A Sugar Shack Outing for March Break
Here are pictures from a classic Canadian outdoor event. If you are looking for a fun activity to do with the kids while they are on March break or on a free weekend, then take them to a sugar shack to see a real sugaring off. It’s educational, it’s fun, it’s all natural and it’s the season. Sap starts to run when the weather begins to warm up and the nights are still cold, sometime in March. The whole thing will end early April once the trees begin to bud.
We are used to finding one or two grades of maple syrup on grocery store shelves but generally Number 1 Light or Extra Light, which is generally produced early in the season, is mildly flavoured and sold as syrup for pancakes and waffles. If you’re able to get to a producer or a good farmers market, you may be lucky enough to find other grades of syrup usually reserved for baking and commercial production. Be sure to try medium or amber grades of syrup – they have a much stronger, more complex maple flavour and sometimes even taste of caramel and spices.
You can make maple sugar pops at home as well, here is a step-by step slide show that shows you how.
Boiling the maple syrup for candy.
Pouring hot syrup on the snow to set.
Maple Syrup Pops!
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Growing up in Quebec, I am well a accustomed to sugaring off each year, with almost the full meal cooked in maple syrup, crowned with “la tire”, as shown in your photos.
Since moving to Toronto, however, I haven’t been able to find a real sugaring off. Only pallid educational affairs where they demonstrate how the sap in boiled, but that’s it. No eggs fried in maple syrup, no steaming mugs of pea soup, and especially, no “la tire.”
Are there any real sugar shacks in the GTA where one can enjoy the full sugaring off experience?
I recently had a lovely evening out with friends in London, Ontario. We had dinner prepared for us by Chef Chris Squire in the cooking school kitchen at the back of Kiss the Cook, a wonderful kitchen shop. We had been asked for suggestions for ingredients for Chris to use and I had suggested maple syrup, given the time of year. Chris prepared us a Maple Creme Brulee that was a highlight of the evening. A couple of people at the dinner who swore they didn’t like Creme Brulee loved this dessert! The use of maple syrup added a lovely flavour.