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Video: The sugar shack is open, so we paid a visit to Maple Hill Farm

The Hanmer farm taps 900 trees every season and produces about 1000L of yummy maple syrup each season

Spring has arrived (at least according to the calendar) and that means the sap is running — sugar shack season is back! 

Maple Hill Farm in Hanmer is certainly excited by the arrival of spring, so Sudbury.com paid them a visit to get to the sticky truth about making maple syrup.

Michel Larivière, who owns Maple Hill Farm alongside his wife Céline, walked through the process from sap to syrup, and it all begins with tapping trees.

“When the temperature creeps up above zero and dips again below zero at night, that’s what causes the sap to move in the tree, and that’s our sign to start tapping,” Larivière said. 

At Maple Hill Farm, there are 900 trees tapped. That, in total, produces about 1,000 litres of syrup each season when the conditions are right.

With modern sap-extracting techniques, don’t expect to see taps dripping into buckets to be hauled to the shack for boiling. Syrup-making now uses a system of plastic tubes that allows the sap to travel with the force of gravity to the pump house located at the bottom of the hill of their property. The sap will collect into a large tin basin where eventually it’ll be transported up to the sugar shack using a pump system.

Once it makes its way back to the shack, the sap is headed for the evaporator. At Maple Hill Farm, they’ve kept the tradition of using a wood-fired evaporator.

“The evaporator basically takes the raw product, and as it boils, it gets warmer and thicker and it moves its way towards the front of the evaporator to the final valve [where the syrup will collect],” Larivière said. 

Maple Hill Farm is on the site of what was once known as Despatie Maple Farm, a local syrup-maker that opened in 1967. In June 2017, the Larivières purchased the property. Not only are they a commercial syrup producer, but like many sugar shacks, they are a destination in the springtime, welcoming the public during the sugaring season.

“Maple Hill Farm is a destination place,” Larivière said. “One of the things it is known for is greeting school buses full of children who would learn about science and the environment and all kinds of cultural issues by coming to this farm. 

“It’s very much a part of the local heritage here and with our Canadian culture, too.”

The next public maple event people can look forward to is this weekend. Maple Hill Farm, 450 Dominion Drive in Hanmer, is hosting two days of family fun with food, drinks, taffy on the snow and semi-guided tours. Visit the farm for ‘Maple Weekend’ from April 2-3 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

For more information, visit the website here.

Eden Suh is a new media reporter at Sudbury.com.


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Eden Suh

About the Author: Eden Suh

Eden Suh in the new media reporter for Sudbury.com.
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