Maple taffy, pancake breakfasts, maple sap boiling in a traditional cauldron—all this and more is on the menu for the inaugural Maple Weekend in Eastern Ontario (April 4 and 5, 2015). Maple syrup producers from several counties, including Lanark, Leeds and Grenville, and Frontenac, will be opening their doors to sweet-toothed visitors.
Choose from many types of maple syrup at Fortune Farms near Almonte. Photo by Simon Lunn courtesy of Lanark County Tourism.
“There were 17 [producers] signed up a year in advance for this. They were so excited,” says Marie White of Lanark County Tourism.
The focus is on giving visitors a first-hand look at how one of Canada’s most famous foods is produced and helping them connect with local maple farmers. “The whole idea behind Maple Weekend is twofold,” event chair David Fairbairn of Fairbairn Maple near Almonte said in a recent interview on Perth radio station Lake 88.1. “First, to give consumers or people who are interested in maple syrup an opportunity to come out and learn a little bit about how we make the product…and, secondly, it’s an opportunity for maple syrup producers to connect with their customers and sell some product to them.”
Fulton’s Pancake House and Sugar Bush near Pakenham will be offering horse-drawn sleigh or wagon rides during Maple Weekend. Photo by Trevor Lush courtesy of Lanark County Tourism.
The activities and products available at each site are diverse. At Fortune Farms near Almonte, a group of storytellers called the Kettle Boys will regale visitors with tall tales. Meanwhile, George and Darlene Conboy and Sons Maple Syrup near Sharbot Lake will be offering a tomahawk and knife-throwing demonstration! Depending where you go, you might be able to buy maple jelly, maple vinegar, maple fudge or maple butter, among other treats.
Maple Weekend 2015 is a pilot project. The provincial maple syrup producers’ organization hopes to roll it out to sugar bushes across the province if this year’s event succeeds.
Also on the agenda at Fulton’s: live music! Photo by Trevor Lush courtesy of Lanark County Tourism.
Cross your fingers for good weather. Ideally, temperatures need to drop to a few degrees below freezing at night and rise to a few degrees above 0 Celsius by day to get the sap running. The forecast looks promising, but if your heart is set on seeing sap boiling, you might want to call your chosen sugar shacks ahead of time to confirm there’s enough sap available to fire up the kettles. But even if the sap isn’t running, you can console yourself with all the other activities (most of which will run no matter what Mother Nature throws at us)…and, perhaps, a few pieces of maple candy.
If you see smoke rising from the chimney at a sugar bush (like Temple’s Sugarbush near Lanark, above), the sap is probably simmering. Photo courtesy of Lanark County Tourism.
If you go
To plan your route with an interactive map and learn more about the producer, head to the Maple Weekend website.
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[…] At Wheeler’s Pancake House and Sugar Camp in McDonald’s Corners in Lanark County, families can drop in from Friday through Monday (April 3 to 6, 9am to 3pm) for a free Easter egg hunt along a 1km trail through the sugar bush. They’ll also get a free maple goodie and learn about maple syrup making. At Fulton’s Pancake House and Sugar Bush in Pakenham, Easter egg hunts take place on April 4 and 5, and activities like face painting and horse-drawn rides are available all weekend (April 3 to 6, 10am to 2pm). At both spots, you can check out other activities related to Ontario’s inaugural Maple Weekend. […]