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This Quarterly Spotlight on Producer we sat down with Todd Rozon:

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Todd Rozon

5480 Johnson Road

Williamstown, ON

K0C 2J0

613-360-0990

toddr@rozoninsurance.ca

Todd, when did you start making maple syrup?

Todd:  I started making maple syrup at the age of 13 with the help of my grandfather and a friend from school.  The first year I started, I used a small homemade evaporator with a 2’ x 3’ stainless steel pan.  I boiled the sap in our backyard which proved to be challenging when it got dark and we were trying to take off syrup.  The next year my grandfather built me a 12’ X 16’ building with a cement floor which I still use today although an addition has since been added. During those first few years of making syrup, I belonged to the Glengarry 4-H Maple Syrup Club. It was run by Duncan John MacArthur.  The club provided me with great guidance and it exposed me to different people and how they ran their maple operations.

And you’ve been making syrup ever since?

Todd:  No, I took the next 20 years off from making syrup as I was busy with high school, university, work and then raising a young family.  Finally in 2004, my family and I moved back to the home where I grew up and I once again started making maple syrup in the spring of 2005.  I bought new a 2 X 6 Dominion & Grimm evaporator and have since upgraded it with a hood, preheater, blower, auto draw-off and a small RO machine.  This has worked well for me over the years and has significantly reduced the amount of time that I have to spend boiling. For next season I have ordered a new CDL 2 X 8 wood fired evaporator to help with the overall goal of improving operational efficiency.

How big is your sugar bush, and where are you located?

Todd:  We live just outside of Williamstown and by scale, my operation is a small one with about 350 taps. It’s more about having fun than making money for me, as it provides me with a distraction from my fulltime job running an insurance brokerage. In the 17 years since I restarted my hobby, we have never once charged anyone for syrup. We give it away to family and friends or as a present.  It makes a great gift as we package it in beautiful 1 litre glass jugs.

My maple bush is a mixture of soft and hard maples spread out over a south facing ridge. Our trees produce sap with a high sugar content.  Part of my sap collection, located at the eastern side of the property, is set up on a pipeline system with a vacuum pump. This is the preferred way of collecting sap as it’s far more efficient. I still use a small number of buckets around my house and in a few other areas where the pipeline is just not feasible.

Why do you continue to produce syrup year after year?

Todd:  Making syrup gives me a reason to get out in the bush in the fall and winter and cleanup some cedars or hardwood to burn in the evaporator.  There is also the late winter challenge of trying to keep ahead of the squirrel and deer damage to the pipeline.  I normally just produce syrup but have had the occasional taffy party when my 2 boys were younger. I found it rewarding to see the boys and their friends collecting the sap and then getting a sugar high from the maple sugar! They’d always go home with a little bit stuck their faces and clothing!

Is it just you making the syrup, or are there others involved in the operation?

Todd:  I am fortunate to have had a lot of help over the years with the whole process. Our boys, Lloyd and Harry, grew up with this and their help over the years has been invaluable.  My oldest son is now away at university but will help if he’s home on weekends.  My youngest son is currently in grade 12 and has been good to help fix the pipeline, haul wood and do whatever needs to be done.  My wife thinks she’s a waitress as she’s constantly bringing food and water up to the shack.  Honorable mention goes to Glenn, our longtime employee, who collects the sap and gets everything organized and ready for me so all I have to do when I get home from work is boil the sap. Without the help, this just wouldn’t happen.

I have told many people over the years that maple syrup is like making wine, each producer has their own distinctive flavour and quality.   We don’t make a lot of syrup every year but I’m proud of the syrup we do produce.  Every member of our family contributes in their own special way.

 

Thank you Todd, for sharing your maple syrup history with us and giving us an inside view of the sense of satisfaction and benefits that the maple seasons have brought to you and your family and we hope will continue to bring for many years to come.

 

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May 10, 2022

Hello Membership, yes hello again,

Watching a movie last winter, it was about a family maple business, and a one line that came about I thought I would share with you. A nice way to describe and introduce a maple syrup producer.

 

Maple tree huggers give the sweetest kisses!

 

Hoping I did not traumatize anybody with my best poetry effort. This is as good as it gets! So lets get back to maple syrup business.

 

We are still offering the following two seminars this fall. Last year pandemic kind of kept everybody at home and there was not enough registered people for us to host the seminars. We believe  and hope that this year we should have enough people join for us to give the seminars.

 

Beginners course

The Beginners course will take place on Oct 15, 2022 at Sand Road Maple Farm. It is expected to run from 9 am to 3 pm with lunch and refreshments provided.

The topics covered will be: 

• Tree identification and tapping

• Sap handling and storage

• Boiling

• Density

• Filtering and bottling

• Regulations and grading

A number of equipment dealers will be present to display and discuss maple syrup equipment for beginners.

The fee will be $30 for OMSPA members and $45 for non-members.

If you would like to participate, please contact Richard McMillan at R.j.mcmillan1955@Gmail.com. Pre-registration deadline is July 31st.

 

Maple Judging Course

The Maple Judging Course will take place on Oct 16, 2022 at Sand Road Maple Farm. It should run from 9:30am to 3:00pm.

It will be facilitated by Brian Bainborough, and will cover density, colour and clarity as well as detecting off-flavours.

The fee will be $40 for OMSPA members and $55 for non- members. This fee will include lunch.

Participants should bring one 250ml Kent bottle of their syrup to be used at the event.

If you would like to participate,  please contact Anne Zoeller at afzoeller@gmail.com. Pre-registration deadline is July 31st.

