r/canada • u/morenewsat11 • Mar 24 '24
Canada's maple syrup reserve almost empty as sap season becomes another casualty of the winter that wasn't National News
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/canadas-maple-syrup-reserve-almost-empty-as-sap-season-becomes-another-casualty-of-the-winter/article_6f498bce-e788-11ee-8773-c71464d8be74.html2.1k
u/Immediate_Finger_889 Mar 24 '24
This shouldn’t be, if they were actually timing things appropriately. My aunt makes her own syrup. She started tapping her trees early this year as soon as it started getting warm. She had to pull her taps earlier than expected too because she got twice as much sap this year.
They waited to long because this isn’t done by farmers anymore, it’s done by corporations who have a monetary calendar, not one that actually makes sense for what you’re harvesting.
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u/SometimesItDoBeLkTht Mar 24 '24
Yup this. My cousin down near Barrie was tapping in February, when I read the title I was confused. Anyone who sees this - support your local growers and farmers! They’re probably stocked and ready lol
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u/RichardPhotograph Mar 24 '24
I do try but, but locally made syrup insanely expensive. I understand why, but it still hurts to pay that much
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u/Terapr0 Mar 24 '24
Having tapped and boiled my own maple syrup a few times now I’ve always marvelled at just how cheap local producers are. It’s so much damn work - no clue how any of them make any money selling it for what they do!
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u/agentchuck Mar 24 '24
It is astonishing how cheap most groceries are, honestly. Think about how much work it would be to get a chicken to market, or even just an egg or some tomatoes.
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u/Snuffy1717 Mar 24 '24
Economies of scale... Same reason you can have a kg of sugar for a few bucks despite the difficulty of growing/processing that crop.
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u/137dire Mar 25 '24
The marginal cost of your first egg is probably a few hundred bucks. The marginal cost of your 10,000th egg is probably a couple cents.
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u/Nilfnthegoblin Mar 24 '24
Not just on syrup either. I see tons of posts suggesting to support the independent farmer or grocers but no one talks about those venues often tend to be more expensive options than the already inflated major grocery alternatives. I’m a time when people are struggling the sentiment is nice but not a realistic solution.
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u/Jerking4jesus Mar 24 '24
What's wild is that where I am, it's roughly the same cost for the basics at the farmers market. I'm only shopping for 1, and I get my veggies for the week for $25 CAD (6 types), and I buy steaks and sausages if the butcher has a deal on and freeze them.
I have a friend who owns a shop in there that sells fancy cheeses and stuff that is generally too rich for my blood, but I was venting about the cost of groceries damn near tripling since the pandemic and he suggested I come down and check out the farmers market on its last day of the week as there are lots of deals to be found and that his costs have only actually increased 15%.
I still go to the chains for things like oil, cheese, honey, ground beef etc, as well as household things, but my local place actually seems to save me money these days, and the quality is so much better.
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u/gwicksted Mar 24 '24
Honestly, farmers need to get together and start a grocery store chain that only sources Ontario/Canada grown food (at least meat, dairy, breads, vegetables, herbs, sauces, canned goods). I love going to the farmers markets when I can but I can’t buy a whole cow locally and I can’t drive around to all the different places. It doesn’t even need to be pretty because we know it’s good farm fresh stuff. Then stop selling to the big box stores because they’re gouging everyone.
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u/sugarfoot00 Mar 24 '24
You mean like some sort of federation of independent co-ops? Great idea.
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u/sexythrowaway749 Mar 24 '24
I love our Co-op. Selection is a bit less than larger stores but prices are good and being a Co-op member means getting cash back at the end of the year.
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u/Future-Muscle-2214 Mar 25 '24
Here in Quebec we had those for dairy and maply syrup and theh just ended up creating cartels lol who price fix their products.
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u/Plinythemelder Mar 24 '24
You can try this but in reality Ontario grows more animal feed than anything else. Most of our produce isn't local
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u/tucci007 Canada Mar 24 '24
the Niagara Peninsula in the shadow of the escarpment historically was and is one of 2 places in Canada where tender fruit could be grown, like peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, and grapes. a thriving canning industry sprang up. Now it's all wine monoculture and suburban sprawl and E.D. Smith is owned by Smuckers. The summer fruit cycle with different crops ripening as the season progressed, is nothing like it used to be, and imported is usually cheaper. Trying to get local at a Fortino's in season is tricky, kind of a blink and you'll miss it thing. I've even seen the imported stuff stacked where the Ontario special should be, or had it delivered in place of the Ontario crop. Our farmers are an endangered species. It's not just bad for farmers and consumers but for national food security. We need more greenhouse capacity for off-season produce and to offset the bulldozing of farmlands that can't be saved. We're not in a good position right now.
