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Wednesday, April 11th, 2018
With Jim White
The Maple Syrup War It is that time of the year again when maple syrup production goes into full swing. The trees are tapped, and the fires are stoked for the arrival of the tree sap which will be boiled down to make this 'liquid gold'. Weather plays such a pivotal role on when the production can begin. Back in 2009 it started in late March. In the Township of Maplepure, northeast of the major production area on St. Joe's Island there were these 2 small producers who made just enough to fill the requests of the local area. Cyrus Maplebutter had been in the business for 25 years, whereas his next door neighbour, Josef Maplefudge had been at it for only 5 years. There always was a friendly rivalry about such things as who would get their syrup ready first, which one tasted better, and who would sell out first. It had been pretty even over the 5 years that they had competed. Cyrus had won 3 times, and Josef twice. This year there was a wholesale change of operation by both of them. Cyrus had fallen in early January and broke a hip. At 83, these things can be devastating. It had certainly taken quite a toll on him. His wife had passed away from cancer a year earlier. Fortunately, his only child, his son, Richard, took over the farm and lot. Richard was a farmer at heart, and loved that lifestyle. He had grown up on it, and stayed after high school. He never went to college or university, but just stayed at home helping his father. He had the hay fields to cultivate in the summer, and a vegetable garden, which produced enough crops for the market in the Soo, the general store in the village, the local cafe, and enough for themselves. Although the maple syrup production was labour intensive, they had always been able to make money out of the deal. It certainly supplemented their income to help out to replace supplies for the following years' production, as well as for the sugar shack, barn and house repairs. Josef had lost his wife and his eldest son in a horrific head on car crash on Highway 17 just outside the Soo as they were on their way home from a shopping trip. That was in early February. So naturally, he was having a hard time coping with the loss, as well as the legal matters that had to be finalized. Josef insisted on carrying on with the maple syrup production, if for no other reason that it gave him something to keep his mind off the loss of his wife and son, but also as a means of earning some extra needed income. So he too was lucky that his youngest son, Tomas, had agreed to take over the operation, at least for 2009. He wouldn't commit to anything beyond this one year, he had warned his father. He lived and worked in Sault Ste. Marie during the week at an auto body repair shop. He told his father that he could only devote so much time to this. This was just a hobby farm to him, as it was for his father. Josef worked in a seasonal job with the Town of Blinder River in the Parks and Recreation Department for the spring, summer and fall. He was laid off by Thanksgiving every year. He and his wife had bought this house with the wood lot out back as a retirement home. Of
course Tomas knew that this was a short period of time that the syrup ran, so he had made arrangements at work to take the time off during the peak production. As the season approached, both farms got busy getting their trees tapped. Cyrus had modernized that part of the business in 2008, by investing in plastic tubes that ran to each tree. Tomas continued to use the old spigot system since his father couldn't afford the upgrade. Rounding up manpower also got into full gear. Richard had brothers, sisters and cousins to help him out. They all lived away from the farm, but would take turns coming home to help out as needed. Tomas had to rely on friends from work and his hockey team players to get his gang ready. Both their sugar shacks still relied on the wood fires and iron kettles to boil the syrup. The wood piles were ready to go, as their wood had been cut and piled the previous fall. So by the third week of March that year, everything was ready to go for both of them. They just needed the weather to co-operate. Finally on March 26th, the sap began flowing. That was when the first problem arose. Richard went out on his snowmobile to check his lines, and along the dividing trail between their properties he discovered some of his spigots and lines had been pulled out, and inserted on the Maplefudge side. He was shocked that Tomas would do such a thing. Then as he went further along the property line between the two lots, he discovered more had been tampered with. He headed over to Tomas' house to confront him. He opened the door just enough to poke his head out. Richard told him what had happened, and asked him to put them back. Tomas shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't know anything about it. He had other guys tapping trees in that southern area where this had 'supposedly happened', as he worded it. He had been working the north side of the bush. He promised to look after things, but added that he was sure the trees that were tapped by his crew were within his property boundary. Before Richard could reply, the door was shut in his face. He was a bit miffed, and stunned at the abrupt end of this conversation. But