High tech helps sugar shack
Smart technology spells sweet success for Black River Maple Products
Smart technology is helping produce higher yields at a Cape Breton sugar shack.
Neal Livingston of Black River Maple Products first ventured into the old-fashioned industry back in the mid-1980s, but said over the years syrup production had become unwieldy.
Production was down in the Mabou Highlands and, despite decreasing taps from 6,000 to 4,000, there was still a considerable amount work to be done.
Livingston said in recent years, the business was either breaking even or losing money.
“I was about 60-years old and I could have given up,” said Livingston, who is also an environmental activist, woodlot owner and filmmaker.
“I had some buddies in Quebec and I started talking to them about rebuilding the operation and all the options were very, very expensive and sort of like tearing everything out of the woods and putting it back in again.”
It wasn’t until Livingston discovered a new app technology by Quebec-based Smartrek Technologies that things started looking up.
“It allows you to detect leaks in the woods with your lines, so it helped us identify that we had about 10,000 micro leaks in our plastic line — big leaks, medium leaks and little leaks,” said Livingston.
“We literally tightened up about 22,000 fittings in the woods and a whole bunch of other holes from squirrels and bears and things. I mean, we’re always trying to fix the lines but we were never doing it as a comprehensive, full-on project.”
One of the benefits of the Smartrek app is its vacuum monitoring that can pinpoint a problem within one hectare, versus Livingston searching over roughly 15 hectares.
The sugar shack is now expected to produce as much syrup with 4,000 taps as it did with 6,000. Colder nights and warmer days create ideal conditions for sap to run, with about 40 litres of sap used to make a litre of syrup.
“It’s been a big deal for us to have this kind of high-tech technology,” Livingston said.
“It’s allowed us to have really good management. It’s sort of an ongoing thing with lines breaking in the forest when you have a lot of lines and tree branches falling on them in winter storms.”
Additional upgrades at Black River include an efficient reverse osmosis machine and an evaporator, which reduce boiling times and therefore produce a higher-quality product. A sophisticated computer also detects when the syrup is ready.
With less than a month left in the season, Livingston and his helpers have already produced 800 litres of syrup — the same amount gathered over last year’s entire season.
Black River products are available for purchase at most Sobeys stores around the island and are known to sell out.
The Inverness County sugar shack is open to the public on boiling days, although Livingston said it’s best to phone ahead due to scheduling irregularities.