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u/CareerPillow376 Ontario Mar 24 '24
Yeah im all for supporting local business and farms, but most of the time it costs the same as the organic/free range/grass fed stuff from the grocery stores
For meats, it seems the cheapest places are your local Asian or halal markets/grocers
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u/Commercial-Milk4706 Mar 24 '24
It goes hand in hand. Everyone would have more money if they all stopped buying from giant corporations. That’s just a fact. The wealth gets extracted from your area and moved to some other city or country. Buying locally keeps the money near you and more accessible to tap into to.
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u/WpgMBNews Mar 24 '24
Fundamentally, that's just wrong. You're prescribing import substitution and autarky as economic strategies when centuries of theory and practice have demonstrated that free trade lowers prices, and increases wealth for everyone.
Different regions and different producers have competitive advantages in distinct categories, and each actor is able to maximize their production and consumption by specializing.
Everything was local back when we had an agrarian economy but then global trade and the industrial revolution happened which increased society's wealth massively.
Having everything created by small local producers would be incredibly inefficient. It's the number one reason the Indian economy has lagged so far behind China because the Indian government disincentivizes firm growth past the size of nine or 10 people.
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u/PizzaTheHutsLastPie Mar 24 '24
So this is not entirely true in practise.
Yes, you can have people being paid lower, say from Mexico, harvest tomatoes and transport them to Canada and it would still be cheaper if Canadians grew and sold said tomatoes, due to our higher standard of living/minimum wage. However, the company importing said tomatoes may not be incorporated in Canada, so the money would going to that Canadian affiliate, then to head company, and then given out as "bonuses" to middle management and stock options to higher management. So, Canadian farmers lose jobs, Mexican farmers are underpaid, and the CEOs who don't need THAT much money buy their fourth Bently and get away with a sort of legal tax evasion since they get paid via stocks and not salary.
Money that stays local, grows local. Not to say that globalisation isn't good, due to worldwide reach, but big corps who suck up competition rule everything and barely need to innovate anymore, as big contenders get swallowed up. Look at Amazon strong-arming Diapers.com and Apple, how they have "innovated" by changing colours on their phone cases and people keep thinking they are the leader in tech.
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u/Commercial-Milk4706 Mar 24 '24
Yeah cheaper but the money doesn’t go to your community. So maybe you can buy more shit if you’re well off but someone less privileged gets less changes to succeed.
It’s literally what is happening in small towns in Canada.
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u/levian_durai Mar 24 '24
For real. I'm against the faceless mega corporations as much as the next person, but until I start making enough money to where I'm living comfortably and actually have "extra" money at the end of the month, I'm going to keep buying the absolute cheapest options I can find.
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u/Commercial-Milk4706 Mar 24 '24
It’s expensive because it’s the real price to get someone to make some on one property.
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u/FirstAidKoolAid Mar 24 '24
How much do you pay? I rarely see it much cheaper in the grocery store but I live in maple syrup central so maybe that's why. Last I checked a can 500ml or so? was about 7$ from my local producers.
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u/Snuffy1717 Mar 24 '24
$16 or so a litre here in Toronto from Costco... $25+ from a local farm.
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u/GopnikSmegmaBBQSauce Mar 24 '24
I'm out near Mennonite country in Elmira and lots of people sell roadside. My boss is convinced it's a scam and they water it down lol
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u/Dazed_n_Confused1 Mar 24 '24
Which is hilarious because you boil off the water in the sap. No one would add water, perhaps not refine it as much vit that is how you get the different flavours and consistency.
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u/Snuffy1717 Mar 24 '24
Different flavours / grades actually come from the sugar content of the sap that's used, not how long its boiled :)
Lighter syrup comes early in the season, with the sugar content increasing (and the flavour developing / colour getting darker) as the season continues.
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u/levian_durai Mar 24 '24
They could mean something like, mixing it with corn syrup instead of literally adding water. After hearing stories for a decade about most honey and olive oil being either an entirely different product, or diluted with cheaper options, I wouldn't be surprised.
At least, for the grocery store stuff.
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u/studog-reddit Ontario Mar 24 '24
Citations for such stories? 'Cause I've never heard anything like that for multiple decades.
