The New Valley Farmer

Happy Easter Friends In honour of this holy holiday we are featuring lamb and lamb producers for the entire month! Today we travel to Renfrew for a visit with the Armstrongs !... Pinnacle Haven Farm Operated by Tyler, Shanna, Jack, Liam and Breigh Armstrong in Renfrew. Tyler and Shanna bought their farm in 2010 and took over Shanna's parents' purebred Dorset flock of sheep. The flock goes back to Shanna's maternal grandfather who imported the Dorsets into Canada. It is the longest established flock of pulled Dorsets in Canada. They now run a flock of 150 purebred and commercial Dorsets with some Rideau Arcott influence. They lamb 4 times throughout the year to ensure they have a steady lamb supply 12 months of the year. Shanna and Tyler sell lamb directly to their customers from the farm and at the Deep River Farmers' Market when it operates from May to October. They also sell breeding stock throughout Ontario and Quebec. They raise their sheep as easy keeping sheep and are rotationally grazed from May to as late as December, depending on the snow. When Tyler isn't working at his day job, he shears sheep for other sheep farmers throughout Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec. You can order lamb by calling, e-mailing, messaging or ordering a box on their website. www.pinnaclehaven.ca [email protected] 613-433-8255

CONTEST ALERT Good morning - Happy Friday!!!It doesn’t always happen in this order, but it’s nice when it does!#CoffeeThenCows #BeefFarmersofOntario How do you like your coffee? If you don’t drink it, what’s your go to?!... The Easter Bunnybrought a $25 Tim’s Card - LIKE, COMMENT & SHARE for your chance to win! Draw on Sunday, April 4th!

As Maple Syrup Month continues we go to Lanark to hear from the Stead Family ! They can be seen at all of the local fairs showing their 6 up of Belgians in the fall! Steadholm Farms ... Over 150 years ago William Stead was the first to set down roots on the bend of Dobbie Rd in the Lanark Highlands that is still one of the family farms to this day. Making maple syrup has always been part of life for the Stead family; starting back in the 1800s with boiling sap in flat pans and collecting buckets with horse drawn teams, to more recent upgrades to vacuum systems and gathering tanks pulled by tractors. Murray Stead, and his wife Nancy, are the current landlords, as they put it, tending to the cattle, horses, and maple bush with the help of their three adult children (Tyler, Taralyn, and Tracey), along with 4 grandchildren who help sample and ensure quality control! Truly a labour of love as any of them will tell you of many long nights that turned into morning before the boiling was done for the day. There have been years where the fire never went out for a week as the boiling never stopped while they tried to keep pace with the running sap. Still boiling over a wood fired evaporator, Murray remembers how before they had hoods on the evaporator, there would be so much steam in the camp it would be raining on you while inside! The Steads have shipped their maple syrup all across Canada and even once to Buckingham Palace for the Queen! Maple syrup seems to run in the veins of Steads as it’s not uncommon to see one of them sipping a mug of maple syrup or adding it as a topping to yet another dessert or on top of toast at breakfast. Don’t knock it ‘till you try it! Follow us on Facebook under Steadholm Farms or on Instagram @steadholmfarms

Maple Syrup Month !!! This week we go to Springtown ! Operated by Byron and Kate Zeyl and Family Bryon grew up on his Oma and Opa’s farm, in the Ottawa Valley, during his summers and loved every minute of it. Weknew when we were looking for our forever home that we either wanted land or to be on the water and we fell in love with the Ottawa Valley. We purchased 100 acres, adjacent to Byron’s Oma and Opa’s farm at the time, and built our dream home in 2013. Otterburn Maple Far...m was officially established in 2018 and our farm is located in Springtown, just east of Calabogie. People often ask how we came up with our farm name and it’s rooted in the history of the area. Otterburn Farm has been around since the 1860’s as the home on the property was known as Otterburn House. Otterburn House was the post office in the Hamlet of Springtown from the 1860’s until 1969 and still stands today. It was also the focus of a painting by A.Y. Jackson in the late 1950’s. Since 2013, our farmstead has grown continuously, each year adding new animals and expanding into Maple Syrup. On the farm we have laying hens, poultry, pigs and turkeys; our primary business is Maple Syrup. Our focus was to raise good quality food for our growing family; we have two boys ages 3 & 5. We wanted to share this with our friends and neighbours as well and our farm just kept growing! Byron grew up making Maple Syrup with family on his Oma and Opa’s farm and wanted to continue the tradition on our property. We started out very small scale with just twenty-fivetaps, boiling sap over a woodstove in a pot; tapping many of the same trees Byron tapped with his Opa years ago. Each year since, we have added more taps on more parcels of land. This upcoming season we hope to have four thousand taps! Our Maple Syrup is produced on our property, in our newly built Sugar Shack. We boil over a wood-fired evaporator to give our syrup that traditional taste that everyone loves! On top of bottled Maple Syrup, we also make maple cream and maple sugar. We supply several stores with Maple products for sale year-round. Maple Syrup is also a great sugar substitute; it’s a healthier sweetener and is packed with minerals and antioxidants. Follow our family’s business adventure on Facebook at Otterburn Maple Farm or on Instagram @otterburnmaple. Thanks for supporting local businesses; we could not do it without you! See more