With all the sap pails hanging from maple trees in the city, it was only a matter of time before someone dreamed up the idea of Guelph’s first maple syrup festival.
Transition Guelph and John McCrae Public School are going to make it happen on April 1, with the school cooking up a pancake breakfast, and Transition Guelph’s Urban Sugaring Project providing the syrup and some demonstrations on how to make it.
For the past couple of years, the project has enlisted residents with maple trees to place a tap and bucket on them. The sugary water is collected and boiled down in a wood-fired process, and syrup is distributed back to participants.
Traditional tin sap buckets, complete with the lids, are currently hanging from trees in the sugar bush on John McCrae Public School’s grounds. The Urban Sugaring Project tapped about 25 of the trees this season.
John Dennis runs the project. He said the school was the driving force behind the festival. It is proud of its trees and its involvement in the project, and wanted to share that with the community.
The Headwaters Program, Upper Grand District School Board’s outdoor education program, is also a part of the event, offering demonstrations on forest craft, including some log building techniques.
Dennis will put on a demonstration of sap boiling on a small scale. He will talk about the process, and there will be some hands-on components.
“We’re doing it at John McCrae Public School because they have the small stand of trees that we’ve tapped for the project,” Dennis said. “It’s an urban forest, a maple stand, and it’s a lovely little spot. People will get the experience of a sugar shack without having to go out into the country.”
The event happens on Saturday, April 1, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Admission is free, but there is a cost for the pancake breakfast.
Students at the school hope to raise enough funds to add new maple trees to their little forest. A small number of the older maples are reaching the end of their life cycle and need to be replaced.
There are many local people becoming interested in tapping trees and taking part in the Canadian experience of making maple syrup, Dennis added. They can come out to the festival and learn how it’s done.
“It’s actually pretty simple, and maybe they will want to do it themselves.”
The Urban Sugaring Project has doubled its capacity this year. Trees have been producing sap at a good rate, at least when it hasn’t been freezing out. The syrup has been a dark amber colour, with a hint of smoky flavour, in the old fashioned way.