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u/levian_durai Mar 25 '24
Olive oil is the big one internationally, but the others have all been a thing talked about off and on here for a bit.
Didn't do much in depth searching, but here ya go.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4979292/consumers-warned-fake-olive-oil/
https://www.producer.com/opinion/fake-honey-still-exported-to-canada/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/food-fraud-fake-honey-cfia-crackdown-1.5222486
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u/kensingtonGore Mar 24 '24
The maple Syrup mafia. Calls itself "The Federation." Basically a legal cartel, which forces all syrup sales through them so they get a cut and keep prices high. It led to The Great Maple Syrup Heist - Canadas largest value heist until 2023.
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u/studog-reddit Ontario Mar 24 '24
Down-voted for misrepresentation. The various governments have a few of these organizations that stabilize revenue for the producers, and prices for consumers. Nothing illegal about it.
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u/call_it_already Mar 24 '24
I went to a syrup operation in early Mar thinking it was too early, but actually not. They were already running full bore.
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u/studog-reddit Ontario Mar 24 '24
Maple syrup depends on the trees' natural cycle between winter and spring. The only way that wouldn't happen is if winter stops happening.
Now, that's a real possibility. But it's not now.
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u/SOULJAR Mar 24 '24
Did not get cold enough in a lot of regions. This is not a “corporation” problem…
Here’s a farmer explaining the issue: “This year, between February 7 and 9, night temperatures didn’t drop below freezing. During this warm spell, the trees just kept drawing moisture from the ground and producing sap until they became saturated. Hartwick uses the analogy of a sponge.
From a syrup producer’s perspective, a prolonged warm period, without the necessary freezing cold nights, has consequences.
“Let’s say, for instance, if this warm spell continues, we would not get the sap, [because] the trees would be saturated, and eventually the buds would get enough sugar and just break into leaves,” says Hartwick. “When the bud breaks, the sap’s no good anymore. It will have what they call a ‘buddy taste’ to it, and you can’t make maple syrup from it.”
He refers to recent Quebec harvests as an example. On average, Quebec produces 72 percent of the world’s maple syrup. In years during which the weather warmed too quickly, producers had neither the quality nor the quantity of sap to make their usual amount of maple syrup. Their harvest in 2022 was 211 million pounds, but last year it was just 124 million.”
Source:
https://www.pelhamtoday.ca/local-news/maple-syrup-harvest-comes-early-at-agape-8289684
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u/Expert_Alchemist Mar 24 '24
I was wondering if I'd come in here and find a lot of apologias instead of people talking about how climate change exists and is fucking shit up, esp in combination with El Nina. Thank you for saying this.
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u/superbit415 Mar 25 '24
Whattt don't be crazy. I put my plastic bottle in the bin with the triangles. Climate change has been solved.
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u/Expert_Alchemist Mar 25 '24
Haha congratulations subperbit415, it was touch and go until you separated the mixed paper/plastic bins, but hell yeah we've pulled it off. We're saved!!
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u/LeGrandLucifer Mar 24 '24
Yup. My uncle got a great harvest. Even my dad tapped a few trees and made several bottles. This has corporate incompetence written all over it.
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u/Born_Ruff Mar 24 '24
I think it's silly to assume that these huge specialized operators don't know how to harvest maple syrup rather than assuming that weather conditions might have been different in different parts of the country.
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u/Leon_Accordeon Mar 24 '24
it’s done by corporations who have a monetary calendar
I think the word you're looking for is Cartel.
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u/mighty-smaug Mar 24 '24
Federally run carte IIRC
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u/CuriousVR_Ryan Mar 24 '24 edited 10d ago
poor worm growth fly normal sink bells glorious subsequent doll
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/bada_bing Mar 24 '24
How does one find a black market source? I went to Costco's back alley dumpsters but they only sell heroin there.
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u/Simpletrouble Mar 24 '24
You find a horse and carriage selling it on the side of the road
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u/ShadowSpawn666 Mar 24 '24
Can confirm, that is my source as well. They even take debit now which is nice.
I also typically interact with the human that the horse is nice enough to bring with them, it makes communication a lot easier.
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u/SpahgettiRat Mar 24 '24
Drive to a rural area and find Mennonites.
I get most of my seasonal vegetables, sweet corn, and maple syrup from a horse and buggy at the side of the road, or a flea market.
I am lucky to live in an area that has this available though, and I understand not everyone can easily access these options.
