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Posts Tagged ‘Maple Syrup’

Maple Day – April 8th!

Posted in Day to Day Life, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 6, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Spring must be on its way. When the maple syrup starts running you know tulips and crocuses can’t be far behind.

Between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm on April 8th, your family can walk through a sugar bush and watch the process to turn maple sap into delicious maple syrup. Maple Day is all happening thanks to a group of local Maple Syrup producers.

You will find Johnson’s Sugar Bush on the Oak Ridge Moraine on County Rd. 28. The family now has 1000 sugar maples – an accomplishment that has evolved over 25 years. Craig and Marissa Johnson will give you a tour of their sugar house and show you all the ins and outs of maple production.

Puddleduck Farms is relatively new in the maple production business – just 8 years. Visit them at the Kentucky Sugar Bush, south of the village of Millbrook on County Rd. 10. You can buy syrup, maple butter and maple candies from their farm on Glamorgan Rd or at the Millbrook Farmers’ Market.

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Source: https://www.facebook.com/280714355416026/photos/a.450986878388772.1073741829.280714355416026/773962446091212/?type=3&theater

J & K Sugar Shack now share their maple syrup products with the public – their efforts for their own consumption have grown into a small business. You can find them on Challice Line South in the village of Millbrook. You can sample maple syrup products and baked goods.

You can find Siblings who produce Squirrel Creek Farm’s Syrup on Brackenridge Dr. west of Bailiboro. If the weather cooperates you can see sap turned into syrup using traditional wood heat. And be sure to bring your appetite to enjoy the pancakes and sausage that will be available for sale.

Sugar Rush Maple Bush is a new operation on Deyell Line. See the sap running and enjoy the sweet smells – the aroma of spring!

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Source: https://www.facebook.com/1430373270594784/photos/pcb.1820790191553088/1820789918219782/?type=3&theater

Staples Maple Syrup has been making syrup since 1813! They harvest sap from 3600 taps on their family farm on Hwy 7A between Cavan and Bethany. But the equipment is all new including an industrial sized oil-fired steel evaporator and a state of the art reverse osmosis system.

The Winslow family has been operating Woodleigh Farms for 4 generations. You will find them on Sharpe Line in Cavan where maple syrup has been part of the operation since 1988.

MT Wilson family farm is a hobby operation but their roots go back more than a century. You will find them on Bland Line in Mount Pleasant.

Now Maple Day is dependent on the weather, so fingers crossed. The producers need mild days and cool nights to ensure a good harvest and fast flowing sap. Fingers crossed for April 8th!

 

Jeffrey.Kerr.Enjoying.Moores.Maple.Syrup

Jeffrey Kerr enjoying maple syrup!

 

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Kawartha Choice FarmFresh – From the Farm to Your Table in Bethany!

Posted in Businesses in Bethany, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 31, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Kawartha Choice FarmFresh was created to help consumers easily identify nutritious, great-tasting local agricultural products grown and produced in the local Kawartha Region.

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The Kawartha Choice Farm Fresh members provide residents and visitors with an amazing array of choices when it comes to locally grown fruits, vegetables, meats and other products.

Members include:

  • 36 Farms
  • 3 ‘Agri-tainment’ venues
  • 9 Restaurants
  • 5 Retailers
  • 6 Farmers’ Markets
  • 3 Food Service Providers

Now you might wonder about the Agri-tainment venues. They include:

  • Heaven’s Gait – trail pony rides daily;
  • Kawartha Country Wines – offering over 45 varieties of wine, complimentary wine tasting and tours;
  • Salem Alpacas – visit the alpacas or shop for clothing, collectables and gifts.

And if you are wondering what types of products you can find, the selection is almost endless!

  • Baked Goods
  • Beef
  • Berries
  • Chicken
  • Duck
  • Eggs
  • Fibre
  • Fruit
  • Goat meat
  • Goat Milk/cheese
  • Grain
  • Herbs
  • Honey
  • Lamb
  • Maple Syrup
  • Plants/Flowers
  • Pork
  • Preserves
  • Pumpkins
  • Sheep Milk/Cheese
  • Specialty Meats
  • Turkey
  • Vegetables
  • Wine
  • Wool and Wool Products

Support your local agricultural community and the farm families who produce the food. This helps to preserve our local farmland, helps the environment by reducing “food miles”, and expands the local food market. And an additional benefit – you will be building relationships with the farmers that grow your food; you will get to experience agriculture up close!

“Our region is filled with unique products and food experiences,” says Jamey Coughlin, Peterborough Economic Development’s Business Development Lead – Agriculture and Rural. “The Kawartha Choice FarmFresh Guide is a great way to connect consumers with local growers and producers.”

Print your Kawartha Choice FarmFresh Guide which includes a detailed description and map to local food, products, and agri-tainment at:

Kawartha Farm Fresh Guide

And if you have some local turkey sausage, onions, herbs, rice and beans on hand, why not cook up a batch of Red Beans and Rice for supper. Red Beans and Rice Recipe

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Ingredients

2 Tbsp (30mL) canola oil, divided

6 oz (170g) smoked turkey sausage, thinly sliced

1 ½ cups (375mL) diced onions

4 medium garlic cloves, minced

2 cans (15oz/ 443mL each) no-salt-added red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 tsp (5mL) dried thyme leaves

2 dried bay leaves

1Tbsp (15mL) Louisiana hot sauce

¼ tsp (1mL) salt

3 cups (750mL) hot cooked brown rice

Instructions

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat 1 Tbsp canola oil over medium-high heat. Sauté sausage 2-3 minutes or until richly browned on edges, stirring frequently. Set aside on separate plate. Reduce heat to medium.

