Pure Maple Syrup

The following year we had 50 pails, the next 100, and so on until we found ourselves in 2017 with 250 buckets using a Sawyer Massey steam engine to fire the newly acquired evaporator.

After some research, conversation with other producers, and much deliberation, in the summer of 2018 we decided it was time to turn the hobby into a full blown business. The plan was to continue to use steam as the heat source and to see how many taps we could get out of the home farm’s 30 acre woodlot. In December of 2018, we began construction of the sugar shack and started running the 5/16 inch lines.

What makes our operation different than others are the personal ties and stories of the rest of the equipment we use. The stainless tank that holds the concentrate is the first tank Brian ever poured milk into when working for a neighbouring farmer as a child. Our existing evaporator is 4 x 4 ft. in size, and was previously owned and used by our friends and neighbours Cecil & Marybelle Cranston, when they were producing syrup in the 1990’s. Our canner is from the Cranston family as well. The boiler we use to produce the steam that fires the evaporator and heats our water for cleaning, is part of a collection of steam era engines and items owned by our father, Bill Vincent. It is the original boiler from the last Sawyer Massey steam traction engine made in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1926.