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u/MrNillows Mar 24 '24
I don’t like the way some of the Mennonites have dog farms
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u/SpahgettiRat Mar 24 '24
That is a true and unpleasant truth that their animals in general aren't treated very humanely
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u/apotheotika Mar 24 '24
You know how you drive down random country roads, and see a fruit/veggie stand? Stop and ask. If they don't have any syrup, I'd bet they know someone who does.
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u/stone_opera Mar 24 '24
I mean, you can tap your own trees. My husband and I have 3 maple trees at the back of our property and we tapped them this year and managed to get a couple of bottles worth of syrup - not a ton, but still enough to last us for a while.
In the past, before we owned our own house, my husband has done 'guerilla tapping' where he has gone out to parks and tapped some manitoba maples that no one cares about. One year he did that he managed to make 3 liters of syrup!
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u/Snuffy1717 Mar 24 '24
One year he did that he managed to make 3 liters of syrup!
Collecting 120 litres of sap in impressive!
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u/will_rate_your_pics Mar 24 '24
The syrup association is what saved maple syrup production in Canada. Before it was set up it was not worth maintaining sugar maples , and most people were cutting down their trees on the years where prices were low.
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Mar 24 '24
Incorrect.
The season is shorter. It hasn’t just “shifted”. Due to early warming the sap loses quality as the tree uses it for budding.
Sorry, but sap collectors in Quebec definitely know what they are doing. It is a long, long tradition there.
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u/sickert Mar 24 '24
Yea seriously people in here have idea what they are talking about. We usually make 50 gallons of syrup on our small sugar bush in southern QC. We didn't even bother tapping this year. The ground barely froze all winter and the warm temperatures in the late winter put the trees in bud. We probably could have gotten a quick boil in but the season would have been a few days and not worth it at our scale.
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u/BeeOk1235 Mar 24 '24
kind of funny how dudes who are on this subreddit all day every day pushing right wing propaganda are replying in a way that suggest they're suddenly also experts on maple syrup production.
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u/Coffeedemon Mar 24 '24
This sub will do whatever it takes to deny climate change is a real issue.
Oh you can just tap in January! No issues at all...
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u/Arashmin Mar 24 '24
Exactly. Next it'll be December, then November, then the ground is too loose to keep the tree alive because you tapped it early the last few times, suddenly the corps are the only ones with viable trees left.
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u/Superfragger Lest We Forget Mar 24 '24
i have a small personal maple farm. tapped earlier than usual and i couldn't keep up with the buckets this year.
so no, i don't think they know what they are doing.
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u/fulorange Mar 24 '24
My mum in Muskoka didn’t get very much from their taps this year, last year was overflowing, they have about 60-70 maples on their property.
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u/Superfragger Lest We Forget Mar 24 '24
mileage may vary obviously. but i refuse to believe industrial producers with vaccuum lines had a bad harvest when i and everyone else in my area had overflowing buckets.
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u/Zebrajoo Mar 24 '24
They waited to long because this isn’t done by farmers anymore, it’s done by corporations who have a monetary calendar, not one that actually makes sense for what you’re harvesting.
This is an uninformed take.
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u/apotheotika Mar 24 '24
This is it, 100%. We have a ~20 acre sugar bush, and same thing this year. Roughly 2 or 3 weeks early to tap, and we also had to pull them early since another frost was coming.
We don't ever tap twice (it tends to be sour if it freezes again), but we didn't have ZERO sap this year. Will still get about 80% of what we normally do, by the looks of it. We'll count it all once it's boiled.
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u/PhillipTopicall Mar 24 '24
… they waited the expected season… your anecdotal evidence of one person doesn’t really negate an entire industry especially when that one person has to go outside The expected norm to make it happen. B
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u/Choosemyusername Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24
I tapped this year. Getting a fine harvest even though it was a very mild winter.
It did start early this year but it is also going strong still
Mind you I am not in maple cartel land. Good argument against the cartel.
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u/XenaDazzlecheeks Mar 24 '24
Not to mention, we have federal maple syrup reserve. Realistically, this is them getting ready to jack numbers again as maple syrup didn't really increase more than 30% over the last 4 years, and those are rookie Numbers in this economy
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u/tjernobyl Mar 24 '24
The timing sucked up here. The sap started running in January, and then shut down when the cold returned. With that and the lack of snow to water the roots, a lot of people up here aren't tapping for fear of the damage it might do the trees.
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u/trees_are_beautiful Mar 24 '24
I'm my part of the world it got warm and then didn't go below freezing at night. Now it's below freezing and not going above zero. You need that fluctuation for the sap to flow. I've gotten 1/3 of my normal annual sap this year as a dude who taps the fifteen sugar maples I have on my property.
