Thompson’s Sweet Retreat is a family run 1200 tap award winning Maple Syrup Producer located at 1922 Clayton Road just outside of the village of Clayton Ontario. In 2024 they won Reserve Grand Champion at the Perth Festival of the Maples.

Visitors can take a tour of the production facility and go for a walk on the nature trail through the trees and around the pond. With the abundance of animals in the area (deer, turkeys, geese, ducks, squirrels, muskrats, turtles, wild birds and raccoons) a wildlife encounter is almost guaranteed. Over the last few years they have been a foster and rehabilitation home for orphaned baby raccoons through Holly’s Haven Wildlife Centre.

Watch for our Maple Weekend event in April and our Fall in Love with Maple event in October each year. We always have plenty of inventory available for purchase.

Thompson’s Sweet Retreat Maple Products

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 6134648800

Fluid Solar Roasted Coffee Inc.

Address: 202 Floating Bridge Road, Clayton, Ontario K0A 1P0

Phone: 613-315-6432

Email: [email protected]

We are a hand-roaster of small-batches of carefully selected coffee beans.

As a small-scale coffee roaster, our focus is on quality and attention to detail. We work directly with our customers to select the coffee beans and roasting profile to create your unique flavour template.

Lorraine and Bill have lived off the electrical grid for the past 30 years, generating electricity and heat directly from renewable resources. 100% of our water use is recycled back to nature, and our garbage waste stream motto is simple; “If we can’t recycle it or reuse it, we don’t use it”. We also drive a fully electric car that is charged using solar electricity. We like to think of ourselves as “post-industrial eco-hippies“. (Although we have been told we might be more akin to “pre-apocalypse, preppers“. We hope that is not the case!)

We have translated our way of life into the same philosophy at Fluid. Sustainability of our energy sources; small-batch coffee roasting and eliminating waste streams as well as using compostable coffee bags are part of our commitment to the environment and to ensure we are your trusted supplier.

WHY CHOOSE FLUID COFFEE?

It starts with the beans. We purchase coffees directly from farms or small-scale suppliers such as Coffee Shrub, to ensure the highest quality. Our coffees are “cupped” or graded by third-party labs to ensure a minimum rating of 85 points (excellent), even our blends achieve 88 points, and single-origins 92.5 (outstanding); an unheard of level in the commercial roasting industry.

Our single-origin coffees often come from farms that produce only a few bags of coffee each year. In many cases we purchase directly from the farm, and pay our producers a minimum of 50% higher than Fair Trade prices. This ensures a very fair deal for the farmer and provides them with the means of providing us with the specialty coffees we require.

Of course we support Organic, Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance certified suppliers. Many of single-origin coffees come from farms that are too small or remote to pay for these certifications. In these cases, we use direct-to-farm, purchasing via our Farm Gate program. We ensure that our small farm partners use organic growing practices and respect the rain forest environment.

Then comes our roaster. Most commercial roasting in done using a Probat drum unit which is automated, fast, hot, smokey and large; all of the things required for large-scale coffee production.

At Fluid, we use a Sivetz fluid bed (hot air) roaster, that accepts a maximum load of 8 pounds of coffee. When you order a 5 pound wholesale bag of our single origin coffee, that is exactly what we roast. Each roast has our customer name and requirements. Each roast is unique; each roast is yours. This ensures perfect roasting quality.

Fluid bed roasting operates at a lower temperature and takes longer to complete a batch than other roasting methods, and with the injection of large amounts of oxygenated-air into the roasting beans, coffee oils are never bitter. Each roast is 100% manually-controlled. Tasting is believing! (See our companion article on Fluid Bed Roasting).

Just in case you are worried that we can’t keep up with our customer demand, note that although this roaster is small, it can still roast over 1,200 pounds of coffee each week.

The Clayton General Store is Owned & Operated by Shelley & Chris Armstrong.

Address: 2862 Tatlock Road Almonte, ON, Canada, Ontario K0A 1P0

Phone: (613) 256-1947

Located to the west of Almonte, Clayton was first named Bellamy’s Mills, Clifton and then finally named Clayton in 1858. The once bustling village included a gristmill, sawmill, carding mills and woolen cloth factory, distillery, hotels, and tannery.

The old-style Clayton General Store has been the community hub since 1839 and continues to thrive today!

Clayton Lake and the Indian River make this picturesque hamlet a popular spot for fishing, hiking and boating, while the bountiful hardwood forests make it a maple syrup epicenter for the region.

The Clayton General Store offers the following Products & Services:

• Propane
• Stove Oil
• Diesel
• Gas
• LCBO
• Beer Store
• OLG Lottery
• Hunting & Fishing Licenses
• Live Bait
• Groceries
• Meats
• Dairy
• Baking
• Ice Cream
• Hot Dogs
• Pizza
• Subs
• Animal Feed
• Hardware
• Clothing
• Footwear
• Full Service Post Office
• Local Artisan products
• Plus much more…

Fortune Farms

Making maple syrup is a tradition in the Fortune family. The first three generations made syrup in Leeds County with wood fired equipment and a few 100 taps. By the time of the third generation in 1940’s to 1950’s a “modern” wood fired evaporator was in use with buckets and a horse drawn sleigh for gathering. Syrup density was checked manually with a thermometer and colour grading was not used. Syrup was packed in tin cans for the retail market or shipped in barrels to the packing house in Brockville.

Ruth and Ray Fortune

After a break from 1950 to 1969 syrup making was renewed by the fourth generation, Ray and Ruth, at a small hobby farm near Kanata. After three years the next Fortune generation, Peter, Jamie, David, Nora and Joel expressed a real interest in making syrup and were old enough to help. The current sugar bush and equipment was purchased from the MacIntosh family in 1972. The first syrup production, at this location, was in the spring of 1973 from 1000 taps using a wood fired evaporator and a tubing system for collection. Syrup density was checked with a thermometer and colour grading was now used to identify the flavour of the syrup.

