Duffy's Lane Maple
by
Jen and Brent Roberts
15271 Duffy's Lane, Caledon, Ontario
905-880-7876


MyPick local farmer logo                    
Link to the My Pick web site
Maple Syrup, brown eggs from free run 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


New Equipment for the 2012 season: Sap Sterilizer

This year we added yet another piece of equipment to help us do a better job in our out of control hobby.  We have added an Ultra Violet Sterilizer called a Sap Steady. When we bring the sap in from the woods, we pass it through a filter and then through this device.  It effectively kills off the microbes and yeasts that are present in the sap that would normally start feasting on the sugars that we need to make the syrup.  This preserves the sugars and extends the 'shelf life' of the sap giving a little better yield and a little more flexibility in processing schedule... and hopefully a few less nights boiling until 3:00 AM or thereabouts.  This is made by a suppler to the apple cider industry where the device is used to kill the yeasts that would make cider turn alcoholic.

Sap Steady UV Sterilizer for maple sap
The stainless steel canister is about 8" in diameter x 30" high (20cm x 75cm) and
has 6 high intensity UV bulbs inside.  The other box houses the power supply for the bulbs.


Dominion and Grimm maple cream - maple butter machine
Our new maple cream machine
The coke can is shown for perspective.
To make the cream we boil normal syrup down removing more than 1/3 more of
the water then pour it into the funnel on top of this machine and start it up.
The syrup goes through the internal blender and recycles up the tube and back
into the funnel until crystalization starts.
Then the valve is openned and the maple cream (aka maple butter ) fills the tubs.
The tub shown in the picture is a 1 lb / 1/2kg tub.

Our New Evaporator
Here is a picture of the previous owner drawing syrup from the
evaporator in their Vermont sugar shack.
Making maple syrup
This is Lee and his son preparing to start boiling.

firing the maple syrup evaporator
Here is Lee's father and brother firing (adding wood) to the evaporator.
Three generation of sugar makers in their family.

Too far to drive to our farm? We have some syrup and butter
available at my day job near Dixie Rd and 401 click here for a map to
HH Roberts Machinery .
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.   Just Jen and I doning it all.   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 fresh out of the trees.   We can also show the new bags that coming into use.  They're better at keeping the rain and debris out of the sap.   We have also installed about 3-1/2 Km of tubing connecting the trees, and have a vacuum system running on that. The big commercial producers all use vacuum these days.
We do not charge visitors any "admission". 

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

A few months after we moved to the Caledon Hills, we were coming home from Barrie and passed a little county general store with a sign out " Maple Syrup Buckets". We did a U turn and picked up 12 buckets. That was the beginning of our addiction. By the end of the first season we had nearly 50 buckets.  Our friends that we shared the syrup with raved about it, so we decided to get a small evaporator and move out of the kitchen to the porch. It just kept growing from there. 

Visitors are welcomed just about any time.  We sell syrup and maple cream on the front porch.  .Wen the sap starts to flow you're invited to visit the sugar shack and hike to the sugar bush if you like..  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.  Watch for nights when we get a freeze followed by an above freezing day.  That's when we get the best sap runs.  Remember we're north of Toronto and it's almost always a few degrees cooler up here.

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. You can see the bottle options here.  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.

The Duffys Lane Maple Sugar Shack
 Here's the Duffy's Lane Maple Sugar Shack with steam coming from the stacks.  The hay wagon on the left has the firewood (enough for the season we hope)
Kubota-RTV1100 and Gator maple sap haulers These are our sap haulers.  The Gator hauls in 70 galllons per trip.  The Kubota has a pair of 50 gallon tanks in the back and 35 gallons on the front, for a load of just under 1000 lbs / 450 Kg of sap per trip.

One days with a big sap run we bring in over 1500 gallons / 6000 litres of sap per day.
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.
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.
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 bush seen from the back deck of the house mid winter.

our stand selling maple syrup at the Bolton Farmer's market

Jen talking with visitors to the Caledon Farmer's Market. in Bolton.
This summer, 2010, it runs from 3 to 8 PM on Thursdays.

We will be there again on July 29,. 2010 and some dates after that, which we will post here.

For details on the Farmer's Market, click here

the chicken coup and some of the bee hives
 The beehives in their temporary home beside the chicken container.    When they are at full mid summer strength there are nearly 1/2 million bees living there.


The roof on the 'dome' was destroyed in the big wind storm Feb 18.  WInds hit 105 kph.  Just short of hurricane strength.

A note about the Caledon Farmer's Market in Bolton for 2012:  the market will now be on Saturday mornings and run from June 2 through to Oct 27.  See you there.


Wed Mar 14  Sap collecting and boiling is all over for us this year.
The trees have started to bud out and that changes the sap from sweet to sour. Normally sugar makers in southern Ontario tap on St. Patrick's Day. This year it's all over before St. Patrick's Day.
Well sleep deprivation is taking control. Too many nights past 2:00AM in the sugar shack. The good news is that since we finally got our ducks in a row and fired up the evaporator, we have not lost any sap. Production is going to be just under 1/2 of what we made in 2011. B U T we have one batch of the darker AMBER syrup. Syrup preferneces are like beer or wine preferences. For folks that like the darker more robust flavour of Amber, this is the first time we've been blessed with some. Some is in bottles now.

