This month we seemed to jump right from winter into summer, but one sure sign of spring is the arrival of the maple syrup season. Although the sap ran for a shorter time than usual this year, the fam and I experienced an authentic sugar bush adventure last weekend at
McCully's Hill Farm near St. Marys. I got loads of great pics so for this post I'm going to tell the story as a photo blog.
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| Sonny (foreground), Lisa (in yellow) and Fisher (green checkers) in front of McCully's Farm Market |
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| The Lads decided to go on the tour first and have brunch after... |
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| The McCully's Hill Farm Sugar Shack - at full steam! |
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| FYI: 40 buckets of sap for one bucket of syrup! |
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| Head syrup maker Dwight explains the evaporator |
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| A team of massive horses arrive to tour us through the sugar bush |
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| Clipping along beside the sap collectors |
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| Traditional sap collection - taps dripping into buckets |
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| The hollowed out log was the First Nations' method for evaporating sap into syrup |
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| End of the bush tour - time to see the animals in the barn! |
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| Fisher makes friends fast |
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| Our adventure finished off with a beauty pancake brunch in the greenhouse with sausages, baked beans and of course lots of maple syrup!!! |
Great post Steve!
ReplyDeleteThanks John! It was lucky - we picked the only weekend that the sap would have been really running. That heat really cut down the season... I guess McCully's only produced half of what they made last year.
ReplyDeleteWe went that same weekend! Must have just missed bumping into one another. Figured with the warmer temps that it was our last chance to see the syrup in production before they had to shut everything down. Going to McCully's Hill Farm has become a families new tradition.
ReplyDeleteSorry we missed running into you & your crew TSF! Maybe next year - it's definitely going to be an annual tradition for us too!
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