Yesterday, we made our annual trek to the sugar bush. Wheelers Pancake House and Sugar Camp serve a wonderful breakfast year-round, and we love going there in the Spring. This was the first weekend of the season they were boiling their sap. The steam was billowing from their chimneys, and we could see the sap traveling through a transparent pipe just outside the window by our table.


After eating maple-flavored sausages and drenching our pancakes and French toast with maple syrup, we tramped around outside for a while before heading back to Ottawa.

According to Wheelers' website, maple syrup is only made in Eastern Canada and North-Eastern USA from the sap of sugar maple and black maple trees. Sap is collected in the Spring when the days are just above freezing and the nights are below freezing. According to one of the members of the Wheeler family who served us our breakfast, they have been able to start maple syrup production as early as February 21 and run as late as April 4; it all depends on the weather.

Like making a simple syrup of sugar and water, the sap is boiled until the water is removed and all that is left is the concentrated sap that is dark, sweet maple syrup. The longer you boil, the darker and more flavorful the grade of syrup. As well, sap from early in the season yields lighter syrup and darker syrup is made later in the season. It takes a lot of sap (about 160 cups) to make a bit of syrup (about 4 cups).

This coming week I'll share some recipes that use maple syrup. In the meantime, here is a link to some recipes from the gang at Wheelers: Maple Recipes.