SWEET SIGN OF SPRING
Retirees tap into syrup production
Warm days and cool nights are just what Don and Ivy Grant hope for around this time of year. This is the type of weather that provides ideal conditions for them to work in their maple bush.
“The sap runs best when it’s 5° C and sunny in the daytime and cold and clear at night,” says Don Grant. “The best run for the sap is +5/-5° C.”
When the conditions are right, the Grants spend much of their time in the sugar bush – known to family and friends as the Grant Settlement – just a short distance from their home in Smiths Falls.
Both former high school teachers, they moved to the area from Chatham, Ont., in 1974, and purchased a 90-acre piece of property, about half of it sugar bush. That summer and part of the fall, they camped on their land, while building a foundation for a modular home.
“Our second child was born in October and we had the house and electricity ready by the time she came home from the hospital,” says Grant.
“Just,” interjects his wife of 46 years.
The next spring, they tapped the trees and made syrup for the first time, and repeated the process almost every year for the nine years they lived on their farm.
When they decided to move to Smiths Falls in 1983, they kept the sugar bush portion of their land and, says Grant, after they retired in 2002, they got into the tapping a little more seriously.
“We started because it was there and it was something that we could do without it costing a lot,” says Grant. “The cost is all in time and energy. We have a lot of help from friends and family, including our grandchildren. It’s very much a family affair.”
But, he emphasizes, the maple syrup operation is not a business, The Grants, who average about 250 litres of syrup each year, go through the labour-intensive work of tapping/boiling/filtering and canning the syrup from 100 maple trees, but do not sell the final product. Instead, they give their maple syrup to friends and family, or host pancake breakfasts on the property.
“It is our secluded place of respite away from everything hectic,” says Grant, noting that they need an all-terrain vehicle to drive into the property in winter. “We are also into environmentalism. We use waste wood to boil the sap, for instance, and the sap containers are all recycled, so our carbon footprint is very small.”
Now, the property includes a cabin with a wood-burning stove, a sugar shack, a finishing room and a boiling room, even an outhouse – all built from recycled materials.
“I said I would be happy with a tent,” says Ivy Grant, “but I just love what we have. I’ve always loved being outside.”
“I enjoy the work,” says Grant, who adds that he never samples the product because maple syrup is too sweet for his taste. “We get our exercise and have something to show for it. It’s better than a gym membership.”