Welcome To Austins Sugar Woods

On this page you will find a brief history of our Sugar Woods.It will include my Uncle(Keith Austin) my Great Grand Father(Fred Austin) and my Grand Father (Elmer Austin).The sugar Woods has been in our family for over 50 years now and is still a favorite place to visit in the Spring by family and friends.

At the present time it is owned and operated by my Aunt and Uncle(Keith and Nancy Austin)The operation is a family business which finds family and friends helping out producing the Sweet Taste of Spring for aproximately 6 weeks of the year(my Uncle says the rest of the year is ALL WORK!!!!!!!!).

When my Uncle was a boy,he was introduced to sugaring by his Grand Father,Fred Austin,in the Austin family Sugar Woods.Recounting experiences of those years Keith claims his effort was likely more like getting in the way,but those early experiences taught him a LOVE and RESPECT for the woods and developed in him a yearn to return each Spring to capture the Sugar Maple's Sweet Treat.........as he says,Sugaring is in the Blood.

Keith's Dad,Elmer,operated the sugar Camp in this same location,Rodney,in Springhill Nova Scotia since the early 1940's.In 1947,a forest fire swept across approximately 100 acres of our woodlan.Fortunatley,it jumped the camp and burned its self out before destroying the main stand of Maple trees(130 acres).

Elmer,with help from family and friends over the years,sugared each Spring.Elmer believed the unique maple flavor produced on this ridge depended not only on the quality of the sugar maple trees but the soil in which the trees grew.

Elmer passed the reins of the business onto Keith in the late 1970's,but continued to return each Spring to boil the sap and to lend his expertise.At this time,sap was collected from 2500 kettles.Wanting to expand,Keith decided to try collecting sap by pipe line,plastic tubing strung from tree too tree,with the help of gravity,is then gathered into holding tanks.In 1981.the old Evaporator house was torn down and a new one built,with the help of friends and family,to make way for further expansion.

At the present time,there are approximately 5,000 taps on the pipe line,and enough trees to triple the number of taps.From this sap we make Maple Syrup,Maple Butter,Maple Cream and Maple Candy.

I hope you liked this little piece of History on our Sugar woods.Now if you would just follow the link below,you will see pictures of how the products are made,how the sap is boiled down into syrup and some pictures of the camp and the pipe line and how the sap gets from the trees to your lips :-) mmmmmmm.