There comes a certain time of the year, when the light shifts and seems lower 
and paler in the sky, and when the crows can be seen busily flying from tree top to tree top with the great announcements they are spreading over the land, that I begin to be flooded with memories of the awakening earth.
I sense the deep roots of the tall maples opening up their pores once more and beginning to drink deeply of the thawing earth sending sweet maple sap up through their great trunks to feed the tender tips of their branches.
My mind goes back to childhood days spent in maple woods peering deeply into metal sap buckets where they hung on the trees and I recall dipping my finger into the dripping sap and tasting the clear, fresh liquid.
The memory of the awakening earth beneath my feet as evidenced by soft snow and mud patches here and there, reminds me that once again maple syrup time is upon us in southern Ontario, Canada.
Some of my fondest memories are standing in the sugar shack and smelling the sweet steam of the boiling sap mixed with the woodsmoke scent of the burning logs being fed into the old woodstove that heated the syrup pan. There's really 
nothing like it.
During those times, I felt one with the earth and the glory of Mother nature and all the bounty and beauty she offers up to us as part of her kingdom.
The collecting of maple sap is a late winter tradition that is over a thousand years old. Our Indigenous forefathers (for those of us who are partly descended from Native Americans) used maple sap for a special late winter drink and had developed ways to cook with it and also store it by boiling it down into crystallized sugar.
As Europeans began to colonize North America, the history of maple syrup took many turns as the white man adapted their own inventions and technology to the collecting and boiling down of maple sap.
Maple syrup time in the Quinte-Prince Edward County-Northumberland areas generally runs, depending on the weather, from late February to late March. The sap begins to run when the daytime temperatures are above freezing.
The best 'runs' are when the nights are frosty and the days are warmer and sunny.
40 Litres of maple sap are needed to make 1 
Litre of maple syrup and there are mainly two types of maple trees which give sap that is suitable for making into maple syrup.
One of them, the Sugar Maple, is only found in North America. The other maple suitable for syrup production is the Black Maple.
A maple tree needs to be approximately 40 years old or at least 10 inches in diametre before it can be tapped for maple sap. (Watercolour Painting 'Maple Leaves' by Joyce Empey Smith of Belleville)
There are numerous festivals throughout Ontario during maple syrup time and two of the very best can be found right here in the Quinte region.
Warkworth, in the Trent Hills is holding it's annual Warkworth Maple Syrup Festival this weekend, March 8th and 9th.
Don't miss this memorable family event that draws thousands of visitors from near and far every year.
When visiting the festival this weekend, make sure to take in:
- Art Show and Sales
- Antiques Show and Sale
- Mini Golf (indoors)
- Pony Rides and Petting Farm
- Craft Show and Sales
- Great food served at numerous locations
- Fine village shopping~Warkworth, Ontario
- Free Shuttle Bus to the Sandy Flat Sugar Bush (admission to the Sugar Bush is $4 for adults, children are free)
- Horse Drawn Sleigh Rides through the sugar bush
- Taffy on Snow tasting
- Sap making Demonstrations and museum
- Nature Trails
- Contests~ Log sawing, three person plank race, snowshoe competition
- Entertainment with The Potter Band, Heartland Band, Step Dancers, Percy Swingers Square Dancers, Quinte Bay Cloggers, Touch of Class Cloggers
- A delicious traditional home cooked meal of piled high Pancakes, Sausages and Pure Ontario award winning maple syrup~ Adults $7, Children $3.
If you're unable to make the festival in Warkworth this weekend, at the end of March the award winning Maple in the County will be taking place in Prince Edward County.
For an awesome list of events that you can attend, make sure and check out this schedule of venues and what each is offering.
Some sites that may interest you:
Nothing can compare to pure maple syrup and Ontario is one of the best places in north america to visit during this annual event.
I hope you get to visit one of our local festivals and take home some maple syrup and other delectable maple delights to savour until maple syrup time arrives again next year!
©2008JoSmith
Jo-Anne Smith, the author of this article, is a REALTOR® with Royal Lepage Proalliance Realty, Brokerage, in Belleville, Ontario and welcomes your real estate inquiries. To contact her, visit www.QuinteRegionRealEstate.com |
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Jo-Anne Smith, the author of this article, is a REALTOR® with Your Choice Realty , Mississauga, Ontario and welcomes your real estate inquiries. To contact her, visit www.oakville-burlingtonhomes.com |
Jo - this sounds like lots of fun.
Have a great weekend.
Thanks for stopping by Marzena!
We're in the midst of another snowstorm here so I don't know how the weekend will be for travellers....however it may be sunny and wonderful tomorrow!