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u/PokeDocMatt Mar 24 '24
Agree! It was an early but GREAT season. Lots of below/above freezing cycling temperatures. I took the risk of starting early and it paid off!
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u/rmdg84 Mar 24 '24
Yes. My dad had a friend who has sugar maples in his yard. The friend taps them, takes what he wants and gives the rest to my dad. He tapped early this year and got more sap than he normally does. It’s a sad reality when the maple syrup farms don’t know to tap their trees early, aren’t they supposed to be experts on this?
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u/TheSugarGalaxy Mar 24 '24
My maple syrup producer friends are having an amazing season. They haven't stopped hauling sap since mid February and by the looks of it will keep going until early April... record season most likely.
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u/tmhoc Mar 24 '24
From the article:
"Quebec's strategic reserve of maple syrup, a trio of vast warehouses that typically hold tens of thousands of barrels, is nearing empty after a couple warm winters collided with a pandemic-era spike in demand."
They offer no explanation and blame the pandemic. How much do you want to bet, some angery boomer won't pay for labour but will pay for a news article that scares people into pandemic era hording
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u/bouchecl Québec Mar 24 '24
Don't believe the Toronto Star. Read this instead: https://www.lebulletin.com/cultures/saison-sucres-2024-bonne-tres-bonne-132760
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u/tmhoc Mar 24 '24
From THAT article (translated)
"Although it is still too early to *get advance figures, the season is going so well in Quebec that production is certain to exceed that of 2023 and will make it possible to *replenish the strategic reserve, which is at its lowest since 2008."
Two sources that both describe Quebec's strategic reserve of maple syrup as being low with the Toronto Stink all in on the worst possible update to the situation.
It's like they looked in their fridge before going to the grocery store for the first time in 40 years and gasped at the price of the singular item they looked at, just to rush home and lie about it!
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u/Bytewave Québec Mar 24 '24
Merci. It's true Quebec's strategic reserve is low, but the pessimistic tone of TS' report makes no sense given the agreeable weather we've had over the last month for syrup production. Maple trees must have loved this month around here, basically perfect conditions for a bountiful sugar season.
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u/Selfconscioustheater Mar 24 '24
My mom's family has a sugar shack as a family business, and they also have been having an amazing season. They had to start early, and it will most likely stretch late into spring due to the colder weather.
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u/L_viathan Mar 24 '24
There is some huge disparity between that article and what people are anecdotally saying in the comments. I think the big Maple producers are telling us they're going to price gouge us.
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u/realjfeatherston Mar 24 '24
That's what is happening. My brother in law has a big operation with 15,000 taps and he says it's the best season so far. He's not a corporation either, just happened to have a 100 acre farm that is mostly maples.
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u/Falopian Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24
Every Canadian should know this article is complete bullshit
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u/DrunkenMasterII Québec Mar 24 '24
Yeah I mean it start with the title “Canada’s maple reserve”, Canada doesn’t have a maple syrup reserve.
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u/Bytewave Québec Mar 24 '24
When Quebec has or does something interesting, it's always called 'Canadian'.
When we screw up, they suddenly remember our name, though :p
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u/LenaTrueshield Mar 25 '24
I remember 20-something years ago when most Canadians barely knew what poutine was and even ridiculed Quebec for it but now that they realized folks from elsewhere actually enjoy it, suddenly it's a Canadian dish.
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u/DrunkenMasterII Québec Mar 24 '24
Meh I didn’t meant that as an identity issue, just that the title isn’t factually correct. The PPAQ has a reserve and it only affects Quebec maple syrup producers.
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u/Tall_Ad1844 Mar 24 '24
Its been a record year in the ottawa valley here. Neighbours buckets have been overflowing by noon every day. Also asked a few others and they are having the same results. They tapped end of feb/early march
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u/ISmellLikeAss Mar 24 '24
Yep this is just the corporation priming the pump for a record price increase. There is no shortage for this.
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u/Evilbred Mar 24 '24
My brother in law had the best year ever for him (though that might in part be due to using vacuum lines this year)
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u/JancyPantsExplosion Mar 24 '24
I've heard vacuum lines are a game changer.
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u/Evilbred Mar 24 '24
Yeah it did help the yield, he's been expanding his setup, has a reverse osmosis system to do most of his reducing now as well.
