Swan's Maple Products

Swan's Maple Products Producers of great quality Nova Scotian maple syrup since the 1870's

We are one of several maple syrup producers / manufacturers along the Sunrise Trail with a medium sized operation that is family run, adding a friendly atmosphere to an already enjoyable setting. We have a northern view over Tatamagouche Bay and on a clear day you can see Prince Edward Island.

08/30/2026

Yesterday I had Tim and the girls help me package up some more syrup.

I typically will package a barrel at a time (two batches), but that hasn't been holding us very long lately, so yesterday we got up there nice and early and made up a third batch as well.

That will hold things for a bit longer, which will work in my favor, cause after we finished the 3rd batch and tried to clean up the burners on the stove some of the propane fittings failed at the ends and now need to be replaced.

There has been a pile of syrup finished up on that stove over the years, so there's no shame that it finally aged out, but now we'll have to find out where to track down the right fittings again before we can do another day at the camp.

Luckily we recently made up a batch of fondant for our cream and still have lots of butter on hand to do us until its up and running again, so this won't keep any products from our customers (who have obviously been doing a great job supporting us and enjoying our products with the amount of movement I've been seeing lately).

I'm taking the day off today to bring the girls to a fun day in the village before they get back to school, but we'll be back at it tomorrow and as usual will plan our day according to the weather we are given...its finally getting back into some nice working temperatures again, which I can certainly appreciate.

Yesterday was another doctor appointment for Dad.He was diagnosed with diabetes over the last couple of months (unsurpri...
08/28/2026

Yesterday was another doctor appointment for Dad.

He was diagnosed with diabetes over the last couple of months (unsurprisingly considering everything he's been through) so we have been using some diabetic monitoring patches to see what his ranges were and have started trying to find meds that suit all his needs as so many of his issues overlap when trying to figure treatments out.

He is about to start another one as the first meds didn't work out for him, making him feel poorly and really affecting his quality of life daily.

Fingers crossed this one works better, but if it doesn't we'll move on again.

He hasn't been up to eating much lately, so we were excited when he felt like he wanted to stop for a meal after his appointment and got to enjoy himself.

*******

Today we had Kevin out from McCormicks Maple Syrup Supplies.

He came out and brought some mainline pipe for the woods as he was coming over anyway to help Tim and I get a start on our datacer monitoring system.

He showed us the ropes to get started and we confirmed we could get a signal up to the woods.
Now to go through the manual and learn the rest of the ins and outs of the system so we don't blow up his phone with too many questions 😜

Kevin is a long time friend and it was wonderful that he was able to get out to do this with us as he's always been very helpful, but it was even nicer that Dad got the chance to have a visit with him since he hasn't been up to going on the supply runs yet this year.

08/26/2026

I'm so spoiled 😉

I went to Truro to run some errands with Mom today including a maple delivery and while I was away Tim finished swapping out our old loud/squeaky exhaust fan in the camp kitchen for a nice new quiet one.

That should move a lot more humidity out of the kitchen for me and make the work a lot more tolerable.

Its been a hot summer, but with a new fan and a new heatpump I should be all set from here on out...

There's nothing like sitting up next to a hot bottling tank in the summer, over a steamy bottle of syrup while another big batch comes up to temperature on the propane stove 🤣

He also got a couple of fixes done up at Mom's & Dad's house....an old drawer face was replaced after having broke recently, a wall was closed back in behind dad's shower stall once he got a final safety bar installed, and a pile I made the other day while cleaning the shop was gathered up and hauled away...how did we get so lucky 😁

It's been a busy few days lately.Last Tuesday we got Dad out to visit with some family for a change as most of his trips...
08/22/2026

It's been a busy few days lately.

Last Tuesday we got Dad out to visit with some family for a change as most of his trips out tend to be going to the doctor.

He had a great time visiting with everyone and while he was definitely sore and tired when he got home he seemed to feel pretty good by the next day, which is an improvement from it wearing him out for days afterwards...

He's still not up a lot, but it's nice that he can do something a bit more relaxing when he is.

****

On Thursday Mom & Dad went to Truro for a visitation for a good friend of theirs.

Dad worked with Freddie for a long time when he was a milk receiver and Freddie drove milk trucks.
After years of working together they also went out to many meals with Fred and Irene, so it was nice that they were able to make it in for that.

