Duffy's Lane Maple and Honey
by
Jen and Brent Roberts
15271 Duffy's Lane, Caledon, Ontario


Maple Syrup, honey, brown eggs from free range chickens,
At Duffy's Lane, Caledon, Ontario..
jug of Duffys Lane Maple Syrup 500 ml sizejug of Duffys Lane Maple Syrup 500 ml sizejug of Duffys Lane Maple Syrup 500 ml sizejug of Duffys Lane Maple Syrup 500 ml sizejug of Duffys Lane Maple Syrup 500 ml sizejug of Duffys Lane Maple Syrup 500 ml sizejug of Duffys Lane Maple Syrup 500 ml sizejug of Duffys Lane Maple Syrup 500 ml sizejug of Duffys Lane Maple Syrup 500 ml sizejug of Duffys Lane Maple Syrup 500 ml size
Friday March 5
We have been collecting sap and continuing to tap trees, but progress in the sugar shack has been slow and we hope to have the evaporator set up again to begin boiling on Sunday. This year we plan to set up the canner and filter in the sugar shack so you can see how its done and if your timing is good, you may be able to see us do some bottling.

March 4, 2010
We the 2010 season has started about 2 weeks early and we are scrambling to try to get everything up and runnning. We`ve added about 400 more trees to our tapping and all the tubing system to create that. Theres now about 4 km of tubing in the woods.

We will be working to get the evaporator back together and hopefully ready to do our first boil on Friday.
With the very warm temperatures in the 2 week forecast we are in danger of having a very short season. Too warm too soom brings the trees out of winter dormancy and they start to make leaf buds and that spoils the flavour of the sap. We`ll see what really happens.

Jan 13/10
We had many visitors last year who were on their way to the airport and wanted to take maple syrup overseas with them. This year will have added to the containers we offer with 1/4, 1/2 and 1 litre plastic jugs
that should be safer than glass for travel.

Jan 16/10
Our good neighbour has agreed to let us tap more trees on the back of her lot. That should add about 200- 225 more. We should have enough syrup to last through most of the summer.

Update January 11 / 10
Well the beginning of this years season should start in about 8 weeks. We've been very busy in the sugar shack, insulating it and putting some panelling on the walls, a new front door, and lino on the floor.

Starting to spend warm days in the bush. We hope to add about 100 trees to collection this year. We have a new reverse osmosis system to help reduce the water in the sap before we start boiling. This should save us a lot of energy. We also hope to have the filtering and canning gear in the sugar shack so visitors can see the rest of the steps in the process (not to mention getting it out of the kitchen for about 2 months).

We may tap some trees as early as mid February this year in hopes of getting one or two of those warming and melting interludes that come by occasionally.

Last year we had many more requests for the darker, more flavourful grades of syrup than we could supply.
The creation of darker syrup is mosty a factor of things beyond our control like air temperature and soil temperature in the bush, but the science of the process is giving some things to work on, like boiling time and how we finish the syrup so well try what we can. For reasons unknown, someone years ago decided to call the lightest coloured, mildest tasting syrup, ``fancy`` and the misnomer has survived until today. We do expect new grade naming that is universal in the US, Quebec and Ontario in the next year or two.

We`ll post here when we tap our first trees and get a sap run.
Update:  November '09
Well today Environment Canada made it official. Courtesy of El Nino we are "supposed" to have a mild winter.   That could mean we have a long intermttent season with a few days of the freeze/thaw cycles scattered throughout the winter and early spring.   Once again we are reminded that making maple syryp is farming and as such is very much subject to the fickleness of weather.

We are busy these days working on our sugar shack.  We're put in a new linoleum floor and have insulated the walls and are in the process, tonight, of trying to get a new front door on.  We have a stone walkway from the house to the shed and some grass was planted earlier.

We are down to the last dozen or so bottles.  If you want to get some we suggest you call first.

2009 Production
Total sap collected
17,600 litres
Sap in holding tank to boil
0 litres
Light Syrup: mild maple flavour
165 litres
Medium Syrup: medium maple flavour
90 litres
Amber Syrup: distinct maple flavour
55 litres
All syrup has been bottled now and we have light, medium and "Amber" grades available for pick up or shipping.  
Next Boiling
some time in March 2010

To far to drive to our farm.  We have some syrup available at my
day job near Dixie Rd and 401 click here for a map.
Visitors

Visitors are welcome but we must emphasize that we have a very small sugar shack.  Only enough room for 4 or 5 people inside at a time.   We have no sugarbushing features like hay rides to the bush or pancakes.    If you would like to come and see how it's done, we'll be happy to chat and answer questions, share a cup of coffee.  If you would like to hike back to the bush to see the traditional buckets on the trees, we'll go back with you and you can taste the "before" version.   We can also show the new bags that coming into use.  They're better at keeping the rain and debris out of the sap.   This year we also installed about 1.5 Km of tubing connecting the trees, and hopefully we'll have a vacuum system running on that. The big commercial producers all use vacuum these days.

If you have larger groups or a classroom of kids, we suggest you search out sites like the Kortright Centre or Black Creek Pioneer Village..
2009 Season Progress and Surprise

Well we ran out of wood before we ran out of sap.  If you look around here you wouldn't beleive it.  There are
piles of wood everywhere. But this was all cut this winter and must be seasoned for a year before we use it to heat the house and run the boiler. The evporator will burn as much wood in the maple season as we use to heat the house for 6 months.   Anyway plans are underway for next season.

 


We have been making maple syrup on a small scale since moving to Caledon a few years ago.  Our friends that we shared the syrup with raved about it, so this winter we decided to get a bit more serious and have a new evaporator mades just outside Quebec City. 