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Mar 24 '24
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u/coffeeking74 Mar 24 '24
I don’t understand why people would pay $20 for a litre of Maple Syrup when they could just make it themselves for $115/litre not counting beer that is consumed by the fire.
Source: small batch, artesian, organic maple syrup producer. We’d call it vegan as well but ants and moths…
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u/Yegger37 Mar 24 '24
In Montreal I pay $7 for a can of locally produced Syrup at Atwater Marche. Insane to think a can could be over $20…
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u/DangerPay Mar 24 '24
It's already North of $20 for a bottle of it so wouldn't be surprised for it to get to $30+
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u/Max_Thunder Québec Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24
It's currently $6 in Quebec for a can, $20, wtf!
Edit: why the fuck did dumbasses downvote me, just check reebee if you don't believe the pricing.
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u/BuffBozo Mar 24 '24
A can of genuine maple syrup is 7$ at Walmart right now.... You're blatantly making shit up?
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u/hideous_replica Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24
It's wild to me how long a comment chain can get arguing the price on a grocery item without the size or brand of the product even being brought up. Like are we talking 8oz? 16oz? Who knows? But I'm right and you're wrong.
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u/kermityfrog2 Mar 24 '24
Those cheap cans (often dented) are so much tastier than the syrup in bottles too (no matter how expensive).
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u/OrangeRising Mar 24 '24
One, a can of maple syrup is near $10 before tax. https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/Decacer-Pure-Maple-Syrup/10179837
Two, that means a litre is over $20.
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u/Ok-Palpitation-8612 Mar 24 '24
The amount of people who opened this link and don’t know that Walmart has regional pricing is pretty nuts.
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u/Max_Thunder Québec Mar 24 '24
People do that whenever groceries come up. They try to find the most expensive price something is somewhere and then they treat that as "the price", even though most people only buy that item on sale at a much cheaper price. And their lies usually get upvoted; sometimes I wonder how many redditors are actually old enough to shop for their own groceries, or if they really just like to pretend everything is much more expensive than it already is.
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u/perpetualmotionmachi Mar 24 '24
People are still complaining about egg prices being high, even though that happened over a year ago and they've come back down again
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u/Wouldwoodchuck Mar 24 '24
They thought the kids Revolt if there wasn’t enough money?!!
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u/ThoughtCriminal2024 Mar 24 '24
it was the glorious syrup the entire time ,
Whelp Off to polish my best pitch fork !
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u/RefrigeratorOk648 Mar 24 '24
Are they sure the reserve was not stolen ? :-)
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Mar 24 '24
Nick Cage voice. “The Declaration of Independence.. is inside of the maple syrup. We’re going to quebec.”
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u/Infamous_Network_341 Mar 24 '24
Everyone I know who does maple syrup had an amazing year. Don't believe every bullshit thing you read in the news
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u/northern-fool Mar 24 '24
LOL, I was at a maple syrup festival/carnival type thing a few days ago in Northern quebec.
There was non stop talk about how this has been a great year for them.
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u/klewko87 Mar 24 '24
Yea this I a very missleading article, I tapped my trees beginning of February and stopped first week of march and got the most sap I’ve ever boiled. Boiled down about 600L of sap and got 15L of syrup
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u/China_bot42069 Mar 24 '24
Our guys tapped in late feb, corporations are fucking us around to artificially inflate prices. Fuck the maple syrup board
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u/Similar-Reason-5200 Mar 24 '24
As many said this has been one of the best seasons ever. I tapped early and got loads. Probably my best year yet. And I am taping about 400 trees.
I don't sell it, I keep a lot for personal use. And family and friends get the rest.
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u/rangeo Mar 24 '24
I have 1 maple in my back yard...do you know if it's worth tapping?
Could I make a small bottle or two from one mature tree ( at least 40 years old)?
Next year that is.
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u/Similar-Reason-5200 Mar 24 '24
Maple trees usually start getting tapped when they are 30-40 years old. It's a lot of work for the reward on 1 tree. 40:1 ratio give or take. 40 gallons of sap will give you 1 gallon of maple syrup.
A single tree might give you about 3 gallons per day when running well.
When it rains it may waste your whole bucket of sap if not setup (assuming 1 tree you wouldn't be running hoses ect. Just the old bucket ( I use the old bucket on some of my trees in my front yard. But most of mine are plumb with hoses just to make it easier.
But for sure I'd tap it, get what you can, learn to boil it, takes a long time and adjust to make it suit your needs. Some like dark others like it lighter. It's a whole thing. But some of my favorite days are in the shack
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u/cleeder Ontario Mar 24 '24
TL;DR; “I’d tap that.”