Add onions and cook 4 minutes or until beginning to lightly brown. Stir in garlic and cook 15 seconds, stirring constantly.

Add beans, thyme and bay leaves. Stir in cooked sausages, hot sauce, salt and remaining 1 Tbsp canola oil. Heat until cooked through. Serve over cooked rice.

Find more recipes at http://www.kawarthachoice.com/.

 

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Buy Local Produce Near Bethany from Puddle Duck Farm!

Posted in Businesses in Bethany, People in Bethany, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 23, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Meet Puddle Duck Farm owners Merridy Senior and Eben Hancock. Puddle Duck is a 100-year-old farm, purchased by the pair in 2012. Since then they have filled their days with working on house and barn improvements, caring for animals including cows, chickens, ducks, goats, and two cats. And in 2013 baby Sawyer joined the family.

 

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The couple is not new to farming though. They actually began in 2009 when they became involved with running a local sugar bush just outside of Millbrook. The following spring, they added honeybee hives and discovered beekeeping. Finding Puddle Jump Farm to purchase was the next logical step.  

Now they focus on:  

Cut flowers – they planted 10,000 Gladiola bulbs the first year! Since then they have added sunflowers, zinnias, strawflowers, and asters. You can find their bouquets at the farm, community events, local markets, flower shops and the grocery store. 

Honey – their bees gather pollen and nectar from the wildflowers on the property. The Honey is unpasteurized and available in both liquid and cream form.  

Maple products – they have approximately 2000 taps to produce maple syrup at a sugar bush just outside of Millbrook. It takes 40 gallons of sap to produce one gallon of syrup! In addition to maple syrup they produce maple butter, maple sugar candies, and granulated maple sugar.

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If that was not enough, they also produce organic freezer meat and free range eggs.  All of the produce is grown without the use of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides or chemical fertilizers. 

Puddle Duck Farm also participates in a community farm, but that will be featured in another post!  

Connect with Puddle Duck Farm on Facebook at

https://www.facebook.com/Puddleduck-Farm-280714355416026/ 

Call them at (705) 931-5794
Visit the farm at 541 Glamorgan Rd., Millbrook, Ontario.

Send them an email puddleduckfarm@nexicom.net

 

 

 

 

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Tapping for Maple Syrup near Bethany, Ontario!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on March 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »

A small start to a large and wonderful tradition!

Maple syrup is often referred to as the first agricultural crop of the year. The process can begin when there is still a large amount of snow on the ground, as long as the temperature is right. The flow of maple sap is a much better indicator of spring than the ground hog!

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Moore’s Maple Syrup is available in many different sizes.

I recently spoke with Jim and Carolyn Moore, who began producing maple syrup in 1985. All good stories have a beginning – and it began with 25 taps on the maple trees along their driveway. They boiled the sap down in an enormous cast iron pot outdoors over an open fire. The result? 19 litres of smoky, dark and delicious syrup!

Jeffrey.Kerr.Enjoying.Moores.Maple.Syrup

I couldn’t resist adding a picture of myself enjoying Sunday morning pancakes with Moore’s Maple Syrup!

The next year they tapped 100 trees, using a variety of pails to collect the sap, followed by boiling in an old flat bottomed pan on a homemade furnace. Three short years after their first efforts they went all out and tapped the whole 17 acre maple bush!  They installed pipeline, and renovated a farm shed to be a sugar shack for their new stainless steel evaporator.

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The Moore’s Maple Syrup Shack in action!

Now, for more than 27 years they have produced around 900 litres per year from 1,000 taps.

Depending on the weather, they generally tap in early March, and boil whenever the sap runs — anytime up to mid-April, whenever nights are freezing and days are above 0.

I asked how much sap was needed to produce 1 litre of syrup and I was amazed at the answer – 40 litres of sap produces 1 litre of syrup! That is a lot of sap, a lot of boiling, and a LOT of firewood!

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Jim Moore tending to the Sugar Shack fire!

Right now Jim and Carolyn are tapping the trees, helped out by their two sons from Toronto.  They will be working on snowshoes because the snow is unusually deep.

After the tapping it will be time to focus their energy on washing the collection tanks, re-washing and re-assembling the evaporator, and generally getting everything ship-shape for the first boil.  The race is on to be ready for the first good sap run!

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Fun for the whole family at Moore’s Maple Syrup Farm!

The sap comes out of the tree with a sugar content of approximately 2.5%. It is then boiled until it reaches a sugar content of between 66% and 67.5% – a huge difference!

Don’t miss your chance to get some of this year’s fresh, local natural maple syrup.

$7 for 250ml

$12 for 500 ml

$21 for 1 litre

$64 for 4 litres

To order call 705-277-3471 or email Jim and Carolyn at moore.jc6@gmail.com

Tell them Jeff sent you!

 

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