Sat, Mar 24 2007 - Maple Sugar Bush Adventure (View Original Event Details)
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It was a grey, foggy, and drizzly day for our Maple Sugar Bush Adventure, but that didn’t dampen our spirits (or appetites!) as we set off for St. Mary’s looking for a quintessentially Canadian springtime experience.
McCully’s Hill Farm has been producing maple syrup for six generations, and they are proud to open their facilities to anyone interested in learning how this sweet and delicious treat is produced. Upon arriving at the farm, however, we couldn’t think about much more than our growling tummies; the sugarbush tour would have to wait! We met up with Sheri and Suzy, two new TOC members, and queued for brunch: homemade pancakes, maple pork sausages, and maple baked beans, liberally doused in sweet, sweet syrup and washed down with coffee or maple tea. Delicious!
Feeling a bit full from all that food, we were keen to climb the big tree-lined hill to continue our adventure, but were instructed to wait for a tractor-pulled wagon to come and collect us. So we waited obediently, with poor Rob shivering in the damp, and were eventually hauled up the hill to the nerve centre of maple syrup operations: the sugarshack. Here we learned how the clear sap is gathered from sugar maples and temporarily stored before being boiled down into that inimitable golden-brown liquid called maple syrup. We learned about the different grades of syrup, from extra-light to amber. We also learned why the stuff is so expensive: it takes 40 litres of sap to produce just one litre of syrup! But my tastebuds swear it’s totally worth the price.
After having learned how syrup is made and tasting the end-product, it was time to go back to the beginning of the process. Bob and Dick, two handsome, gentle, and enormous Belgians (and by this I mean horses, not men from Belgium!) took us on a wagon into the silent and dripping sugarbush. We clip-clopped our way through the host of tall maples that had been tapped for this spring; unlike many modern maple syrup operations that rely on a network of clear plastic tubing to collect and transport sap, McCully’s uses galvanized steel or food-grade plastic buckets to gather the sap that drips from the spigots; the buckets are then gathered by hand. At one point, we stopped and climbed off the wagon to peer into the buckets (or, if you are Hong, to fall in love with Bob’s eyelashes!). It was wonderfully peaceful in the sugarbush, and the fog pressing around the forest made us feel quite isolated, both in time and space, from the rest of civilization. But we couldn’t stay, and Bob and Dick took us back to the farm buildings in good time.
Back at the farm, we were invited into the barn to see the baby animals. It being spring, lambing season was well underway; we saw quite a few of the lambs, including one particularly gangly and adorable one that was just three days old! We also saw bunnies and calves, as well as pigs, cows and horses that we were allowed to feed. McCully’s is known for producing top-grade naturally-raised meat, and I guess this is where it happens. It may not be particularly pleasant to dwell on, but it is a fact of life if you are an omnivore. At least the animals at McCully's are humanely-raised and fed with care.
On the tractor ride back to the parking lot and farm store, we passed fellow TOCers Rebecca and Mike, who had not been able to meet up with us earlier in the day. It was a relief to know they’d made it, and that they enjoyed their day even without the rest of the club. Once back at the store, we happily stocked up on this season’s maple products (my jar of syrup was still warm from the sugarshack!), homemade jams and condiments, maple tarts and other goodies. While most of us were drawn to the sweet stuff, Benster made a bee-line for the meat freezers; he’d actually brought a cooler in anticipation of taking home a side of beef or a brace of rabbits, and he wasn’t disappointed!
The original plan had been to stop at Wildwood Conservation Area for a hike after leaving McCully’s, but the mucky conditions and grey, drizzly sky kept us driving towards Stratford. We strolled along the Avon river path before heading into town for a bite to eat at Bentley’s, where we watched Sivanny struggle to make a dent in what might well have been the biggest pile of cheese nachos EVER.
Upon returning to Toronto, we divvied up our maple syrup spoils and headed for home, our adventure over. My thanks to everyone for helping make my first attempt at coordinating an "out of town" event so much fun, and I promise to master the intricacies of figuring out the carpool funds by, um, next maple syrup season!!
Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Erik Sonstenes at photos@torontooutdoorclub.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.