After warm weather preempted Ontario’s 2021 maple syrup season, hopes for better year ahead

As sugar shacks and farms across Ontario are set to ramp up operations over the next several weeks for the 2022 maple syrup production season, those in the industry say they’re hoping for a bounce-back this year after a noticeable dip last year.

“It was one of the worst seasons in something like 50 years. The temperatures rose very quickly in the end of March and we didn’t get freezing nights,” John Tomory, a co-owner of Pefferlaw Creek Farms in Uxbridge, told CityNews.

“That is the worst possible thing for maple season because it pushes the trees to bud prematurely.”

Tomory and his brothers, who began making maple syrup as children, are all trained engineers. Two out of the four brothers work full-time in the business and Tomory said it’s hoped they all can run the business.

The Tomory family has a serious maple syrup operation: Approximately 38,000 spiles in trees capable of producing more than a million litres of sap, vacuum lines to retrieve the sap, a state-of-the-art reverse osmosis system that removes water from the sap, and a large-scale evaporator.

“[The technology and process] definitely changed, but the passion is there. We love doing it as much as we did when we were kids. It’s very different,” he said.

“Our desire to grow is there. I could see us doing this for the rest of our lives.”

If the weather is right, meaning several days of daylight conditions when temperatures are above freezing and overnight conditions when temperatures are below freezing, their goal is to churn out 57,000 to 76,000 litres of syrup (it takes around 40 litres of sap to make a litre of syrup). Last year, they were only able to produce around 30,000 litres. Today they have just six drums of syrup left.

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As a result of the lower-than-hoped yield, the brothers dropped their bulk sales to other companies in favour of increasing the bottling of syrup under their own label – keeping higher margins to provide a buffer for the business.

“In terms of the ongoing success of our business, we could handle another season like that. It wouldn’t be the end of the world, but it does hurt,” Tomory said.

But the effects of COVID-19 and public health restrictions imposed by the Ontario government also had a hand in forcing a change to their business model.

“In that first year of the pandemic we were hit really hard. (The) second year of the pandemic where businesses have started to adapt we kind of followed that trend. We developed our online store, we reached out to different potential customers that are also trying to capitalize on the changing dynamics of the world,” he said.

John Williams, the owner of Williams Farm in Wyebridge near Midland and the executive director of the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association, said he’s keeping a close eye on weather conditions in the coming weeks.

“I have two to three weather apps on my phone that I’m just checking every morning to see what the latest is, what’s going to happen,” he told CityNews.

Williams said his business was also impacted by weather. He said he saw a 40 per cent drop in the yield in 2021 compared to the previous year.

“We experienced a lot of heat too early for us so we had temperatures in the double digits here in the second week of March and it just cut the legs right out of the middle part of our season and it was hard to recover from that,” Williams said.

“That’s a big, big hit for us so we’re hoping this year we’re not going to run into that.”

According to Statistics Canada data, there were 11.3 million gallons of syrup produced in total in 2021 — a 21 per cent drop from the year before.

The data showed Quebec is responsible for nearly 89 per cent of Canada’s supply of maple syrup, followed by New Brunswick (seven per cent) and then Ontario (slightly more than four per cent). Nova Scotia made up the remaining portion.

Despite the drop in supply, there was a growth in demand. Canada saw a jump in exports. Tomory and Williams both said they saw a jump in retail demand.

“I think too there’s local food and producing your own food, food security, those are issues that weigh on people’s minds these days so it’s not just maple where that’s happening,” Williams said, adding a growing desire in the pandemic to cook and bake as well as seeking sugar alternatives likely fueled this demand.

Meanwhile, Tomory said he and his family are hoping (barring any further public health restrictions) to resume their annual maple syrup festival weekend activities at their farm at the end of March and in April — complete with a pancake house, property tours and sap processing demonstrations.

Williams said members of his association across the province will be participating in the annual maple weekend activities, which are set for April 2 and 3. He said participating members will be following COVID-related protocols.