(Dave Bedard photo)

FCC offers new credit line against ‘current economic environment’

Ag lender to waive loan processing fees

Farm Credit Canada’s recent outreach to specific agrifood sectors hit by unusual environmental conditions has now extended to those hit by the broader “economic environment.” The federal ag lender on Tuesday said it will offer an unsecured credit line of up to $500,000 with loan processing fees waived, “to help producers, agribusinesses and agri-food operations

Canadian maple syrup for sale at Montreal’s Marche Atwater in 2016. (Lorraine Boogich/iStock/Getty Images)

Top court affirms hefty fine for man behind Quebec maple syrup heist

Back to prison if fine not paid in 10 years

Reuters — The man behind a decade-old maple syrup heist in Quebec will have to pay a $9 million fine, Canada’s top court said on Thursday, upholding an earlier ruling by a lower court. A group of people in Quebec siphoned off maple syrup worth over $18 million from a reservoir and replaced it with


(Getty Images)

Grain, seed corn growers get access to seasonal worker program

Maple syrup also added to national commodity list

Growers of grains, oilseeds and seed corn and maple syrup producers may be able to get in on the federal Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) for the 2021 season. Federal Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough announced Nov. 27 the national commodity list (NCL) would be expanded to include seed corn, oil seed, grains and maple syrup

(Bhofack2/iStock/Getty Images)

New federal standard to expand beer ingredient options

More variety in allowable ingredients and more requirements for declarations are now part of the federal rules on what can be called beer in Canada. The federal government on May 1 announced “modernized” beer standards under Canada’s Food and Drug Regulations (FDR) — the rules laying out the requirements to be met by a product



Syrup-titiously delicious

Syrup-titiously delicious

Maple syrup is good for our precarious planet’s forests too

Some grumble when the snow arrives, but not members of the Pumpkin Creek Ski Club at Roseisle. They rejoice, naturally. They also start leaving treats on members’ doorsteps — cans of pure maple syrup, sold as club fundraisers. Those cute little cans signal the start of ski season, and time to enjoy hearty breakfasts of

Marketing boards are failing Canadians

Canada’s agriculture marketing boards are showing signs of obsolescence, forcing commodity groups to consider desperate measures. Certainly, given the economic conditions of the last century, forming marketing boards made perfect sense. Marketing boards and agencies were designed to sell agricultural commodities throughout Canada and to the world. They were also intended to protect farmers from

Jakobi Maendel, five, loves to help gather the sap. 


Maple syrup ritual spurs childhood memories

When my sister makes maple syrup every spring, she also recreates treasured memories from my childhood

Every spring a corner of our backyard is transformed into a scene that could be from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books. Two columns of bricks create a makeshift stove, over which giant rectangular pans sit atop a steel table-like structure. Barrels of scrap hardwood, collected throughout winter at our carpenter shop especially for this,



Pancake puzzler: Maple syrup heist baffles Quebec

Thieves in Quebec may have pulled off the sweetest heist of all time, siphoning off a reservoir of maple syrup from a warehouse and cleverly covering up their caper to evade detection, an industry group said Aug. 31. The warehouse in rural Quebec held more than $30 million worth of maple syrup, a whopping 10