Kemble Maple Syrup Tour

The Kemble Maple Syrup Tour takes you to 7 farms with different styles of maple syrup production including the one I featured yesterday.  Although we only visited the one we knew would be wheelchair accessible this year, the other farms are equally interesting, so let me share some highlights from3 years ago.

Regal Point Elk Farm also has a big maple syrup operation.  You drive to the sugar bush through the elk pasture, bulls on one side and cows on the other.  What a farm gate!

Like the other larger operations, this one uses blue tubing through the woods, running to a central pump and storage tank.  from here the pump feeds it into the sugar shack for processing.

The farmer sells this good-sized evaporator as the first electric evaporator in Canada.  Imagine, no firewood to cut, chop and toss in the firebox.  He claims it is 15% cheaper, though I would claim it's also 15% less traditional.

This photo shows two of the new plastic spiles as well as the collecting tubing.  The spiles are just put in for the season, but the tubing is left in place for next year.

One of the bull elk, just starting to grow antlers, saying hello as we left.  They sell the hard antler to pet stores, the velvet antler which is good for both humans and dogs, and the meat, which sounds very healthy and nutritious.  They also sell breeding stock - quite the operation.

The other large operation has a traditional sugar shack, with the large raised roof vent, even though it's relatively new.

They burn a lot of firewood over the season!

Inside, the steam vents through the two large steam pipes, as well as the open roof vent.  They have quite a large wood-powered evaporator.

They also had the grades of maple syrup on display, from the finest, on the left, to the dark, on the right.  We prefer about the middle, which has good flavour.  Much of the syrup you can buy from grocery stores is darker than the darkest here.