Visitors will be welcomed when the sap starts to flow.  Normally the season is from about March 21 to April 15 but it is totally weather dependent.   We will post notices here when we are starting to make syrup. 

On a normal day we start collecting sap from the buckets around noon and start boiling a little later.  When the flow hits peak we often need to boil from 7:00 AM till midnight. 

We will have syrup for sale in sizes from  50ml to 4L.  We will be posting prices here soon, with pictures of the containers.   If you would like to reserve some, or come up to visit, please give us a call at   905 - 880 - 7876

We can ship also ship if you can't come by.  

To find us on Google maps click here.  You can then click on the Satellite view and zoom in to see the long driveway and the sugar shack to the right of the house, just above the pool.  


To get here:  see our maps page (with satellite view)
To get here from the city come up 427 to the end,
Take Hwy 7 west about 2 Km to the first stoplight, which is Hwy 50.
Come north on Hwy 50 right through Bolton to Castlederg Side Road (stoplight) and turn left (west) to Duffy's Lane Come north about 1/2 Km to 15271.

collecting maple sap from the buckets in the woods
 My wife collecting maple sap early in the season with snow still on the ground.  The best syrup comes from the early run.  The collection jug can be seen just beyond our dog. While the snow is on the ground these have to be carried to a snowmobile for transfer to the Sugar Shack by the house.
the sugar shack is to the right of the house
The Sugar Shack is the small building near the right edge of this picture. 
This is a view of our home taken from the road.  A small pond is under the trees in the foreground.  The stand of maples and beech trees can be seen behind the house.
Duffys Lane Maple sugar shack And the same view with the crop half covered with snow
Maple syrup buckets in the forest
 There are about 25 buckets on trees in this picture.  Firewood for the boiler in the foreground.  Snow is just about all gone but ice is still on the pond.  Life is a little easier now because the Gator can get back to the woods. This year we tapped 54 trees. In 2006 we tapped about 80 trees.  Now looking for a bigger evaporator.  Neighbours are offering to let us tap their trees.  ( I think some kind of exchange is expected in the offer )   In 08' we might get up to 200 taps.
the small maple syrup evaporator
 Boiling on the back deck.

This is the small evaporator we used in '06 and '07.
.

The new evaporator is installed in our Sugar Shack.  Out of the wind, rain, snow etc.
our maple syrup evaporator in full boil
 The evaporator doing its thing.
 
The smaller pan on top preheats the sap, which trickles slowly into the main pan for boiling. 

The trick is to either match the trickle to the boil and top up the preheater with 5 gallons every 45 minutes or ... This rig boils down about 5 to 7 gallons per hour depending on how good the wood is and how often you stoke the fire.

Adding a blower to the lower front door just about doubles the throughput.   Extra sections of stove pipe have been added for better draft.   We added more stack in the second season. .
Bottles of maple syrup in our kitchen
 And after all the hours of cutting wood, spitting it, drying a year before you need it, tapping the trees, collecting sap, and boiling sap you still need to bring it inside to the stove to finish it to exactly the right density.  Too much boiling and the sugar comes out as rock hard large crystal.  Too little and it just isn't legal maple syrup.
A view of the Maple forest
 The maple woods seen from the back deck of the house mid winter.

Our free range chickens
 Some of the chickens the year Rory the Rooster ran the run. A few weeks later, there was no more Rory. Fate unknown.  But he's not chasing Jen any more. This year (2006) we started with 22.  Now there are 21.
Getting about 18 eggs a day with deep almost orange thick yolks. The grasshopper population is getting thin.  The entertainment value will go down with the grasshopper population.


our stand selling maple syrup at the Bolton Farmer's market Jen talking with visitors to the Bolton Farmer's Market.

This summer, 2009, it runs from 3 to 8 PM on Thursdays.

We ran low on stock very quickly so we're not doing the market any more. We hope the syrup we still have will be enough for the folks that come to visit us at home.

the chicken coup and some of the bee hives
 The beehives in their temporary home beside the chicken container.   Last years largest colony is on the right.  The others are the new Russian bees with various feeders to help them start building.  When they are at full mid summer strength there are nearly 1/2 million bees living there.

deer visiting in the spring with the Maple forest in the background
 Deer visiting, back when we still welcomed them. They seem to like the Alfafa sprouts.  After we caught them eating all the fruit tree blossoms the welcome mat was pulled in.  Last year only 2 apples grew to ripe fruit, and one fell of and got wormy. In June 2006 the fruit trees have over 100 golf ball sized apples.  Yelling, banging of pots and chases by the border collie are hopefully going to be enough to save a few more this year.
a close up of the deer
 Telephoto shot of them way back near the woods.
Hay drying in our back field
 The alfalfa and timothy crop (aka hay), June 2005, cut and drying in windrows, then bailed. In 2006 we are letting the alfalfa go further into bloom to let the honeybees have a feast.  So far they have not got the message.  They're going off and finding their own supply of something.  About 20% of the crop is in bloom and I have spend hours in the middle of it (pulling thistles that the horses won't eat) and have not seen ONE single honeybee.
A view of he house from the road
 A wider angle view from the same point as above with a bit of snow on the ground.
Our John Deere tractor
 The John Deere tractor is 90 Hp and will be just powerful enough to pull the baler and a hay wagon up and down the hills on the property.  We hope to be able to do the odd job cutting for some of our neighbours who also have the same problems we had.  When the sun shines the farmers make their own had and it's hard to find one that will come and do small lots like ours.


Making Syrup
Syrup for sale
Honey Hay and Eggs
Maps
Crops
Merlin RO system