he left and went back to tending the rest of his lines. The next day when he went to checkout his trees again, and he saw that nothing had been done to move things back to his side of the boundary trail. And further along his property line, some of his tubing had been pulled out, and had been cut right through, and were laying on the ground. That got him really mad. He went back to confront Tomas. Again, he just poked his head out the door enough to stare at Richard. He told him that nothing had been done to move those lines, and added about the further damage done to his tubing. He warned him not to tamper with his lines again. He paused, and took a deep breath to calm down, and suggested a buffer zone be established where no trees would be tapped. He did not like friction between them, and hoped that
would resolve the situation. To Richard's relief, Tomas agreed with that proposal, although he still claimed those trees were on his property, and that he knew nothing about the other damaged lines. Richard ignored the denial, and just offered a peace gesture by wishing him well with his syrup production. He commented on the weather, hoping that it would hold, and closed off by offering help, if he needed it. Tomas seemed to calm down too, and thanked him for the offer, and wished him luck too. So that irritant was resolved for the moment. But then another situation happened. A couple of days later, on March 28th, Richard went out to his sugar shack, and found that a large pile of wood had been stolen from the side of the building. From the tracks he saw that a snowmobile with a trailer had come in and loaded up his wood, and taken off with it. To make matters worse, he noticed that the door inside had been smashed in. When he entered the shack, he was horrified to see the vandalism done to his equipment. He tallied up the damage, and realized it was going to cost him at least $2000 to get everything fixed. Despite this he guessed that it should only put him offline for just a couple of days. Before he headed to the Soo to get what he needed, he decided to see Tomas, just to find out if his shack had been damaged too, and hoping that he had not vandalized his shack in order to slow him down or put him out of business altogether. This was just after 8:00 a.m. When he drove into the driveway, he was shocked to see a snowmobile loaded up with his wood. He knocked on the door, unsure how to approach this. He didn't want to come right out and accuse Tomas of the theft, and possible vandalism. He was caught off guard when Josef opened the door, and not Tomas. He invited Richard in for coffee, but he declined, saying he had to get into town. He did explain about his problem, and innocently asked if their shack had been vandalized. Josef assured him that he didn't think so, although he had not gone out at all this year. He was leaving the entire operation in his son's hands. Just as Richard was leaving, he pretended to notice the wood, and innocently asked where he got the wood. Richard thought he saw a flicker of nervousness pass over his face, but just said that Tomas must have got it from the unused portion of the woodlot at the far east end. Richard knew he was not going to get anything else from him, so said goodbye, and headed to the city. While there, he reported the vandalism to the OPP. An officer met him that evening at home. Then the officer went next door to talk to Tomas. He denied everything, and seemed to have an answer for every question that was raised, the officer told Richard later. Meanwhile, Richard headed out to his shack with the supplies he had bought to make the necessary repairs. He also set up a hidden camera, one of the items he had bought while in the Soo that day. That very night, the camera caught a mysterious person snooping around, carrying what looked like a gas can. Fortunately no damage was done, as the intruder tripped a wire that sent a bright flash of light, followed by a loud siren going off. That scared him off. Unfortunately, the next day when Richard checked the video, he could not make out who the person was. But at least he
had scared him off, he sighed. And that ended any further problems between the two of them for a while. But you just know that this would not be the end of it. The next round came once they were selling their finished product. The battleground occurred at the small general store, and the village cafe. Both of them had been able to set up a display. Since they both were a just a small supplier, they were limited where to sell. Richard brought in 10 onelitre bottles, 3 tubs of maple butter, and 5 bags of fudge to each business. He charged $25 for the syrup, $10 for the butter, and $5 for the fudge. Tomas brought in 5 bottles of syrup, 4 tubs of maple butter, and 3 bags of fudge to each place. He charged $26 for his syrup, $11 for the butter, and $6 for the fudge. They both came back 2 days later to check on how the sales were going. Between the 2 locations Richard had sold 8 bottles of syrup, one butter, and 3 fudge. He re-stocked his display, and was pleased at how sales were going. Tomas hadn't sold anything. In anger, he slashed his prices in order to undercut Richard's prices. He cut the syrup price to $20; the butter to $5 and the fudge to $2. When they came back the next time, Richard had sold out, whereas Tomas had only sold one bottle of