Ray Fortune: A Life
With heavy hearts we announce the passing of Ray Fortune on March 7, 2025 at the age of 92. Ray was a man of many interests and talents. He loved working in the forest and the art and science of making maple syrup with his family and friends.
Ray’s Beginnings
Ray grew up on a prosperous farm in Junetown, Leeds County, Ontario. He recounted many stories of how things were done in the past, farming successfully with few machines and without fertilizers and pesticides. The focus of the farm was dairy production for the local cheese factory, but they also raised sheep, pigs, chickens, kept bees, produced apples and made maple syrup.
Of all these activities, making maple syrup was special to Ray. I think because there was less to do on the farm in the early spring, Ray could spend time in the woods, and the mysteries of maple were intriguing.
Photo of Ray by David Blom.
Sap still ran on Sundays
One of his “discoveries” was that sap ran on Sundays. Sunday was a day of rest. The milking was done, the family went to church and visited with people. They did not collect and boil sap on Sunday’s because Ray’s father told him that sap didn’t run on Sunday. Well, Ray was wandering in the sugarbush one Sunday and discovered that the buckets were overflowing, rushing back to the house he excitedly proclaimed that sap did indeed run on Sundays! His father told him the sap would wait until Monday. Young Ray, like grown up Ray, did not want to miss any opportunities to make syrup!
Horses were integral to the farm operation and drew the sleigh through the sugar bush to gather the sap. The gatherers would empty the sap from the buckets on the trees into gathering pails and then dump them into a tank on the sleigh. The horses moved along on their own and would stop occasionally and drink sap from a bucket beside the trail. Ray noticed that they always stopped at the same trees. He tasted the sap and figured out that the horses liked the sweetest sap as there was variation from tree to tree!
Boiling sap into maple syrup was fascinating to Ray. When not gathering sap, he would hang around the camp watching his father, the hired man and his Uncles feeding wood into the evaporator, skimming foam off the pans, checking the boiling sap with the dipper and thermometer then periodically drawing off and filtering the syrup. He would then take some finished syrup, boil it further over on the wood stove and pour it on the snow to make “Jack Wax” – what we call maple taffy! Ray loved Jack Wax.
One day, Ray’s father and his Uncle had to leave the camp to gather sap and they left Ray in charge of the evaporator. They told him to keep an eye on it, let the fire burn down and that they would be back soon with more sap. Well, Ray seized this opportunity and copying the men, he loaded wood into the firebox, skimmed the pans, tested the sap, drew off and filtered syrup. When his father and Uncle returned, they were stunned! Ray was 11 years old and a sugar maker was born!
Finding his way
Ray had a life altering experience with the sugar bush as a young man. Ray’s father encouraged him to get an education and move away from the farm. So, Ray went from a one room school in Junetown, to high school in Mallorytown and then was one of 5 who graduated from Brockville Collegiate Institute – four young ladies and Ray. He was accepted at Queen’s University to study Engineering. He found the program very challenging and worked hard at his studies. He would come home to visit from time to time, to rest and recharge.
During this time, the farm was sold and Ray’s parents retired from farming. On one trip home, feeling the need to walk in the forest and re-kindle his spirit, he went back to the farm to visit the sugar bush. It was gone. It was now a corn field. Ray was deeply affected by this change, and he developed a strong stewardship ethic. He became committed to protecting forests and nature as he knew that they would disappear.
A sugarbush in Almonte
Fast forward a couple of decades to the 1970s. Ray and Ruth were married with five children. Ray was working in high tech in Kanata and he and Ruth were looking for something for their busy family to do. Ray roamed the countryside and found a sugar bush near Carp which was fully equipped but idle. He approached the owner and he agreed to rent the bush. Ray and Ruth with the kids and another young family, the Younghusbands, operated the sugarbush for two years.
Ray and Ruth found that the family enjoyed the sugarbush and Ray went to work to find a sugarbush of their own. Ray thoroughly explored Lanark County and eventually found a lovely sugar bush west of Almonte whose owners, Neil and Alice McIntosh, were willing to sell on the condition that Ray operated the sugarbush. At this time there was great demand for maple logs and the McIntoshs’ did not want to see their forest logged. So Ray and Ruth bought the property from the McIntosh’s in 1972 and thus Fortune Farms on Wolf Grove Road was founded.
Over the years Ray grew the scale and scope of the farm’s maple business and worked to improve the forests and the efficiency of the operation. He brought his engineering knowledge to the art of sugarmaking and created many devices that increased productivity.
Fortune Farms today
53 years later, Fortune Farms is a busy place. Embracing life’s lessons, Sherry and Jamie Fortune operate the business with the help of family and friends. True to Ray’s values and passion, the forests are sustainably managed, we embrace the efficiencies of technology, we focus on quality products, and most importantly we share our farm so others can enjoy the art and science of maple production and the wonders of the sugar bush.
Ray was always happy in the spring when the sap was running, syrup was flowing and the farm was bustling with people. He found great joy working with his family and friends and sharing it all with visitors on the farm. Please join us this year as we honour and remember Ray Fortune.
There will be a celebration of Ray’s life planned for later in the spring.