There is a Native Canadian legend that tells us that the maple was ‘Hiawatha’s greatest gift to his people’.
“The maple sugar industry began with the early Canadian and New England pioneers.” This according to a very old edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Today, my family attended what has been called a sugaring-off event or maple syrup festival at the Purple Woods Conservation Area just north of Oshawa. “The Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority was established in 1958 by the Government of Ontario at the request of the municipalities located within the watersheds of the following creek systems: Bennett, Black, Bowmanville, Corbett, Darlington, Farewell, Goodman, Harmony, Lynde, Oshawa, Pringle, Robinson, Soper, Tooley and Westside. Central Lake Ontario Conservation owns over 1,200 hectares of floodplain, waterfront, valleyland and environmentally significant land.” That was featured in the brochure we obtained when purchasing our tickets for the festival.
The brochure also gave us a pretty good overview of the beautiful surrounding countryside which was absolutely magnificent on this mild, sunny Saturday in March. Looking out across the forested hills and snow-covered valleys, I discovered that we were standing “..at an elevation of 320 metres on the crest of the Oak Ridges Moraine. This ridge stretches 160 km from the Niagara Escarpment to the Trent Valley and was formed about 10,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. At that time, the glaciers covering this area were split into two lobes: one in the basin of modern day Lake Simcoe and another in the basin of Lake Ontario. The lobes of ice were carrying vast amounts of rock and soil scraped up by the glaciers as they moved. As the ice melted, streams of meltwater washed the debris into the gap between the two lobes. This debris, known as till, was heaped higher and higher to form the ridge you see today. This is a watershed: all precipitation falling to the north will find its way to Lake Scugog while that which falls to the south will find its way to Lake Ontario about 21 km (13 mi) away.” There has been enough precipitation this winter to create more than enough of a flow to both these large bodies of water. I really don’t think you will hear of any water shortages this summer, unless it’s drier than normal. The levels in the lakes should be higher than they were last year.
I also learned something else. “The importance of keeping our headwater areas in natural forest cover concerns the Conservation Authority greatly. Forested headwaters slow the snowmelt and allow for a gradual spring runoff and recharge of groundwater. In this case, this prevents damaging flooding and stream bank erosion. Our forests also inhibit soil erosion and provide wildlife habitat.”
After our sampling of the sweet syrup produced in this local area, we climbed the path on a nearby hill to an outdoor display that presented us with photographs and specimens of the flora and fauna of the area. This land is home to beavers, painted turtles, garter snakes (I think I recognized the one that sometimes visits my backyard ornamental pond in the high heat of summer, the one that sometimes likes to curl up on the rocks above the waterfall), red foxes, coyotes, salamanders and other creatures. It’s amazing to think there is so much wildlife just beyond the borders of our communities.
I have to tell you something that happened just the other night. I was up late and happened to hear a commotion of sorts outside our front door. I opened the door to find a red fox standing on our walkway. It jumped up onto one of the tall snowbanks I had shoveled beside the driveway. It seemed oblivious to my presence or really could not care less that it was being watched. I got the sense that, for the moment it stood there so stately, it was surveying all that it considered to be its territory. I got a good look at it as it stood high on the top of the snowbank, and then, in a flash, it hopped down and scurried off into the relative darkness of this quiet residential street. The information provided in this display at the conservation area suggested that right about now their offspring are being born. I thought that maybe the fox was away from its den in search of food. I was watching again the following night hoping to see this regal animal. I didn’t expect to see another creature of the night. This one didn’t leave me with the same sense of awe. It was a skunk standing between my two vehicles in the driveway. We may be winter-weary from all the snow of late, but these were two sure signs that the seasons are changing.
This writing in this very old edition of the Britannica goes on to tell us that getting the sap from the trees may have been taught to the early European settlers by the original peoples of this land. They may have “…regularly observed a sugar-making moon. The early methods of obtaining the sap were cruder, though more picturesque, than the present efficient ones.” The original method for obtaining the sap was clearly demonstrated by volunteers in period costume along the trail to the sugar-shack and picnic shelter, where a hearty breakfast of pancakes and rich maple syrup was being prepared for the hundreds of people in attendance today. A little of what we saw along the way will be included in this blog, thanks to our cellphone cameras.
The brochure included a time line.
“1540 First written observation of North American maple tree by French Explorer Jacques Cartier
“1606 Marc Lescabot describes collection & distillation
“1788 Quakers promote manufacture & use of maple syrup
“1875 Introduction of metal sap buckets
“1946 First commercial power tapping machine marketed
“1970 Reverse-osmosis technology introduced to concentrate sugar content of sap before boiling
“2007 Purple Woods Conservation Area celebrates its 32nd year in maple syrup production.”
“In the early days maple sugar making was a family industry. When sugar-making time came in the spring, the whole household–men, women and children–camped out among the trees. The trunks were gashed, and hollowed-out sections of poplar logs were set in the gashes to catch the flowing sap. These troughs were emptied into barrels, and from them the sap was ladled into kettles for boiling. These huge, crude kettles hung from chains over a log fire. As the sap boiled in them and evaporated, they were refilled from smaller ones. When the sap was boiled down sufficiently, it was passed through a flannel strainer, skimmed, and boiled until the sugar formed. The sugar maker had to watch his kettles carefully to avoid scorching.
“The old method has been replaced by modern efficiency and machinery. The trees are no longer hacked for their sap, but small holes, which do not harm them, are bored in the trunk. Into these holes is driven a spout, or spile, which takes the sap to a covered bucket. The sap is collected regularly and taken to the boiling place. One to four per cent of sugar is found in the sap, and a good tree produces about three pounds of sugar a year.” An excerpt from a 1954 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
The methods today are so modern when comparing to how this was done in the past. The collection process includes plastic tubes, or lines, running from the trees directly to a collection point.
While we were waiting in line to buy our pancakes and syrup, my wife noticed a really tall maple tree with what looked like a bore-hole three-quarters of the way up. She told me to watch what has happening up there. I stood for a moment, and then I saw wasps coming out of their winter nest and flying back in. The warm March sunshine must have stirred them from their sleep. I thought the trunk of a maple tree an appropriate place for a nest, considering how close they would be to a sweet source of nectar. There would be no flights to the wildflowers this early in the year, but I’m sure they were quite content with the sap running in the veins of the tree. I wondered if it was the warm sun or the sticky sap that roused them from their insect dreams.
Do a Google search for maple syrup festivals in your area. I’m sure you will have as much fun attending one as my family did today during our outing in the woods. The parking lot was overflowing with vehicles and there was a lineup at all the displays along the path, as well as the huge outdoor tent where the pancakes and freshly-made syrup were being dished up. The portions were generous at the festival we attended. It reminded me of festivals I attended in Quebec in years gone by. In fact, it was just that memory of one my wife attended, north of Montreal, that piqued her interest in finding one here in Ontario for our children to experience. There were also a few other lines in this brochure that I noticed many families taking to heart today. “Take nothing but pictures / Leave nothing but footprints.”
Besides the signs of spring in the animal kingdom I’ve been witnessing recently, the one signal that spring is on our doorstep is the sap in the maple trees, and the syrup on the pancakes. No wonder the maple leaf is the national emblem of Canada…
“All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair– / The bees are stirring–birds are on the wing– / And Winter slumbering in the open air, / Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!” An excerpt from Without Hope [February 21, 1825] by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
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Don Jackson
