The Sugar Bush Season
As the snow melts and the temperature rises we all have spring on our mind. This is also the time of year that brings to mind something else that's very special, and very Canadian: Maple Syrup and visiting a sugar bush.
I grew up surrounded by maple trees and sugar bushes. My grandfather tapped a few trees himself and boiled his own syrup for many years. It was extremely labour intensive, as he did it the old way of boiling in pots and manually collecting the buckets, but it tasted sweet and wonderful.
(photo: syrup lines attached to the trees bring syrup back to camp)
How maple-country am I? I had my prom at a Sugar Camp. Yup, you read that right. It was a lot of fun and so very typical of the area I grew up in.
Maple Syrup was, and is, a staple food item. As a kid, I would butter bread and dip it in syrup, pour it over bananas and I still to this day pour it over white rice. Honestly, I've been known to drink it straight. I just love it.
(photo: Jakeman's Maple Syrup, a BuyCanadianFirst.ca member in Ontario, Canada that has an online shop and pancake house to visit)
There is nothing more fitting than to visit a Maple Sugar bush (farm, camp) this time of year. Most places are open to the public on weekends, some weekdays and possibly March break. They usual offer family-friendly activities like petting the farm animals, wagon rides, making maple taffy on the snow and of course, the pancake breakfast. Stacks of freshly made pancakes drenched in maple syrup. My favourite treat? Maple sugar candy.
To find a sugar bush near you, check your local paper, google it in your area or check out this website. You may be surprised how close they actually are.
Do you make going to the Sugar Bush an annual tradition? What activities do you do while you are there?
Photo credits: Flickr, Rebecca Stanisic, BuyCanadianFirst.ca