Over the years more trees were tapped, a vacuum system to enhance sap flow and pumping was installed and automatic temperature measurement introduced for syrup density checking. In 1990 a new sugar camp was built and a high efficiency oil fired evaporator with stainless steel pans was installed.

A small micro burst destroyed about two acres of trees or 200 taps in 1997. The ice storm in 1998 further damaged the trees with a loss of 500 taps. In 1998 a second sugar bush near Clayton was purchased to make up for the loss of taps. Currently we have 7000 taps.

Further improvements have been made to the operation. The emphasis is on improving quality and efficiency. A reverse osmosis machine which runs on electricity was installed in 2005. This machine removes 60% of the water from the sap which in turn reduces the boiling time and the amount of fuel oil required. To get the characteristic maple flavour a heat cycle is required to make maple syrup.

In 2006 a fire destroyed the sugar camp and most of the equipment. A new evaporator of similar design but higher efficiency replaced the earlier machine.

The next generation of Fortune grandchildren are now helping to make maple syrup. To make sure these children will have an opportunity to enjoy making maple syrup we work hard to maintain the growth and health of our trees. Our sugar bush has been selected for study and example under Ontario’s Demonstration Forest Program and the Eastern Ontario Model Forest Program.

Thompsontown Maple is a family maple syrup farm based in Clayton, Ontario.

In the spring of 1984, Ray and Wayne Thompson, along with their wives Ann and Teresa, re-established a long tradition of maple syrup production on Ray’s family’s farm on the west shore of Clayton Lake.

Ray, with a background in forestry management, and Wayne with a background in computers, technology and teaching discovered a perfect fit for both of their passions. In the first year, they purchased a used evaporator from a neighbouring maple producer and moved into the sugar camp Ray’s father had built in 1954. The same camp that Ray and his siblings spent their springtimes in helping their father make maple syrup on the family farm. In the first year, they gathered sap from 1000 buckets.

In 1984, the sugar camp was expanded and a larger wood-fired evaporator and an oil finisher was purchased. An additional 1200 taps on pipeline were added in the maple forests on the farm surrounding the sugar camp. Over the next couple of years, the maple sugar camp continued to grow, with the wood-fired evaporator converted to oil, and the number of taps growing to 2600.

In the spring of 1999, rebuilding of the maple business began with the installation of rigid tubing to service all of the remaining taps. Since then all of our taps have been converted to rigid tubing, except for the beautiful maple trees at the entrance to the Thompson Family farm. Each year the children (and now grandchildren) get to tap those trees and collect the sap. In years past this would have been the sap used for 4H projects that Ray and Wayne’s children were involved in. In those early years as Thompsontown Maple Products began to grow, Ray and Wayne along with their families also grew with their children spending each springtime in the sugar camp helping to tap trees and gather buckets. Passing down this information has always been a passion for Ray and Wayne.

Today, Thompsontown Maple Products has approximately 5,000 taps collected all by a network of tubing that runs throughout the beautiful maple forests on the Thompson Family farm. We make all of our products by hand in small batches in our sugar camp, including maple syrup, maple butter, sugar, spices, suckers and more! At our sugar camp you will meet Ray, his wife Ann, their daughters Leann and Lisa and their families. It is a tradition that continues on to the next generation and one that we could not be more proud of.

The Maple Community

Being connected to the maple syrup producers community is a passion and a value we hold very high. Over time we have learned how to make maple syrup from the best educators available; our family, neighbours and members of our maple community.

We are an active member of the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association (OMSPA) for over 35 years.  Ray serves as director of its local chapter (Lanark & District) including past roles as President. Learning from their father’s dedication to the maple industry and community service, Leann and Lisa have both taken on roles locally and provincially.  Leann is also a director for the local maple association, its provincial delegate to OMSPA and is the chair of the provincial marketing and promotions committee.  Lisa sits on the Board of Directors for the Lanark County Tourism Association.

• Festival of the Maples in Perth, ON from 1984 to 2022
• Maple Weekend in Clayton, ON from 2016 to 2022
• Fall in Love with Maple in Clayton, ON from 2021 to 2022
• Lanark County Harvest Festival in Carleton Place, ON in 2013 to 2017, 2022
• One of a Kind Virtual Market, October to December 2020
• Cheerfully Made Virtual Market in Almonte, ON in 2020
• Etsy Made in Canada a 3 day Etsy Market in Ottawa, ON from 2015 to 2018
• Cheerfully Made Food and Drink Show in Almonte, ON in 2016
• Calgary Stampede an 11 day Etsy Market in 2015
• Almonte Farmers Market a weekly from 2011 to 2014
• Stittsville Flea Market a weekly from 2000 to 2006
• Ontario Plowing Match (5 days; 2003)

Accolades

We have been very fortunate to be recognized amongst our peers. For us this is an incredible honour.

– Perth Festival of the Maples:
Grand Champion 2007, 2018
Champion Maple Syrup: 2007, 2017, 2019
Booth Exhibit: 1st 2018, 2nd 2016, 2017
– Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association: President’s Award 2018
– Identified by the Ottawa Citizen as one of “Five Maple Syrup Makers Worth the Drive”
– George Deugo Memorial Award: Sugar Maker of the Year 2012

Our values

The primary goal of our business is to continue the tradition of making maple syrup in our family and to give back to our community that has given to us. The trees and the land that we work on are what excites us. Being able to pass on the knowledge of sugar-making and to continue this pure Canadian tradition is what motivates us in every aspect of our business. Our hope is that in another 100 years Thompsontown Maple Products will still bring smiles to the faces of those who share our sweet treat with their family and friends.