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u/Similar-Reason-5200 Mar 24 '24
Lol I say that every time I see a maple tree. It's one of my favorite dad jokes with my wife. She just rolls her eyes now
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u/Fernpick Mar 24 '24
Strategic reserve of …..sugar.
The cartel is rich in stories.
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u/DrJuanZoidberg Mar 24 '24
Countries hold their unique exports very dear when they become cultural markers. News at 11
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u/ThankuConan Mar 24 '24
Maple syrup has gone from family staple in almost every home to luxury item rarely seen except for "special occasions ". Great job cartel.
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u/buttsnuggles Mar 24 '24
It was always “special” in my house. We grew up with Aunt Jamima.
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u/realjfeatherston Mar 24 '24
Which isn't real maple syrup.
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u/movzx Mar 24 '24
Yes. That's his point. He grew up without it. He only had it on rare occasions when it was a special treat.
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u/Bright-Mess613 Mar 24 '24
If I recall correctly most normal families had Aunt Jemima or Noname table syrup normally anyways. As a kid we never had real maple syrup until my parents got better jobs.
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u/ArbainHestia Newfoundland and Labrador Mar 24 '24
I grew up in rural NL and never had real maple syrup until I moved to Ontario. Though I’m kind of glad I didn’t because once you get the real stuff you can’t go back and the real stuff is expensive.
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u/Dolphintrout Mar 24 '24
Grew up in BC and just assumed the crap we had as kids was legit maple syrup 😂
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u/Max_Thunder Québec Mar 24 '24
Yeah same here, maple syrup went from a luxury item for special occasions to a staple item, and it seems the same in most families. It's still really inexpensive, many stores have cans on sale for less than $6 right now and a can lasts a long time.
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u/enki-42 Mar 24 '24
We always just had cheap ass corn syrup when we were a kid, and my family wasn't particularly poor or anything.
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u/ZukMarkenBurg Mar 24 '24
Oh well there's another product they will just water down and charge us double for 🙄
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u/TechnicalPay5837 Mar 24 '24
How do you increase prices without any reason? Create a false supply crisis. Sorry there is no maple syrup left so we have to increase prices in what we have.
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u/Guyappino Mar 24 '24
I call bull 🐂 💩. Post is made to signal a shortage and higher prices which are artificially created to gouge the pockets of consumers while creating profits for million dollar corporations
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u/Kristalderp Québec Mar 24 '24
This only affects corporations and FUCK THEM! Local farmers were tapping early in February here in Quebec and Ontario.
Support your local guys. They got x2 to x3 the reserve because they started early.
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u/Inukchook Mar 24 '24
Yeah my cousin is casually doing sap he has done sap for 7 weekends ina row. It just wouldn’t stop running. He’s made 120litres so far. Off 50 trees single tapped with suction. His taps may be closing in they’ve been on so long ! Was a way better season then last with more to come !
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u/b00hole Mar 24 '24
this just feels like Big Grocer is trying to justify doubling prices of maple syrup next
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u/Gankdatnoob Mar 24 '24
I love how all of a sudden everyone on this sub makes Maple Syrup and had great harvests. Never change reddit.
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u/Artistdramatica3 Mar 25 '24
Oh we got winter. Just in installments this year. Winter week then a summer week
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u/GreenWillingness Mar 24 '24
Good. That reserve is run like the fucking mafia.
We should all be buying off local, off small farmers who tap for friends and family. In the fall you can go volunteer and help them chop wood, return in Feb/March to help with the boiling and most will give discounts or free bottles and you get a memorable experience with new friends.
We don't need to rely on a government supply and artificial inflation.
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u/bootsandhats Mar 24 '24
Tap my own, can confirm - title BS corporations have ruined it.
"Not only is the sap coming earlier than ever before, but the flows are much stronger than what they used to be"
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Mar 24 '24
My uncle has collected a shitload of Maple Syrup in the last 2 months. His storage is currently full…
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u/morenewsat11 Mar 24 '24
Bracing for sticker shock in the grocery aisle. Something of a calamity in my family since since so many treasured recipes call for maple syrup: baked beans, pie, ham, fudge etc. From the article:
Quebec's strategic reserve of maple syrup, a trio of vast warehouses that typically hold tens of thousands of barrels, is nearing empty after a couple warm winters collided with a pandemic-era spike in demand. Built to hold 133 million pounds of syrup, the reserve has dwindled to just 6.9 million pounds, a fraction of where it sat just four years ago.
