TAPPING INTO A NEGLECTED SASKATCHEWAN TRADITION

June 16, 2003

Seven years ago, when Allen Bennett of Kamsack was boiling up his second batch of maple-tree sap, the local constabulary dropped by. They'd seen steam and smoke rising out of the woods on Bennett's property and figured they better check it out. When Bennett explained he was making maple syrup, they smiled knowingly and said, "Sure, Allen."

Nobody came around when he boiled up his first batch of sap on his kitchen stove: "I didn't know it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup, so I was boiling a gallon of sap and waiting for it to thicken. But the level kept going down and down and, first thing I knew, it had burnt to the bottom of the pot."

But that was then and this is now. During the spring of 2003, he processed the sap from 18,000 tapped Manitoba maple trees in the area, and next year he hopes to process the sap from 30,000 to 40,000 taps. His goal is 500,000 taps. In an average year, his company, Assiniboine River Taps, produces 250 ml of syrup from each tap.

It all began after he had shoulder surgery in the early spring of 1996 and, because he could do no work with his arm strapped to his chest, was riding around the 66 acres homesteaded by his grandfather near the Assiniboine River. Looking at the Manitoba maples growing in profusion on the property, he wondered what he could get from them. After many phone calls to Quebec and also to Saskatchewan oldtimers, he made 20 taps from piping and stuck them in trees.

After his first disaster on the stove top, he hauled out of the bush an old stove formerly used to boil water for a Russian/Ukrainian steam house. His second processing effort produced one gallon of murky syrup, which he eventually learned was due to niter, a natural component of the sap. The next day, however, the niter had settled to the bottom and he was able to conduct taste tests among his neighbours. The following spring, his research had led him to the purchase of taps specifically made for the maple syrup industry, as well as an evaporator from Quebec. He also had a new understanding of processing, which includes the use of a filter to remove the niter.

Today, he contracts about 30 people to tap trees in the area. He conducts the evaporation process, and, based on the amount of syrup submitted, gives half of the finished product back to the tapper. Some tappers take it for their own use and some have him continue with the bottling and marketing of their share of the finished product because they don't like the marketing aspect of business.

"Assiniboine River Taps prepares 100, 250 and 500 ml bottles, as well as one-litre containers of maple syrup. We sell at farmers' markets, trade shows and a few retail stores in Regina. Our market is expanding all the time, especially as we have also expanded our product line: as a result of requests from diabetics, we make strawberry, raspberry, cranberry, chokecherry, saskatoon and blueberry syrups using maple syrup as the sweetener.

"I had to do a lot of experimenting to produce a good fruit syrup, and now, with a lot more experimenting, I will soon have a seabuckthorn syrup as well. And I hope to produce food bars made with puffed quinoa and maple syrup, which would be a totally organic and healthful snack. Eventually I want to be processing year round," says Bennett.