Maple Syrup season is now open as the weather is getting better. Farmers from around the country are heading out into their sugar bushes in order to start extracting sap from the trees.
It takes plus temperatures at night for the perfect time to start the maple syrup process. One of the places around the city that makes their own maple syrup is the Crinklaw family farm which is just off the 402 in London. The family owns a sugar bush right behind the farm in which they create their own maple syrup that they sell in their own business.
Mark Crinklaw is the guy that does the hauling and creating of the syrup for the business and he says “usually we start collecting when the weather is around the 5 degree mark at night, when that is depends on the year. Last year we finished on March 13 and this year we didn’t start till the 11th of March so there is a big window.
In order to create the syrup there is a long process that they must go through. They first have to tap a tree and insert a tube to the tree, this has to be done many times as animals will eat through the tubes. When the sap is ready to be extracted then they hook the tubes up to the truck that they collect the sap into. The family then brings the sap in the truck back to their building where it is created using an oven heated by fire which is different as most people don’t use fire ovens still but then it is created into the syrup that everyone enjoys on their pancakes.
But when they do get the maple syrup train rolling it is one of the top producers in the area. They hold an annual Maple syrup festival that attracts close to 900 people a year and the festival this year is held this weekend.
When the season isn’t then they sell the syrup at the Covent Garden Market and also sell Gift baskets at Christmas because in the best gift you can give a Canadian is maple syrup products