Sunday March 11
Just made a run to the bush and the sap is running into the collection tanks. In an hour or two the ice cake in the bottom of the tanks should be thawed so we can start to extract the sap and bring it in. The really big ice cube is in the concentrate sap at the sugar shack. That one is about 4' x 4' x 3' and will take a little more time to melt.

Saturday night update
They lied. It never got above freezing here today. And it was so cold last night that the concentrated sap froze into a solid block in the outside tank. So we never got a boil started. Good news if you wanted to come up to see the boil Sunday. The temperature here is supposed to be +1 by dawn and a high of 14. Should make a great sap flow in the bush.

Saturday Mar 10
We had a hard freeze here last night -13 deg. We will put the vacuum system on just after lunch but, like yesterday, the pipeline system may or may not thaw and give us a sap flow. We do have about 200 gallons of concentrated sap and wil be boiling this afternoon from about 2:00 to 6:00.

It will be very warm tomorrow, and that may trigger the trees to start budding out, a month earlier than normal. There are no night time freezes in the 5 day forecast so this weekend looks like the end of a real screwed up season. We will be lucky to get half the syrup we had last year. Visitors are welcome. Syrup is for sale off the front porch.  We will likely be raising prices next week if the weather is as forecast.

Friday March 9
This is going to be the worst season since Jen and I started doing this.  Normally in our area "tapping day"  is St. Patrick's Day, March  17th.  This year, syrup makers along the Canadian shores of Lake Erie are done.  The trees have started to bud out and there is no sugar in the sap.  We expect that with the forecast, we will have our last runs this weekend.  It will be a challenge for us to get 1/2 of what we got last year.  We had a good freeze last night, hitting about -4 deg.  The question of the day is will it get warm enough to thaw and start a sap flow.  A big freeze is forecast for tonight up here, -12 !! and then plus 4 on Saturday.  That should give us a good sap flow.  We'll see how it goes.

Monday March 5
A big freeze so nothing was happening outside.   We got some bottling done.  To see the sizes available, click here

Sunday Mar 4
We have had only two boiling sessions and both  started late at night and ran until about 3:00 AM.  The deep freeze tonight and - 4 as a high tomorrom means no more sap tomorrow.  Tuesday is forecast to have a high of +6 so we should get a real good run.
We have a something like 75 litres of syrup in the filter tank. Monday will give us a chance to get the first bottling session going.

Sat Feb 25
We have a few hundred gallons of fresh sap, all frozen solid this morning and the temperatures are supposed to DROP during the day. No boiling today. No syrup for sale yet.

Wed Feb 15
We have finished the main part of the tapping for our vacuum system.  650 taps in.
We will be holding off tapping for the 100 or so trees that we do with traditional bucks for a few weeks. The next couple days will be spent getting the evaporator re-assembled after cleanup. It's getting close !!!

Sunday Feb 12
70 more taps in so far today.  470 total so far, should be over 500 by the end of the day. The trees are still frozen at 3:00PM so there will be no sap run today.

Friday Feb 10
Well we got spoofed by the weather guessers again.  We got a bit more sap in last
Sunday and then it was too cold and everything shut down.  We now have 400 trees
tappped ... only about 200 more to go, and this is all on the pipeline system.  Jen's
traditional buckets won't be tapped and hung until the weather is clearly in our favour.

This year we will have a new easier to handle "wiskey bottle" for 1L / 1 quart sized customers.  The narrow neck at the top, like the Canadain Club bottle, will be much
easier to grip.

We will also have some maple sugar, in granular form.   Quite a few folks have been
asking for it.

Sat Feb 4, 2012
Well with this crazy weather there is certainly no concensus among sugar makers as to what kind of a season it will be and when to tap. In our area, St. Patt'y Day, March 17, has been "the day" to start tapping. This morning we tapped the first 100 trees and may have close to 200 done by the end of the day. The first run of sap is normally run off to waste, to flush the pipeline system. We still have to re-assemble the evaporator and get all the systems going. We may have our first boil by mid-week. It's going to be different this year. How different remains to be seen.

Sunday 5:   200 taps in, 400 to go.  The sap is running.  Now to get the sugar shack ready to start boiling.

Jan 28, 2012

We are sold out of syrup. Thanks to the folks who supported us.
The 2012 season is just a few weeks from starting.   Watch here for updates.


December / 11
It wasn't planned this way but .......
We burn almost no fossil fuels in the house. Woodstove.
We burn no fossil fuels making syrup. All firewood.
Now we have a Nissan Leaf 100% electric car.  It costs 1/10 of what
our gas car takes in energy costs. Total cost to commute to work for a year
will be less than $ 400. The gas car took a tank a week at about $ 70.
So someone better tell us were to find an offical "treehugger" T-shirt.


See below or click here to see pictures of the progress rebuilding the evaporator.
Our new evaporator for Spring 2011
Making Syrup
Syrup and Maple cream for sale
Honey, hay and eggs
Maps
Crops
Merlin RO system