Maple Syrup Festival - a great way to start March Break's staycation

It has been a long winter and every day we are waiting for signs of Spring.  The kids can not wait to see green leaves on the trees again rather than barren branches.   Rather than make our way down south as so many of our friends have done, we decided to stay local for this March Break.  For our first trip of the ¨staycation¨ we decided to enjoy the great outdoors again be heading to the  Maple Syrup Festival held in Bronte Creek Provincial Park about 15 minutes from our home in Oakville, Ontario.  I had been looking forward to seeing the Maple Syrup Festival since before we moved here six months ago.  And now, with Spring approaching it was here . . .

Welcome to the Festival

The weather predicted rain but we were spared the rain and enjoyed a chilly day outside learning about how real maple syrup is made as well as the history of maple syrup for the settlers in the area and as well as the First Nations people.

Explaining how a tree is tapped

A tree stump is used to show how it would be tapped - were it not a stump.

With a small group of other visitors we went from station to station and saw the various steps taken to retrieve the syrup from the tree, make it into syrup and the final products.

The various tools that had been used to tap a tree and boil the maple syrup.

Next time there will be more photos if the kids eating freshly made maple syrup taffy and maple syrup maple leaf shaped crystallized maple syrup.   To the right you see how the maple leaf blocks are made.  This was probably my favorite treat.