 

Omspa Strategic planning

              We have been looking at this project for the last months and it is moving along quite well. Some very informative reporting sessions are still happening. We should be getting into next phase in the upcoming month or so. Stay tuned and stay abreast by reading omspa.ca website for further developments.

 

Summer tour

              It is happening this summer and we hope to see many of us again. This is the event to attend, for networking, learning, making new maple industry contacts and most important…the famous bus tour visits to the various sugar shacks. Follow this link for more info  https://www.omspa.ca/summer-tour  . Do not wait last minute to register

Maple Weekend

              With 8 participants this year, our Eastern visitors were all over the Eastern Ontario map on our 1st weekend of April. Everybody reported many visitors and a resounding success again. Its good to hear good news coming out of the pandemic. Anybody interested in joining as a producer participant next year, do so anytime now, the earlier the better it is to be registered properly. Check the website for more info.  https://www.ontariomaple.com/maple-weekend/

 

Do not forget to check in on our fall festival Film. Check the website for more info.  https://www.ontariomaple.com/fall-in-love-with-maple/

If you would like to participate in either festivals or just for information on these festivals,  please contact Anne Zoeller at afzoeller@gmail.com. Anne has been our Eastern champion for some time, she knows everything about these two festivals.

 

Social media and Eomspa. HELPPPPPP!!!!!!

              I would like to get something going for our local, nothing complicated. Our intention is to be present on social media but not to create a full-time position. We would be looking to create a small committee, nothing complicated. Intentions is to get ourselves onto facebook and Instagram as a local. Anybody interested could contact me in the next two weeks. If there is an interest to participate, a meeting will follow. Don’t be shy and please do not all check in at the same time. LOL.

 

Infoday

Even though its summer we still want to have an interesting infoday. Our tentative day this year is Nov 19th and we already have a couple of presenters lined up. Put this in your calendar. If you have any subject of interest that you would like us to think about, please email me or any of our directors with some ideas….if there is a large influx of ideas we will need to toss a coin. Any don’t be shy and respond to any of the directors.

 

Looking for old buckets

We have a member who is interested in getting old maple sap buckets, the metal rusted types. Not to worry she would like to use them for decorative purposes. Please contact Teressa Dauphinais this week if you want to get rid of them. tdauphin8@gmail.com

 

Festival of maple for Eastern.

Yes another subject of interest. We have seen several locals who have developed lately and are now running their own maple festival. Areas like Muskoka, Elmira, Perth, Quinte, and others have a Maple festival that usually runs at the end of April. A nice way to resell your maple products and promote tourism in a rather quiet period. We have discussed of this idea at our last Eastern executive meeting and it was decided that we would put that in our next email newsletter. Would or should you think this would be a good idea, please email back to me (jules.rochon@videotron.ca) with your concerns, ideas, proposition. No craziness emails please as we are just checking our members pulse on this idea.

Please put in subject line of “Easterm maple festival response” ot something like this…this will make it easier to track.

Should a serious interest come of this, this would be a good starting point for us to see how to move on with this or not.

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Merci, many thanks,

Jules Rochon

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May 5, 2022

Hello membership,

Hoping the season was good to all. So far seems like it was good across Ontario except for some portions of the South where the warm weather came in a bit early. I do not have a full report yet but felt that it was important to send the following email. More emails will follow when I am done cutting firewood and cleaning the sugar shack.

 

Important on-going strategic workgroup seminar.

Please take the time to watch those ongoing seminars. There is one tonight and one next week. You can register via the following link in the members-only blog section.

https://www.omspa.ca/post/webinars-by-strategic-plan-working-groups

You can also view/review the ones you could have missed online from the following link.

https://www.omspa.ca/webinars-of-working-groups

 

Equipment dealers open doors days coming up.

Please note that we offered to assist any of our dealers for 2022 if they have an open-door day. The following dealers have responded, and we encourage any of our members to visit them. May-june is always the best timing for good deals.

CDL in Monkland – May 19th

Contact is Rob Berkeens (613-346-0333)

rob.berkvens@cdlinc.ca

 

Bilodeau in Alexandria Area – June 17-18

Contact is Francois Brunet (613-360-1536)

francoisbrunet.lsbilodeau@gmail.com

 

Membership renewals

This is the time of the year that we do a last spotcheck, hoping we can keep some of our members who may have forgotten to renew their membership. For this year we have recruited 19 new members, we are very happy to welcome these new members.

Some members probably may have forgotten the deadline of March 31st for us to cut the cord if not renewed…I have included everybody in this email so we all have the reminder note. A gentle reminder telephone call will be made to them in the next week. Remember to renew either online or by paper mail via the following form online.

https://www.omspa.ca/become-a-member

 

Thanks folks….and remember to clean ready for next season. LOL.

 

Merci, many thanks,

Jules Rochon

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Membership renewal for 2022

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Note that you now can renew for up to 2 years! If you know of someone who wants to join, please pass on the info:

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1.      You can renew online at the omspa.ca site:  https://www.omspa.ca/become-a-member

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2.      You can also call our executive director John Williams who will be more than happy to help out. 

 

          Email at: admin@ontariomaple.com or call at: 613-258-2294

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3.      You can call one of our EOMSPA Directors from our web page for assistance:

         https://www.omspa.ca/eastern

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PLEASE NOTE:  AS OF MARCH 31ST, CURRENT MEMBERS WHO HAVE NOT RENEWED THEIR MEMBERSHIPS WILL CEASE TO RECEIVE NEW ASSOCIATION INFORMATION