Labour of love: Caledon man making maple syrup the old-school way

Old School Sap Co. was founded in 2019 by Thomas Pigeon

By Zachary Roman

Thomas Pigeon first began making his own maple syrup 20 years ago. 

Now, he has his own maple syrup brand: Old School Sap Co. 

The old school in the company's name has two meanings. The first is that Pigeon makes his syrup in a sugar shack outside of his old schoolhouse-turned-home at the corner of Old School and Creditview roads in Caledon. The second is that Pigeon makes maple syrup the old-school way.

He began tapping trees at the “Old School” in 2019, and since then he's gone from tapping around 30 trees a season to about 450. Pigeon said it was a great thing to start doing right before the pandemic as it gave him something to do during lockdowns.

Maple syrup isn't Pigeon's main job, it's a passion project. Pigeon is semi-retired from a career as the CEO of his own package design and branding business. He's worked on designs for clients such as Tim Hortons and Kraft, as examples.

March is a quiet time of year and the perfect time to be out in the bush, according to Pigeon. 

“It's a miracle of nature… you put a hole in a tree and you can get a litre of syrup,” he said. “It takes 50 litres of sap to make one litre of syrup.”

Pigeon is proud to make his maple syrup the old-school way. He doesn't use anything mechanical; his syrup is never run through lines or pumps. Pigeon's evaporator/boiling pans are fire-heated with wood gathered and split on his property.

“We just have buckets on trees. Every bucket gets dumped into a white 20-litre pail, [and] when that's full while you walk it out into the truck,” said Pigeon. “That truck has big totes on it… then we bring it back and we boil it and it takes 12 to 15 hours to convert sap into syrup.”

On a good day, Pigeon can harvest 1,000 to 1,500 litres of sap. Once it's boiling, it's all about time, evaporation, and taking the syrup off when it's at the right sugar level — 66 per cent (that's the minimum, but Pigeon prefers 67). Pigeon said sap straight from the tree usually is around two to 2.5 per cent sugar. 

When Pigeon began making maple syrup, he just had one evaporator pan and made syrup over an open fire in his field. Over time his neighbours came over to see what he was up to and became interested in it. Some offered to let him tap their trees, while others wanted to tap their own trees and Pigeon shared his knowledge with them. The majority of trees that Pigeon now taps are his neighbours, though he still taps the trees on his property too.

It's been a great way to get to know his neighbours and make friends and build a community of people interested in making maple syrup. Pigeon says his process isn't some secret and that he likes to share it. He has a friend that lives up the road who makes his own wine, and the two often trade bottles and meet up to chat about their respective crafts.

“I love Caledon and the sense of community in this Town,” said Pigeon.

While it costs essentially nothing to tap a tree for sap, making syrup does involve a lot of labour. Pigeon, who is now 70, does employ some local kids each spring to help collect the sap.

“It's a lot of work, you're lugging 20-litre pails 200 metres out of the bush… you have long days, starting at 5 a.m. in the morning and finishing at 8 or 10 p.m. at night,” said Pigeon. “If you're not collecting sap you're boiling sap, if you're not boiling sap, you're finishing off syrup… and then you have to market and sell.”

Pigeon ships his maple syrup to people all over the world, and many Canadian expats he knows through work often buy his syrup. Maple syrup feels like coming home to Canadians, said Pigeon.

Maple syrup is an amazingly diverse product, said Pigeon, noting some interesting uses for it other than as a pancake-topper. 

“It's great for your coffee… put a splash of maple syrup in the lousiest scotch and it makes it taste like a big single malt,” said Pigeon. “It's great as a cooking and baking ingredient.”

Pigeon began tapping trees on February 10 this year and is now approaching the end of the sap season. He said for sap to come, there needs to be freezing temperatures at night and warmer temperatures in the day.

A tree can give sap for over 100 years if it's treated with respect and tapping holes are spaced properly, explained Pigeon. He said you can never tap a tree that's too young, meaning a tree that's less than 10 inches in diameter. On an 18 to 24-inch diameter tree you can put two taps in, and on a 24 to 36-plus inch diameter tree you can put three — but never more than three, according to Pigeon.

“I think people think to make maple syrup, you have to have vast tracts of land. If you have a maple tree, and you have kids and you want to have some fun, put a tap in and hang a bucket off it and boil (the sap) off on your stove inside or over a little fire,” said Pigeon. “You can make maple syrup.”

Making maple syrup is a meditative process for Pigeon, despite the amount of work it takes. He said his business is a labour of love.

“I have been building brands for clients for 47 years now… I decided to build my own brand and have some fun with it,” said Pigeon. “I'm the manufacturer, the distributor and the sales guy and the marketing guy… I'm that taste tester. I love it.”

While Old School Sap Co. has grown in the past few years, Pigeon doesn't want to grow it more so he doesn't stray from his core values. If he were to make any more syrup each year, he wouldn't be able to do it the old-school way.

“I wanted to prove to myself that I could make exceptional syrup,” said Pigeon. “I can hold this quality at this level… I can keep true to my belief that syrup should be made over smoke fires in the traditional way, with no mechanical intervention. That to me gives the best product possible.”

Old School Sap Co. is hosting pancake breakfasts on April 15 and 22. For more information about the breakfasts, or to purchase syrup, those interested can visit oldschoolsapco.com.