The Okanagan is mainly known for its wines, but there is another sweet treat brewing this spring.
Maple Roch is a company out of Summerland that is making 100 per cent pure premium maple syrup.
“The maple trees aren’t native to this area,” said volunteer Bernie Ens. “They were brought in when the railway came in. So we have to find the trees and then we can tap them.”
It turns out that finding maple trees has become a collaborative effort.
Summerland residents and the local municipality are allowing Maple Roch employees to come onto their property to sap their private trees.
“That’s just the magic of Roch,” Ens said. “Roch is such a big part of this community that he’s friends with everyone.”
The sap collected has only about a two per cent sugar content.
“Maple syrup has 66 per cent, so we have to boil away that much water,” Ens said.
Due to extended cold weather in the Okanagan, the Maple Roch team has only just begun sapping trees.
“Typically, the best time to collect maple syrup is with a daytime high of 4 C and a nighttime low of -4 C,” Ens said.
Once the sap is collected, it’s brought back to Maple Roch for boiling.
“The sap is put into this large barrel with a gravity feed tube that goes into this float system,” said business manager Mirjana Komljenovic. “From the float system the sap will be regulated into these channels. The water will start to evaporate and, as the sap comes thicker and thicker, it’ll go further on down the line until it eventually ends up in the form of syrup and we’ll filter it from this tap.”
What’s left is 100 per cent Summerland maple syrup.
“The nice thing about this is that you’re tasting the soil composition of Summerland,” Komljenovic said. “You’re tasting the weather conditions, the history of the land, all in a syrup.”
The company is the brainchild of Roch Fortin, a 32-year veteran RCMP officer.
“Roch came to Summerland about eight years ago from New Brunswick, where he had met several maple farmers,” Komljenovic said.
His mission was to create a company that had community impact and made a difference socially.
Some of his social endeavors include employing people with disabilities, like Komljenovic, who was born with Albinism and has a visual impairment.
Another commitment: helping other local businesses thrive.
“These are our many locally made products, such as the apple chips, the maple granola, the maple candle and even the maple walnuts,” said Komljenovic, adding that supporting these local artisans helps grow their businesses.
The Summerland store, located at 13224 Victoria Road North, offers a large variety of maple-related goodies and has a complimentary tasting centre to test products.
In addition, many of the products at Maple Roch are available at local Okanagan IGA stores and Quality Greens.