By Mel Luymes
It was a quiet morning when Bob Rowe toured me around Freedom Syrup headquarters back in the sugar bush, south of Walton, currently owned by Jeff and Shannon McGavin and family. There was nothing to be heard but a gentle hiss of the evaporator and the chirping of birds, and it was obvious that this was a very special place for the McGavin family and their friends and neighbours.
There is perhaps nothing more Canadian than the tradition of boiling maple syrup. Generations of McGavins have made syrup up until 1945, and this place holds many memories of tapping trees and boiling syrup every spring. Back in 2008, the sugar shack got a major upgrade. While it is still a hub for sap boiling season, it has also become a place for people, young and old, to learn about tapping trees and about the value of freedom.
“When kids come, they get to tap a tree with a spile, a bucket, and a lid from the freedom wall,” says Bob. Some are very low to the ground, he smiles.
“I knew exactly what I wanted,” continues Bob, as he walks through the new “shack” and looks up to the skylights. The room is open, yet cozy, with tongue-and-groove pine, an old woodstove in the corner, and an upstairs loft. There are photos of the original sugar shack, with a very young Neil McGavin, on the wall.
Three others quickly got on board with Bob’s vision: Neil McGavin, his son, Jeff McGavin and Bob’s lifelong friend, Gerry Wheeler.
“We poured the concrete in 2008, built the shack in 2009, and in 2010, we tapped trees and made 85 gallons of syrup,” says Bob. And they have been working together every spring since.
People ask how much the syrup costs and Bob replies that it is free but asks them what they are prepared to pay for freedom. And people are very generous. All the proceeds of the maple syrup are donated to Support Our Troops (supportourtroops.ca).
“We were originally honouring the 158 men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan,” he says, as he points to a wall of signs that mark their donations year over year. They are also honouring all veterans and first responders. They started with $1,500 in 2010 and have grown, with a bump to $28,000 in 2018 after a CTV news spot by Scott Miller.
“We’ve donated about $225,000 over the last 15 years,” says Bob, and some years the donations have helped to send the kids of veterans and first responders to summer camps.
There are 850 taps in the bush this year. Phil Duncan, from Artech Signs and Graphics, donated the vinyl stickers for the sap lids that honoured each Canadian soldier that perished in the line of duty during the war in Afghanistan. Now these lids are hung on the “Freedom Wall” at the shack during the syrup season.
“We put them up this past Saturday when we started to tap,” says Bob, and take them down on the May long weekend.
Every day that they are boiling sap, they will take one of the lids and put it near the evaporator to keep the soldier in mind during the day. “It is as if they are standing guard,” says Bob.
As the lane comes into the bush, it is quite the sight of Canadian flags and buildings nestled in the trees, powered by a solar panel out front. There is vintage farm equipment and a fire pit, and besides the sugar shack, there is a shop for their equipment, storage for “all Neil’s stuff,” and of course, an outhouse. The trusses of the shop were donated by MacDonald’s Home Hardware in Brussels and the steel was from the old roof of the OPP station in Exeter; it was also donated.
There is a separate building, referred to as the “honey house,” which was relocated from Gerry Wheeler’s family farm where his parents collected and made honey. Now it is full of vintage items and nostalgia, and it is home to their annual Freedom poker tournaments.
While the goal was to have fun making syrup and not take it too seriously, the guys have nonetheless invested in a state-of-the-art evaporator, and run a pretty elaborate operation of testing, filtration and bottling. The sap comes from four main lines in the bush up into a tank under vacuum, and then a push pump gets it into the overhead tank near the evaporator. From there it is gravity fed on-demand into the evaporator where it is first pre-heated at the top and then makes its way through the flue pan, slowly boiling down to syrup.
Bob tests the syrup’s sugar levels with various hydrotherms. “It has to have a Brix reading [sugar content] over 66.9° to be legal maple syrup,” he says. Bob makes Freedom Syrup to 67 – 67.5°, because they prefer a sweeter taste.
“Gerry always says, ‘make ‘er thick enough that she doesn’t roll off the pancakes’,” laughs Bob.
Bob is a big supporter of freedom and a proud Canadian, who has long worn red on Red Fridays to honour our troops. He just appreciates freedom and those who are willing to defend it.
Bob was in the TD Garden in Boston on February 20 for the final game of the Four Nations Face Off and saw Team Canada’s 3-2 overtime win. He and his friends sang their hearts out for the Canadian anthem as it was booed, and they also joined in for the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner. A gentleman in front of them turned around and said, “Good on you guys for singing them both.” Bob believes that every nation should respect each other and their freedom.
“It has been said that the only out we have is to boo the national anthem, because we’re frustrated,” he says. “We’re not booing the American people or what their flag stands for, but because of what the U.S. is currently doing to us as a country.” He hopes that the trade situation will be resolved soon.
Until then, you’ll find Bob and his crew running the evaporator in the sugar bush, likely chatting and laughing, and enjoying sweet freedom.
If you’d like to support their efforts for Support Our Troop, you can donate and pick up syrup at McGavin’s Farm Equipment in Walton. You’ll also find Freedom Syrup at Huron County’s Maple Mania! ◊