Ty's Old Fashioned Kettlecorn - photo by Sheena Williams
Vader’s Maple Syrup
1260 Cty. Rd 18, Cherry Valley, Ontario
613.476.5231
Saturday, March 31 & Sunday, April 1
9 am to 4 pm
Bottles of Vader’s maple syrup are a familiar sight in County shops and supermarkets, but many maple fans still prefer to go to the Vader’s farm shop or the Vader’s kitchen door to buy their syrup.
Grandfather Arnold Vader learned the craft from his own father and grandfather and has been making maple syrup himself for more than 60 years. These days he takes it a little easier and lets his sons and grandchildren carry on the tradition. Arnold is famous for his stories about the old days of maple syrup making and just about everything else in the County, and he shares his stories with visitors on Maple in the County weekend.
Arnold’s son Todd is chief syrup maker now. He’s been doing it for 25 years on the farm that his great grandfather bought in 1910. Todd makes the point that – sweet as it is – maple syrup is far from frivolous. It’s a real crop, the farmer’s first crop of the year. Todd and his sons farm corn and soy and run a dairy operation too. But for a short, intense period each spring they focus on maple syrup working hard to tend an astounding 2,500 taps on direct lines to the sugarshack, and about 300 old fashioned buckets in areas where they can’t string lines.
Old style tools and vintage photos are on show during Maple in the County, while the sap house itself is state-of-the-art, and visitors get a close look at the powerful oil fired evaporator by climbing up to a wooden viewing platform. Maple weekend is a time for celebration with the Vader family with storytelling, maple tastings and music. It’s tradition and history and a great family business.
This year, come and be educated and entertained by family and friends of the County’s longest running maple producers since 1910. Enjoy a tour of the sap house, try Ty’s Kettlecorn popped on-site or enjoy mouth-watering taffy. A variety of maple products available.
Vader’s Maple Syrup
- -used sap house already on farm
- -1910 first tapped 400 taps
- -flat pan
- -1962 new sugar house was built
- -1989 oil fired evaporator
- -1992 added a new room
- -1997 added another new room
- -2008 new welded pans and a piggy back steam system
- -2011 inducted into the Quinte Local Maple Hall of Fame showcased at the Ameliasburgh Museum in the Grimm Sap Shanty.
All photos by Sheena Williams