A Trip to the Sugarbush

This weekend we drove out to a local sugarbush for the annual Maple Syrup Festival. The sun was shining, the sap was running, the syrup was plentiful and the pancakes were free. What could be better?!

Thanks to our beautiful flag, not to mention Olympic mittens, Canada is known for maple trees. This is the time of year when the sap begins to run and we celebrate a truly Canadian industry and one of our favourite flavours.

A few interesting facts learned at the festival:

• Canada produces 85% of the world's maple syrup and is the world leader in exports.
• Canada's maple syrup industry is surpassed only by frozen french fries in single horticultural commodity exports. (Still waiting for the french fry festival!)
• Per person consumption of maple products has increased by 50% in the last decade.
• It takes 40 buckets of sap to produce 1 bucket of syrup.

Upon arrival at the sugarbush, the day's prospects were so bright that new sunglasses simply could not be left in the car.We began our tour with free pancakes topped, of course, with fresh maple syrup. Zoe likes pancakes and maple syrup!Then we hit the trails to see what we could see. The sap in the buckets looks just like water.There was a tasting station at one of the stops along the trail. We first tasted the sap poured straight from one of the buckets. It tasted like mildly sweet water. Then we sampled fresh maple syrup. It tasted like fresh maple syrup. Yum. The difference was remarkable.

A fiddler entertained us at one point along the trail. Zoe loved it and danced along to the music. The fiddler took notice of Zoe and asked what her favourite song was. Needless to say, what followed was an interesting fiddle rendition of The Wheels on the Bus complete with actions.

The hills proved to be more than Zoe chose to handle. Hitching a ride with Daddy was her preferred mode of transport. His hat became a handy drumming pad until his tolerance ran out.

Back at the visitor centre, we invested in a maple lollipop for Zoe. Lollipops are one of her favourite treats. When we handed it to her, she exclaimed "A Canada lollipop!" recognizing the maple leaf shape. After the first lick she looked up pleasantly surprised and announced that it had syrup on it.

Topping even the maple lollipop was Zoe's first pony ride. While she loves animals, she gets scared when up close to most of them. After some hesitation and a couple false starts, Zoe finally decided she would ride a pony as long as it was the little white one. Sara walked beside her and she did just fine.

Much to our surprise, she asked to ride a second time and agreed to do it by herself! We think she finally conquered her fear. At least of small white ponies. Giddy up!

Thus concluded our day at the festival. Zoe chattered proudly about the horses on the way home. We all enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air, to say nothing of the syrup and its celebration.