Visiting the Maple Syrup Farm

On Sunday afternoon we went to White Meadow Farms to learn more about maple syrup and how it’s made. We felt like true Canadians! The farm is less than 15 minutes away, so nice and close. Most of the snow had melted and the sun was shining, it was still pretty chilly though. So we layered Sarah up and headed out.

The above pictures were taken in the building where they actually boil down the sap to make the syrup. They were filling the big woodstove while we were there. They use up 6 quarts of wood in the month when they extract the syrup (that’s a lot of wood), they have to replenish the woodstove every 10 minutes. The farm also has a big maple syrup and pancake restaurant (in the bottom pic in the collage above) and serves breakfast each weekend end of February to the beginning of April.

The whole farm is set up for a family experience, with several buildings and stations. The workers are even dressed up in pioneer attire.

Sarah enjoyed the goats in the petting zoo.

After checking out the actual process of how the syrup is made and the petting zoo we headed out for the tour. You take a covered wagon ride to the Sugar Bush where you’re dropped off at the entrance of the forest.

There were 'taps' on lots of trees with buckets filling up with sap/ syrup

First Station: The Native Women
Here they described how the native people would put the sap in a wooden trough along with lots of hot rocks. For about 5 days they would replace the rocks with hotter rocks. They would crack a turkey egg into the trough, which would attract the bits of dirt, etc. In the end= maple syrup!

Second Station: The Pioneers

Here a woman explained how the pioneers used three pots of different sizes to boil the sap to get the syrup (they also used a turkey egg in the end). David thought this was a great place to warm up.

Third Station: Drilling

Here we tried our hands at some old fashioned drilling. Even Sarah had to grab hold of the drill!

Fourth Station: Sawing

Taking our turn. You could buy a piece of wood for $1. and get a maple leaf branded on it. Or you could cut your own for free and they would brand it. Of course, we cut our own for free.

Fresh Maple Syrup Taffy in the snow

If you look closely you can see the pipelines/ taps connecting the trees.

When we got back to the farm it was time to sample some syrups and see what grade we liked best. I think we settled on medium to amber.

What’s a visit to the Maple Syrup farm if you don’t taste the syrup? We let Sarah have a little syrup on her spoon too. Wow, did she love it! She smiled and sucked on that spoon the whole way home.

A very enjoyable Sunday afternoon. In case you didn’t know, March is when they harvest maple syrup. And of course, we bought a bottle of syrup to take home, yum!