Life is sweet.
Donald Goneau drills the first hole of the season for the collection of sap. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. About 800 trees will be tapped in preparation for the Maple Sugar Festival in Vanier.
Michelle Nash
While the maple sugar festival at Richelieu Park
is still almost a month a way, organizers tapped the maple trees as
temperatures rose last week.
One of the only urban maple sugar shacks in Canada, the Sugar Shack at Richelieu Park
taps about 800 trees in the park. The annual sugar festival runs at the end of
March. The recent rise in temperatures, which led to the cancellation of some
Winterlude, made for the perfect flow of sap, so organizers at the Sugar Shack decided
to collect the watery substance and make maple sugar in preparation for the
festival.
The festival has been running a little or 20 years with 1,200
kids and families and schools coming to the event. New co-ordinator, Serge Richer
hopes that this year’s new plans will allow for more activities, more maple
sugar tasting and more fun.
“This festival is getting more popular every year, we are
hoping to have weeklong activities and lots of sugar,” Richer said.
With two tree-tapping men on hand, Richer walked up the
trail towards the sugar bush and explained that mid-February is the best time
to start collecting sap because of the low temperatures at night and the rise
in temperature during the day. A differentiation of plus and minus five degrees
is optimal, he said.
“This is where the festival begins and ends, with the trees
and what Mother Nature determines,” Richer said, pointing at the trees.
Richer is no stranger to organizing festivals, with
experience working with the Tulip Festival and Winterlude. He said he jumped at
the chance to work for the tastiest festival in town.
“There is no other urban sugar shack in Canada, maybe in the
world. This is a unique festival in the heart of Vanier,” Richer said.
As a past participant and visitor to the festival, Richer
looks forward to preparing activities kids and parents will enjoy. He said he
looks forward to offering more than just maple syrup tasting and toffee.
With seven days of activities, Richer hopes to spread out
the number of students, families and visitors who attend the festival.
“If we spread out the activities, the kids will have more
time to try everything and do everything,” Richer said.
The festival takes three months of preparation, a lot of organization
and creativity.
With 15 years of service to the festival, sap connoisseur Donald
Goneau has remembered the long days and nights he spent working on getting the
festival running smoothly.
“I have slept here a few times. Once we all slept in old city
hall,” Goneau said.
The festival runs from March 21 - 27 with Richer hoping
about 50 kids coming through each day.
For Richer, the biggest reward will not be the sweet taste
of syrup, although he looks forward to having one of the first tastes, it will
be the looks on the children’s faces and the reaction of the crowds as they
have fun. For him, it is the smiles that make all the hard work worth it.