It's Maple Time

Every year my family visits a the Sugarbush for maple breakfast. It really is the first sign of Spring to me, giving maple syrup a special place in my heart.

In recent years, we've visited Dumfries Maples, operated by the Scott family. It's a fabulous experience for those who haven't been. This year, we decided to change it up and visit King's Landing.

The King's Landing breakfast and experience was great. Breakfast is a fundraiser for the local Ground Search and Rescue volunteer organization and they were very generous with the maple syrup. 

After breakfast, we took a horse-drawn wagon ride to the King's Head Inn. We happily drank a pint of Picaroons beer while listening and singing along to traditional music played in the pub. King's Landing had several working displays and a sugaring demonstration complete with taffy on the snow.

The maple sap only runs when nights are below freezing and daytime temperatures reach a balmy 5+ degrees (40F). The sap used to be collected in buckets, but many operations now use gravity fed lines to carry the sap to the cook house. It takes 40 liters of sap to produce 1 liter of maple syrup. The sap is boiled and the water evaporates until the perfect temperature and sugar level is reached.

The King's Landing maple breakfast is over, but many sugar bushes will be open during April. With our cold winter finally moving on, the sap has begun to run. This 3-4 week season is intense and produces all the maple syrup available for the entire year. The sap stops flowing every year once the tree begins to bud, so let's hope for warm days and sub-zero nights to continue for a little while longer.


Cheers, Gilliane

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