Meeting Date: April 3, 2023 at the Anglican Hall.
President Kees opened the meeting at 6:30 pm. After the national anthem, grace and dinner, plus thanking the ACW for the dinner, Kees started the meeting.
Program:
Brian: Introduced his guest speakers, Jim and Darren Clark to discuss their Maple Syrup production:
- Using Power Point presentation, Jim and son Darren explained their maple syrup production
- Jim became involved in 1981 and in 1988 he purchased the farm from John Wilson
- Using a piece of hard maple, Jim showed the hole that is drilled in the sap wood
- Hard maple grows on about 85-90% of their forest, approximately 18 acres in 3 separate sections, 3 acres of which is on a neighbours’ property
- The hole is drilled in about 2”, and the hole heals in about 3 years
- Jim used a slide to an overhead shot of their farm with the bush
- It was originally tapped using buckets, but in1990 they started using tubing to connect the trees
- In 2018, they started upgrading the tubing
- In 2022, they purchased a new evaporating and reverse osmosis machine which doubles their efficiency
- Every year, they take in their tubing and flush it to extend its life
- Bigger operations leave their tubing out all year
- The trees have an expiry date, so they continue to cull the forest
- Jim and Darren explained the process the trees go through to produce the sap
- They never use the same hole twice and change the location every year
- They also explained the process of connecting all of the tubing throughout the forests using various pieces to demonstrated how it is done
- The vacuum pumps they have produce 20 to 24 inches of vacuum allowing them to get 100-120 gallons of sap an hour from their trees on a good day
- Collecting the sap takes about 20 minutes where doing it in the old days by hand on foot took about 4 hours of very hard work
- 40 litres of raw sap gives them about 1 litre of syrup, if the sugar content is about 2.2%
- Black maples, from north-eastern New York State produce the highest percentage of sugar
- The boiling process takes place in a wood fired 12’ x 3’ evaporator
- When finished, the syrup is about 66% sugar
- It is graded into golden, amber, dark and very dark
- It is stored in stainless steel barrels and 10 L jugs and sold in various local locations
- In answer to a question, Jim said that hard maples were not usually damaged in ice storms
- Jim and Darren brought several pieces of equipment which they used to demonstrate various parts of their operation
- Bob thanked Jim and Darren they signed some library book labels
Correspondence: Paul read or summarized the following
1. A thank you card from the RDHS Curling Club
2. A thank you card from Katie Murphy for the Math award that she received at the 2022 Graduation ceremonies
3. A letter from the Ridgetown Branch of the C-K Public Library asking for a donation to support their summer program
- As we do so every year, the treasurer will send them an equivalent amount
4. A letter from the principal of RDHS asking that we contribute $1000 towards a potential of 6 awards at the 2023 graduation ceremonies on June 29th at 7:00 pm
- As the club does so every year, the president will inform the principal that we will again this year
Committees:
1. Kees: Still some steel to put in the bin
- He and his grandson in London got $670 in aluminum, copper and stainless steel
2. Brian: Asked folks to be there at 8:00 am at the Scout Hut
- After this meeting, the gift bags for the youngsters were filled
President Kees asked if there was “Anything for the good of Rotary?”
Kees closed the meeting at 8:10 pm, followed by the Easter bag filling
The next meeting is on April 17, 2023 with Judie Wigcherink’s speaker
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