the operation this year.
It always worked on gravity and the natural pushing of the tree before, but now the vacuum allows a steadier flow and it also helps detect any leaks in the system.
Hallaig Farm’s sugar bush operation is in the middle of a sloping valley a mile away from main roads in all directions.
It’s quite a little trek to get to, but Mr MacLean said someday tours could become a part of the operation as he enjoys explaining the operation just as much as he enjoys making the syrup.
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