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Prior to the sale of our old house and the purchase of this property, we went to an event held by the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association. We met in Peterborough, Ontario and attended lectures (since there were so many, Dave and I attended different lectures and took notes) and went on tours of several local maple syrup producers, to see their setups, equipment and properties.
We came here specifically to set up a maple syrup operation. We looked at existing operations for sale, but found them too expensive, too small to produce a decent income, or not possible to grow the size of the operation due to tree availability on the property. Certainly you can plant trees, but in this industry, trees are not tapped for sap production until they are a certain diameter, which can take a decade or more. We couldn't wait.
Read more: The Plan for Setting Up Our Maple Syrup Operation
Eight months ago, neither of us had ever heard of St. Joseph Island, and I'd never been north of Parry Sound, which is five hours' south. It's a huge, beautiful island with a population of about 2,000, which increases to about 6,000 in the summer.