Making sweet syrup: N.L.'s only maple syrup farm set to expand
Maple, birch syrup is in high demand, said Phil Nicholas
A new agricultural project in central Newfoundland has gotten a sweet seal of approval and is set to expand the only maple syrup and birch syrup farm in the province.
Phil Nicholas has already tapped several hundred trees as a proof of concept, but plans to grow his operation at Hillside Farm in Lewisporte to several thousand maple and birch trees this season after getting environmental approval.
"Demand has been fairly high, and everybody seems to really enjoy the syrup, so that will be the market. Mostly to restaurants," Nicholas said Wednesday.
"A lot of people know what it is, [but] a lot of people still don't. A lot of people think it's Aunt Jemima or corn syrup, but it's actually not."
While maple syrup is more widely known around the world, birch syrup is used as a cooking and baking syrup, in carbonated drinks and has uses in sauces and marinades.
Nicholas said there are only 13 producers of birch syrup in Canada, and that it's significantly harder to farm than maple syrup.
"It's expensive, because it takes a lot of labour and a lot of syrup or sap to make the syrup. Maple runs at about a 40-to-one [return] ratio, birch is anywhere between 100 to 180 to one," he said.
"The birch syrup is going to be a little bit more of a challenge to develop a strong market, but I think … that it will be easy to sell to restaurants and locally in specialty shops."
Nicholas's operation will span 177 acres off Route 360 and the Trans-Canada Highway, which will allow up to 3,000 maple trees and 2,000 birch trees. The sap usually starts flowing in late April, and he estimates each tree can produce between 20 litres of maple sap and 100 litres of birch sap.
Sap will first be processed in Lewisporte, with plans to open a processing facility of his own in the future.
With the expansion, Nicholas said, also comes a call for better sap-producing weather conditions.
"Last year was terrible. The season was very, very short," he said.
With files from CBC Newfoundland Morning