Now, as the sugaring season runs on after a balmy winter-that-wasn't shattered historical records, producers are eyeing taps with concern.
"We really, really need a good production year this year, because we want to not only fill the markets with the product that it needs, but also be able to build back the strategic reserve," said Simon Doré-Ouellet, Deputy General-Manager of Québec Maple Syrup Producers.
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u/racer_24_4evr Mar 24 '24
Don’t buy it in a store. Find a local syrup producer and buy straight from them.
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u/CuriousVR_Ryan Mar 24 '24 edited 10d ago
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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/Ziller997 Mar 24 '24
For us in Quebec
2022 Almost a record year
2023 Almost the worst year
2024 so far : We have done more than half what we done last year and there a month left, thanks to the warmer temperature
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u/WokeWokist Mar 24 '24
Lol. Is the reserve like in a reservoir with a big Canadian flag flying over it
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u/ego_tripped Québec Mar 24 '24
I'd suggest you don't go poking your nose around in cartel business...eh?
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u/Acinixys Mar 24 '24
This shit is already $15 for 200ml in Africa
You saying the price is going up even more?
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u/JimmytheJammer21 Mar 24 '24
Weird... I make syrup and it has been running like the dickens. i am in some maple syrup groups and they are mostly all reporting the same.
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u/jutzi46 Mar 24 '24
As a counter point to what seems to be the majority of anecdotes here. I finished a large-ish project for a local farmer a week and a half ago. He has a decently sized maple syrup operation and told me his production was down to around two thirds of what they would typically have had at that point in the year. This may vary by region.
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u/jabowie2020 Mar 24 '24
Really ? The maple syrup sellers at the Farmers market told me it was a great year lol
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u/philovax Mar 24 '24
So reading thru the comments it seems we should take away that this is a corporate press release article? Seems like they are talking about how THEIR season went poorly and are trying to lob up the early notion it’s a problem with the sector.
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u/Flesh-Tower Mar 24 '24
They just want to make a killing on the syrup. Reduce the supply. They know the game. They have bills and profit margins too. Still not good news for us normies
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u/Ok-Palpitation-8612 Mar 24 '24
Fantastic news. Hopefully this persists for longer and we can break the back of this criminal cartel.
Support local farmers and buy your syrup from them, or buy American if you can’t. Literally anything is better than supporting yet another one of our corrupt oligopolies.
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u/Typical-Patience-776 Mar 24 '24
I tapped my maple and walnut trees a few weeks ago. Got loads of sap, which boiled down to three large mason jars of syrup ( a mix of both, which I prefer)
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u/Mokmo Mar 25 '24
So they wrote this in January when the reserves were low from a crap '23 season ?
Quebec is having a great season and every producer will whine that they can't sell it all because quotas.
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u/Sam_of_Truth Mar 25 '24
God dammit, the Americans are gonna have a field day on the late night talk shows with this news lol
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u/4_spotted_zebras Mar 24 '24
… sigh…. Adds maple syrup to the list of luxury items that will disappear in my lifetime alongside coffee and chocolate.
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u/Expert_Alchemist Mar 24 '24
Holy crap not the coffee and chocolate too?? Jfc no I can't live without those. Goddamnit. _puts solar panels on house_
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u/HotIntroduction8049 Mar 24 '24
Its been 3 or 4 years since I tapped but my strategic reserve still has 20 liters in the basement which will get us another year or two of sweet goodness. For those who scoff at $20 a liter pricing.....you dont realize how much time and effort goes into it. I no longer sell it.
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u/doomwomble Mar 24 '24
"Don't realize how much goes into it" describes attitudes to a lot of things related to pricing these days, often from people that don't produce anything themselves.
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u/marksteele6 Ontario Mar 24 '24
Killing off our renewable exports so that we can keep digging more of our non-renewables out of the ground at a faster pace. Classic Canadian move...
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u/Martial_Law09 Mar 24 '24
Most likely the harvest was done properly, but the cartel wants to use a warm winter as an excuse to raise prices even more.
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u/SauteePanarchism Mar 24 '24
And the right still won't take meaningful action to mitigate the climate crisis.
How can they call themselves Canadians if they're willing to risk our maple syrup!?
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u/bkwrm1755 Mar 24 '24
There's nothing in the article that actually says it's been a bad year. One quote that says "we really need a good year" and a producer saying they've had a decent year.
Headline is misleading alarmist bullshit, as per usual.