About Us

Trillium Maple farm is an off grid maple syrup operation established in 2018 located just outside of Arnstein Ontario, we are a member of the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association(OMSPA). While we mainly produce and sell maple syrup we also produce Birch syrup, forage for natural items like Chaga and are adding produce such as garlic and asparagus in the future.

Sugar House

February 4, 2021

We started clearing the land for the sugar house in May 2020, with a thick cloud of black flies hovering above and all around us. We wear bug suits to help us bear them.

We cleared a few trees and dug up the stumps and removed the top soil.

We watched as lumber prices began to rise. We bought most of our materials at a local saw mill in Trout Creek. We had trucks of gravel brought in by HJ Brooks, and bought Portland cement Buchanan's Building Centre to mix our own concrete for the floor. Luckily we bought a cement mixer for the tractor in 2018.

With the floor in we started framing the walls, using 2X6 rough cut lumber. We calculated the pitch and constructed the rafters and the cupola for the steam from the boiling sap to escape.

Plywood prices were going crazy and we lucked out with purchasing seconds of pine from the Trout Creek planing mill. It's also much nicer to look up and see pine opposed to plywood.

We installed green steel roofing purchased from Steelridge Metal in Powassan. And did the walls with pine board and batten from Trout Creek.

The windows were won at a local Ontario hi-bid auction and cost us $14.50 for all 5. We also won boxes of electrical and plumbing for $10.00 that will come in handy in the sugar house.

We built the doors from leftover pine. Hardware was purchased in Port Loring at Buchanan's Castle Building Centre.

We bought some LED shop lights and roughed in some electrical wiring that will run off a generator for now until we decide if we want to install a small solar system at the sugar house.

There is still plenty to do but the structure is built and ready to go.