Sweet News: Some maple syrup farms to open this weekend

Towards the end of the 2020 maple syrup season, Nelson McLachlan could have never imagined what was coming. It had been a good year at Fort Rose Maple Company, southeast of Parkhill, Ont.

Then the pandemic hit.

Fast-forward three years and the McLachlan family is ready to welcome back visitors to its pancake house and sugar bush.

They are among several in the area to open this weekend.

“We are all excited. We have things pretty well ready,” Nelson told CTV News.

His brother Colin is among the family members set to go.

He operates the farm’s newest piece of equipment, a modern evaporator, which uses 25 per cent less wood than their original unit.

Nelson McLaughlin of Fort Rose Maple Company near Parkhill, Ont. (Sean Irvine/CTV News London)

Thanks to the recent warm spell, it has already been busy turning sap into maple syrup.

Trees at Fort Rose Maple Company began releasing nature’s sweetest product on Feb. 6.

“The sap is probably the hardest we’ve seen it run. It ran for eight straight days,” said Colin.

“When we saw the warm spell coming in February, we decided we’d better take advantage of the sap,” added Nelson.

As winter makes a brief return it’s hard to predict the year ahead, but with certainty, it will be a challenge to beat last year.

In 2022, nearly 12,000 taps procured a record 22,269 litres of maple syrup.

Colin McLaughlin. (Sean Irvine/CTV News London)

Colin admitted a long season gets the credit. “We went into April, which is maybe one out of every five years we are able to make syrup in April in this area,” he said.

So, as the McLaughlin brothers hope for more good news in 2023, they also know there is only so much they can do.

Still, they hope good fortune prevents a year like 2010, where they barely had enough sap to produce a maple syrup crop.

“You never know with Mother Nature and what tricks she’s gonna throw at you,” concluded Nelson.

Sap lines at Fort Rose Maple Company as seen in Feb. 2023. (Sean Irvine/CTV News London)