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| - This was an excellent activity and if you hurry over the next two weekends, you can zip up the 404 to Stouffville** Road, just north of Markham, and see for yourself.
The Sugar Bush Maple Syrup Festival runs from March 6 to April 11 every year, and tours take place every hour on the hour, Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 3pm. Bruce's Mill Conservation Area is open year-round for hikes and other activities. This year's festival was the 42nd of its kind!
Once you find parking amid the SUVs (seriously - our car was one of the only non-minivans/SUVs in the parking lot), head towards the main area and check out the free petting zoo, filled with goats, sheep, llamas, donkeys and pot-bellied pigs. I'll bet you didn't know that goats are as soft as kittens and that a potbellied pig's hair is coarse and wiry! All of the animals are very friendly and you can freely pet them as they'll come up to the edge of the pen to check you out. There are also guided pony rides for $3. The ponies looked tired. :(
Then head inside to the restaurant, where you can have a pancake breakfast for dirt cheap - I believe for 4 people it came out to $8 for a stack of pancakes, drinks and sausage links with maple syrup, and we couldn't even finish the pancake plate. If you're childfree you'll be in the minority so bring patience and/or earplugs, maybe steeltoe boots for the inevitability of getting slammed by stroller wheels.
Finally, gather around the firepit for the hourly guided tours and stick to the front so you can hear all of the riveting information that the tour guides share along the walk. Alice, our guide, has been leading the tours for two years and she was filled with fun and quirky facts about the production of maple syrup over the years as well as some interesting dendrological information. Along the way we met Katherine, the First Nations guide who explained the early heating methods for sap and the bartering systems they once employed, Martin, who explained what goes into each step of the process and the way that neighbours once shared the profits from maple syrup production, and Bill, the off-season Santa Claus, who showed us the modern-day extraction and production techniques and shared with us that 70% of maple syrup sold comes from Quebec.
In the adjacent shop you can buy maple products like fudge, maple lollipops and other candies and maple syrup tins and glass bottles. I noticed that some of the bottles are the same ones you can buy in the basement at St. Lawrence Market so there was no rush to buy them here.
At Bruce Mill's Conservation Area there are four types of maple trees, and the sugar maple produces sap that is much sweeter than the other varieties. Most of the trees are not distinguishable other than by the leaves, and the sugar maple leaf is the one that's on the Canadian flag (who knew??). Speaking of fun facts, maple syrup production is currently only one fifth what it was at the turn of the 20th century.
The only thing that could have made the tour itself better would be a separate adults-only tour. As expected there were a lot of SUV strollers not conducive to hiking in the woods as well as toddlers with limited attention spans (recall: 1 hour walk) and questionable walking technique/supervision.
Guided One Hour Maple Syrup Walk:
Adults - $8
Seniors & Kids - $6
Kids 4 and under - FREE
Groups of 20 or more, private tour - $6.56 (call 416-667-6295 to reserve)
** STOWville
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