Silver buckets hang from dozens of trees as far as the eye can see. My brother and I shoveled the snow away from the barn and then headed down an icy driveway. A smell of butter guided us like a siren to a large cabin. The door opens with a strong push. In front of us is a stainless steel drum almost as high as the ceiling with gauges and tubes, lots of tubes. One deep breath and we know we are in the right place; the sugar shack
How things have changed since the early 1970s. My little brother and I returned to a sugar shack this year with my nephew and grandson, but it wasn’t exactly what I remembered except for that distinctive smell. However, the exhibits and photos brought back many memories. On the walls were pictures, snowshoes, a display of spigots, and shelves with bottles of golden liquid.
One photo showed a man holding a hand drill hitting a tree. I vaguely remember taking a field trip one spring to a sugar bush where we had a tree tapping demonstration. He hand-drilled a small hole in a maple tree, then a small fixture, called a Spile, was inserted and then gently tapped into place. Our guide then hung up the sap bucket to collect the sap. Once enough sap has been collected, we take a bucket (from a previously drilled tree) to be processed, where the sap is boiled. I was amazed to learn that it takes approximately 40 gallons of natural sap to produce one gallon of syrup. There were three large metal pots set over a wood fire. Our guide added our sap from the buckets. We learned that traditionally, heating would have been done in a “sugar shack” or “maple house”; We were all given popsicle sticks and enjoyed stories of the origins of maple syrup as our guide made us snow-rolled maple candies with warm maple syrup.
Another black-and-white photo shows a team of horses pulling a sled loaded with equipment. I wondered if those were the horses my father, a blacksmith, would make special bar and tack shoes for so they could traverse heavy snow or icy trails in the bush.
A charcoal sketch also caught my eye. It showed a few natives, dressed in furs, cutting down trees with an ax in a dense thicket. This also brought back memories of a family friend, Mona, taking a tour of the sugar bushes on her ancestral land. She would lead visitors to a ceremonial circle where a large cauldron hung from a tripod of birch logs over a fire and explain to everyone the technique of making maple sugar hundreds of years ago. She would demonstrate how her ancestors plunged hot stones into the sap to reduce it to syrup by evaporating excess water. She explained how maple syrup was used for medicinal purposes and how children could taste very sweet by removing the layer of frozen water after overnight freezing of the sap.
Other memorabilia, like the several pairs of old snowshoes on leather straps, too tall to touch, the spike display, and an old blackboard where someone recorded recording dates back to 1906. In the hallway was a deed of ownership. land dating back to 1892. The best part eating the pancakes topped with maple syrup. I grabbed a maple glaze recipe card (attached) and signed up for the horse-drawn sleigh ride through the modern sugar bush. I loved seeing the countless blue plumbing tubes connected to the trees and seeing the reverse osmosis machine. The next time you go to a maple farm, ask to see the evaporator and ask how they get rid of the dreaded sugar sand. Some locations will have a device similar to a pool test kit called a “leveller.” This will determine the grade of the maple syrup from dark to light or sweet to super sweet. Tea Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association state”All retail maple syrup sold by Ontario producers, regardless of grade, must contain a minimum sugar content of 66 percent and be created exclusively from concentrated maple sap. The difference between maple syrups is strictly the color and intensity of their maple flavor.”
See you at the canning tank.