I wasn't able to help on that trip as Tim and I had a room booked on the Island to get the girls out for some more fun before school started, but Mom and Dad managed just fine without me, though I still do try to be available when they're traveling.

****

After my 2 days away we were able to get everyone together to help today.

Jamie and her crew, Mom, my friend Derrick, and Tim, Myself & our kids all came together to get a day of processing chickens done.

We managed 17 of Mom & Dads meat chickens and 5 grow outs of ours today, and that should leave us approximately 2 more days of 20 birds to do later once they've had more chance to grow.

We did the biggest birds today and they averaged around 8.5lbs each, as usual there will be some good eating from their chickens...

****

Not sure what will be on the go tomorrow, but I'll wait to plan anything until I see how Dad is feeling...

He was so cold for a while this morning that he had 3 blankets and the heat pump on blowing warm air, then after a bit he had his blankets thrown back, his fan on above him, and his heatpump set to dehumidify...

While he wasn't reading overly high on the thermometer we will be watching closely cause if there's an infection we want to catch it early, but it's hard to know what's an infection and what's just your every day fever that needs time to pass.

We had some great help hauling wood today.And we made it back before the sky opened up and poured, which made the day ev...
08/14/2026

We had some great help hauling wood today.
And we made it back before the sky opened up and poured, which made the day even better...

There were some pretty long rumbles of thunder when we headed up for our last load, but it didn't start raining until we parked the 4wheelers away 😁

And just like that we have 2 batches of maple sugar made to be packaged up once it cools.
08/12/2026

And just like that we have 2 batches of maple sugar made to be packaged up once it cools.

We've been keeping busy packaging the last 2 days and making deliveries.Today we decided to make up a batch of fondant c...
08/11/2026

We've been keeping busy packaging the last 2 days and making deliveries.
Today we decided to make up a batch of fondant cause I was out for making up my next batch of cream.

Tomorrow I think we'll make up a double batch of sugar so that everything is well stocked for a bit before more orders come in and get me back at it.

08/04/2026

We spent the weekend dismantling our evaporator and washing everything after leaving it for a nice long soak with sap.
It does a beautiful job cleaning the pans up so it really helps cut back on the amount of scrubbing and pressure washing that was left for us.

The last two days I've been working at getting some paperwork done, making maple deliveries, and helping Mom set up some shade cloths and another automatic waterer before this week gets too hot for their meat chickens.

Tonight I decided I'd enjoy some of our delicious maple syrup in one of our favorite meals. We make it up as a skillet and serve it over rice...

-Cook 1 pack of bacon, then set it aside to keep it crispy.
-Cut up a red onion and a couple of bell peppers and cook them in the remaining bacon fat with the lid on.
-Add parsley,black pepper and diced garlic to taste.
-When veggies are cooked to your desired consistency add your bacon back in and give it a good drizzle of maple syrup over it all and cook to remove the moisture and caramelize.

All that's left is to enjoy! 🤤

* The only way to make this better is if you have a can of diced pineapple on hand...if so then add it, cause it is divine! We didn't have one tonight, but it was still SOOO GOOD

Some finessing to be done yet to get the wires all tucked in neatly against the house, but we got the antenna up to star...
07/27/2026

Some finessing to be done yet to get the wires all tucked in neatly against the house, but we got the antenna up to start working on our vacuum monitoring system for the maple woods.

When this system is complete it will break our woods up into smaller monitored sections that will show us problems and alert us as to where and when they happen.

This will save us a lot of walking through the woods searching lines for damage whether a spile has popped out of a tree in a big freeze or if a tree has fallen in the winds and compromised a mainline.

It's going to be wonderful to know about these problems in real time, because 1 small problem can drop the vacuum and productivity in large areas and that affects the outcome of the whole season.

Air introduced into a line under high vacuum causes it to freeze up and can keep sap from passing that location.

If a freeze up happens during a run your sap can back up into your tap holes and cause bacteria to build that will dry up your taps earlier...

Dad may not be in the woods with us now, but he's certainly going to be making the work easier for us with this none the less.

*The top bracket was done in a hurry to get this up and will be upgraded at a later date, cause who wants a chunk of wood screwed to the house... but im pretty happy with how that bottom one turned out (though I think Mom would appreciate it being painted white 🤣)

Address

416 Grist Mill Road, Central New Annan
Tatamagouche, NS
B0K1V0

Telephone

+19028905534

Website

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