April 21, 2014 - The sound of hatched young wild turkeys is deafening around Eco-Lodge Game Farm! This past weekend, we did some scouting and there is lots of sign (and sound) of tasty wild turkey. The turkey hunt opens soon and we want to provide our hunters opportunity to get some of the tastiest Lanark County Wild Turkey on our plates and in our freezers.
April 17, 2014 - All hands on deck for volunteers this weekend! The little reprive in weather has make the sap run not like a leaky faucet, but like a garden hose! A small bit of ice is in the pails and the sap is nice and clear. We expect to boil throught the weekend and need as much help as we can muster to gather sap, boil and bottle Lanark County's finest artisan, craft, pure Canadian maple syrup. Let us know if you can help by contacting us.
April 3, 2014 - This year’s syrup production still stuns not only us, but all local producers. Dick and Chris were at one of Ontario’s largest maple producers today and they are wondering when sugar making season will happen. That said, we continue to have challenges with our sap collection trails/vehicles but despite hard work we produced about 25 litres of syrup. It looks like the next few days are promising and we still hope our steady, ready and willing volunteers will come out to help make some of the best tasting craft, artisan maple syrup known to mankind.
March 30, 2014 - We are all at the farm and trying to make maple syrup. Today being Sunday, we do as most people do on Sundays, we sat around, sharing stories, eating good food and planning for better weather. And better weather hopefully will come this week as the classic maple syrup weather is forecasted!
Keep looking at our site to check what we are doing and come and volunteer if you wish. Contact us through this site or by phone if you want to help make the liquid gold.
March 23, 2014 – Today’s magic number is 7.6. Seven point six!!!! Yes, it is a lottery of sorts; it is the quantity of the first batch of Grampa Chief’s Maple Syrup in liters!
We had quite the weekend crew out to make sure that Kim Tilley, our Norwegian agent, inspector and volunteer, goes home with a batch of artisan small batch, craft maple syrup. While we send Mr. Tilley back to Norway on Tuesday, we will continue to monitor the weather and update our volunteers and eager sugarshackers on when we plan to be out at the sugar shack next to prepare for the sap collection and the boil.
March 22, 2014 – Surprise continues to be the theme of this year’s maple syrup season. It has been quite the week with lots of volunteer activity finishing cutting and splitting wood, improvements to the sugar shack, most of our trees tapped and sap collecting. We remain surprised at the slow flow of the sap, but the good news is that we are boiling!
Our current plan is to finish a small batch of syrup by Sunday afternoon, and then close up the sugar shack for a few days, as the medium-term forecast is for below freezing temperatures.
Check back here for updates to our Twitter feed on the left side of our webpage, as that is how we will be communicating to you. We hope to get everyone interested out here so don’t be shy to send us a note if you want a more detailed update.
March 16, 2014 - Our volunteers are amazing. Over the weekend, we had quite the crew, both young and old, out at the sugar shack putting out pails and doing odd tasks in anticipation of the running sap. And did the sap run! Fifty pails were installed and our tapping operation will continue once the weather warms up on Tuesday. If you want to come out and volunteer, send us a note, either by email or through our contact page and let us know.
March 14, 2014 - Mother Nature chose different plans than us for March Break. We didn't make any of our craft maple syrup, but we sure did put a bunch of volunteers to work getting ready for the sugaring season. We managed to cut, split and pile more than enough wood for the sugaring season, we got a lot of improvements made to the sugar shack, and some maintenance issues dealt with at the camp. Our Norwegian inspector arrived on Thursday this week and went straight to wood cutting work. Keep looking at our home page on the left hand side for the latest updates. We hope to see you here and don't be shy about contacting us, by telephone if you have the number or through our contact page.
March 8, 2014 - Lalande Managed Forest representatives attended today's Ontario Woodlot Association Woodlot Conference and Annual General Meeting in Peterborough. Dick Lalande was re-elected to the OWA's Board of Directors.
Discussions beneficial to Lalande Managed Forest took place, particularly in regards to maple syrup certification with the Rainforest Alliance and Forest Stewardship Council. Grampa Chief's Maple Syrup is now engaged in securing these two certifications.
We look forward to welcoming Kim Tilley of Norway to perform quality assurance and process management for the European market in the coming weeks. Kim's input will help in all processes involving the production and quality of Grampa Chief's Maple Syrup from the European perspective.
March 7, 2014 - Hello everyone, we're still in the midst of a deep freeze, but things are starting to look up for a work crew to prepare the sugar shack for what we expect will be syrup making during the third week of March.
Current plans are to do a wood cutting bee starting Tuesday, March 11th and for the rest of March break, and may start tapping some trees if the weather warms.
Maple taffy and pancakes will be on offer for our hard working volunteers.
Please let us know if you can make it out to help.
And check out our website http://www.
February 20, 2014 - Like us, many of you started to think of Grampa Chief’s Maple Syrup earlier today when the weather was announced for the next few days. While the forecasted rain and warm temperatures are making us all excited about making our favorite sugary condiment, rest assured that we will be ready to make our delicious small batch maple syrup in the coming weeks.
The call has been made to open up the road during the first week of March, which will allow us to get in, tap the trees, put the pails out and get ready to welcome our intrepid sap collectors, syrup makers and toffee eaters. We expect, given the weather, that we may have our first boil during the second week of March, just in time for March Break. Mother Nature sometimes likes to play tricks on us, but we feel fairly confident that our estimates are correct.
For the second year now we made some changes in how we communicate our activities to you. We encourage you to check in regularly at the Lalande Managed Forest website at lalandemanagedforest.ca for updates from the sugar bush and for all you Twitts, Twitterers, Twitterites, you get the idea, you can follow us at @lmf_eco. We will be regularly posting call for volunteers, information on how the sap is running, amount of syrup bottled per batch, and the occasional photo or video.
Please get back to us to let us know if and when you would like to come out. We get bored of each other’s company quickly and fresh blood is always welcomed.
Our Partners: Eastern Ontario Model Forest, Forest Stewardship Council, Ontario Woodlot Association, Trees Ontario, Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association, Ducks Unlimited, Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, Quality Deer Management Association (Canada), Ontario Wood, Rainforest Alliance
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