A Spring message from MLF’s Executive Director Deb Pella Keen, from our Spring E-News. Read and Subscribe to MLF Enews here!
Native Maple trees figure prominently in the passage of winter to spring in Ontario and other parts of Canada. It is when the season transitions to cooler nights and warmer days and maple sap starts flowing through sugar bushes and keeping syrup producers across Ontario happy.
This spring, I have come across many small scale home grown operations, including our own ‘8 tap’ operation in our maple bush in Huntsville. It may be the local food production movement or a carryover from pandemic days where people were staying close to home and looking for activities but it seems there are more and more people investing in back yard operations.
Maple syrup festival time is also a time when many Canadians plan to visit a sugar to home to see how it is done commercially or for education purposes. You can find information on places to visit at todoontario.com/maple-festivals/ or here on StratfordToday.com.
For more information on tapping maples for maple syrup, please see the following links:
- OntarioMaple.com
- How to identify and properly tap a maple tree (OntarioMaple.com)
- A beginners guide to creating maple syrup (OntarioMaple.com)
- About Canadian Maple Syrup – from Agriculture and Agrifood Canada [PDF]
Happy Sweet Spring!
Deb Pella Keen and the MLF Team
