Entrepreneur Jolene Johnson spent years on a Christmas tree farm in New Brunswick. She was helping her sister and brother-in-law with their business of growing and harvesting trees for the holiday season. “That’s where I was exposed to the maple syrup side of things,” she says. “Along with their tree farm, they operated a sugar bush– nothing big; it was just a hobby.”
Today, Johnson is back among trees and on the maple syrup side of things. But this time it is most definitely not a hobby. She is now the CEO and founder of Wabanaki Maple, a craft maple syrup producer based in Neqotkuk, or Tobique First Nation, in New Brunswick.
The company is inspired by her time on that tree farm and almost two decades of experience in the food industry. (She worked in restaurants, catering, meal prep and menu planning.) But Wabanaki Maple is also a culmination of her journey to reconnect with her roots and culture.
Reconnecting With Her Indigenous Roots
“I was born and raised in a non-Indigenous community,” she says. After the end of a relationship, she moved back to her Neqotkuk community with her two children and started over. “It was the doorway to reconnecting to my own culture, language and traditions,” she says.
Maple sap was celebrated as “a source of healing.” It was something community members looked forward to drinking in the spring to replenish their bodies with nutrients after the harsh winter.
“It was used in their cooking for different meals, and they would also boil it down into sugar bricks, so it could be stored for later use throughout the year,” Johnson explains.
Wabanaki Maple helped her fit different parts of her life together into a singular focus. “It was time for me to move out of my current work, to move forward with something I was more passionate about and to share our Indigenous culture and the history that relates to maple syrup. Between the agriculture, the culinary work and our culture, it was a perfect fit,” she says.
Transforming New Brunswick Sap to Specialty Maple Syrups
Wabanaki Maple syrup is truly like no other. Johnson and her staff create these creamy maple syrups by aging New Brunswick sap in bourbon, whisky and toasted oak barrels. The Barrel Aged Whisky Maple Syrup has notes of rye, oak and wood smoke. It pairs just as well with salmon as it does with a banana split.
Her bestseller is the Barrel Aged Bourbon Maple Syrup. It’s buttery with sweet notes of marshmallow, and is best enjoyed with coffees, seafood and pork.
We also like to use their Barrel Aged Toasted Oak Maple Syrup or Traditional Maple Syrup to make this White Chocolate Maple Fudge. It’s indulgent, rich and the perfect dessert to gift to friends or bring to dinner parties. Best of all, it’s super easy to make.
Barriers to Entry: How Jolene Johnson Built Wabanaki Maple
But the journey to creating Wabanaki Maple syrup hasn’t been easy. Maple syrup is a crowded field in New Brunswick. It’s the world’s third-largest maple producer, where more than four million kilograms of syrup are produced each year. In 2022, Wabanaki Maple produced roughly 20,400 kilograms.
It’s also a field dominated by men. And, as a First Nations person living on a reserve, Johnson is unable to use land as collateral to obtain a bank loan. As per the Indian Act, land on reserves is owned by the federal government.
“I don’t want to say it’s been hard, but it’s had its challenges and barriers,” she says. “Networking, connecting with the right people and asking the right questions have been very significant resources for me.”
She’s hoping to play that same role for others in the community. “I’m pretty sure that I’m, if not the first, one of the very few Indigenous women to launch into this industry in Canada,” she adds. “My goal is to inspire other Indigenous women to take up space in these under-represented industries.”
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