Jo
Karen,
I kind of thought that picture might do that to people...I know I was craving some pancakes and maple syrup when I looked at it too!
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Jo
Jo,
Maple syrup is one of my favorite scents and flavors!!! I always thought they got syrup in the summer time...thanks for informing us!!! Thanks, Fran
Hi Jo,
Wow, you've had some great life experiences in your neck-of-the-woods, (someone like me from sunny SoCal will never experience) I just loved reading this.
So fond that we put the leaf of the maple on our flag!
Hi Jo-Anne,
I know what I'll be having for breakfast tomorrow morning. It's just too bad I didn't have one of those maple tree's near-by with a bucket of fresh syrup. Great Post!
Best,
-Sash
What a delicious post! You make me want to move! Thank you.
Hi Carole,
Thanks!
With the major snowstorm we are experiencing today, I don't know if the festival is still being held or not. It must be, however I imagine a lot of people won't be going due to the road conditions. It's really bad here and supposed to get worse this afternoon.
I love maple syrup too and I especially love it in baked beans.
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Jo
Hi Fran,
Maple does have it's own unique and delicious flavour and scent, that's for sure. Maple muffins are good too....especially with walnuts.
I'm glad you enjoyed this post and learned a bit too!
Jo
Hi Linda,
Ive never read that book however I used to love watching Little House on the Prairie and I used to really enjoy it.
Something about those old days....certainly a gentler time even though the physical part of life was harder. I believe we lost quite a bit over the years.......
Jo
Hi Lynda,
Thanks! It's amazing how, depending on where we grow up, our experiences with nature are so different.
We often take the things that are unique to our own areas for granted.....until someone from far away points out that they've never experienced this.
Jo
Hi Gary,
I hope you made a stack of pancakes this morning and had some maple syrup to pour over them.
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Jo
Larry,
I wonder if the maple leaf on the flag had anything to do with maple sap collecting? We really do identify with the maple tree.
Jo
Hi Ray,
It seems this post makes everyone crave pancakes/hotcakes with fresh maple syrup!
thanks for your nice comment and for stopping by,
Jo
Hi Sash,
I hope you had a chance to make your pancakes this morning or have them at a restaurant. I remember the best pancakes I ever had were in Clayton, New York at a little restaurant called the Kozy Grill. They were stacked at least 6 inches high and each one was bigger than the dinner plate they were sitting on!
I could only eat the middle of one of them and then I was full. I remember they had jugs of maple syrup on every table and there were so many people coming in for breakfast and they all knew eachother.....what a wonderful place.
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Jo
Thanks Susie!
You can always come up to visit!
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Jo
Hi Marg,
I suppose it's because we have so many other things we have to be doing once we're older and we lose that carefree innocence and freedom that having young children around tends to impart upon all those in the family.
The pancakes sound delicious! I love french waffles too.....only thing is now I have a wheat allergy so have to buy gluten free products, not always easy to do. Hot foamed maple butter....sounds delicious!! Now I'm getting hungry.
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Jo
We are planning to take some out of town visitors with younger kids to the Maple syrup festival in Bronte Creek this weekend, and have lots of that lovely brown maple syrup on pancakes with sauages! Our teens say they have outgrown this, but perhaps they'll come along.
Beautiful evocative writing!
Hi Hilary,
I hope you have fun at the Bronte Creek maple syrup festival. Today looks like a lovely day for such an outing.
thanks for your appreciative comment!
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Jo
Hi Candy!
I'm glad Mr. Rogers talked about this. His show was always so educational.
In our area, there were always school trips to the maple sugar bush when the sap was running, even when I was a child. It was a lot of fun and we learned 'hands on'.
thanks for visiting this post,
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Jo
Hi Joan,
I believe our seasons are very similar...I'll have to look at the map and see if we are the same latitudinally.
Enjoy your visit and bring back some syrup and maple fudge!
Jo
Wonderful post as always Jo!
There is no single food which is more Canadian than maple syrup (despite eastern Canada's protests that poutine should hold that title!) and not many foods we produce are more delicious!
I should not have read this post hungry, I'm tempted to have french toast with maple syrup for dinner now!
Hello Hannah,
Thank you!
How true.....maple syrup and Canada just seem to go hand in hand. I hope you enjoyed your french toast and maple syrup (if you ended up having that for dinner).
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Jo
Hi Liz!
Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving such a lovely comment.....it's wonderful to make your acquaintance.
I hope you do make it out in the not too distant future to experience our magnificent maple sugar season...perhaps in 2009?
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Jo