syrup, even at those cut rate prices. When he was at the cafe, he happened to overhear 2 of the locals talking at the small table in the front window where they were having a coffee. They had not noticed him standing behind them, as they were talking about his maple syrup operation. The one customer said, “Richard told me all about the hassles he has had with that Tomas. His trees had been damaged, and his shack has been vandalized by him. He also warned me that he was watering down his syrup, and it was not properly boiled, so who knows what impurities might be in it too. The other man replied, “That's interesting. I sure won't buy his stuff then. Besides, Richard and his family have lived here for at least a couple of generations. These other guys have only been here a few years, and it is just a hobby farm for him. They are not serious producers like Cyrus and Richard are.” Tomas was stunned. He fumed out of the cafe and headed home. The next morning both the general store and the cafe had been found to have been broken into overnight. The owners were shocked to find all of Richard's syrup poured on the floor. The fudge had been crumbled up and sprinkled over the puddle of sticky syrup. The butter was still on the shelf, but the lids had been taken off, and there was sand all over the top. A sheet of paper was also on the shelf beside the ruined butter. It read, "'Maplefudge' products are up to standards and a quality equal to or better than 'Maplebutter's. Try it for yourself. You'll see.” It was signed 'A Satisfied Customer'. The OPP were called in, and after a quick investigation, Tomas was arrested at his workplace in the Soo. He declared his innocence, but it seemed to be an airtight case. The next day it was discovered that Tomas was indeed innocent. He had told his father of his non sales and what he had heard in the cafe. Josef had done the damage in a fit of rage. It only came to light when Cyrus had gone over to talk to him about the situation. They were sitting in the kitchen over a beer when he admitted
The ALGOMA NEWS Review
doing it. He also confessed that he was pretty sure his son had been behind the moving of the spigots and lines from their side of the trail to theirs. In turn, Cyrus declared that he was appalled that his own son had resorted to spreading those lies around the area that Tomas had overheard at the cafe. He declared to Josef that this war had to end right then and there. He agreed. The 2 sons each got a real lecture that evening over supper. Josef told Tomas that they had been invited over to the Maplebutters'' for a meeting where a truce was going to be declared. During the tense get together, Tomas finally admitted that he was jealous of Richard's knowledge of syrup making, and had the better, more modern operation. He went on to admit that he had instigated the war by moving those spigots and tubes over to their side of the trail boundary. He also admitted that he really didn't know what he was doing, despite the help of his father. Richard, always the peacemaker, admitted that he bought one bottle of syrup, butter and fudge, and insisted that he paid the full price, before adding that their stuff tasted better than their own. He went on to admit that his anger had been building ever since the first run in with the taps. Then when Tomas slashed his prices, he knew that he could not compete. He was afraid that folks would quit buying his stuff. You know how people are always looking for the cheapest price, he commented. Richard concluded by offering his help again, just like the first time they confronted each other. By the end of the evening, everything was settled. The war was truly over – at least for then. The war was almost re-ignited though that night. Cyrus offered Tomas and Jose some cake and ice cream to seal the deal. He asked if they wanted maple syrup on that. The Maplefudges' began to bristle, before Cyrus laughed at the gaff. Then they did too, and poured the syrup on. Well, the next year went better, as they formed their own company, and pooled their syrup in order to improve sales, and earn more money for each of them, of course. Unfortunately, in 2014 Josef passed away, and Tomas sold the farm. He moved to Calgary. The new owners were not interested in carrying on the maple syrup production. Instead they began cutting down the maple trees for firewood. Richard pleaded with them to let him buy out the woodlot so he could use it to add on to his lot for maple syrup production, to no avail. Richard carried on. Bad luck struck in 2016 when during a thunderstorm, his sugar shack had been hit with a bolt of lightning, and it was destroyed in the subsequent fire. Then in the summer of 2017 a major outbreak of the Maple Bark Beetle devastated the woodlot. He was forced to cut down most of the trees, and so had to close up his syrup business. It was a blow for everyone in the area. Richard did keep up the farm without that to supplement his income. He was forced to take a part time job at the general store as their sales clerk and cashier. Now in 2018 I await to see what kind of year it will be for maple syrup production overall, even though there is none going on in Maplepure. I harken back to the good old days when it was such a thriving activity, and a big part of our family tradition. - Amber Maplebutter, Richard's cousin, Maplehurst, Ontario. April 11/18.