Happy Pi Day from the Sugar Shack!!!

For those of you who don't know, today is Pi Day. For those of you who don't know why, it is because March 14 somehow seems to resemble Pi... 3.14159...

Anyways, this week will be Pi Week at the University of Calgary, and it will be sad not to be involved. For those of you who don't know what Pi Week is please click here: here. Actually... if you google my name most of the hits are comprised of Pi Week related activities/shenanigans. Pi Week this year is supposed to be larger than last, and I wish all of the Squad and the Director good luck.

Yes, it is Pi Day, but that is not the only reason that I am writing today. I am also writing because today I visited a Sugar Bush, or Maple Farm. This was only a very small one with 250 taps, where as the largest is somewhere in the middle of New Brunswick with 140,000 taps. This one is owned by a husband and wife duo, or were (or are) teachers. They wanted to create something that would focus on the interpretive side where they could teach people about Maple Syrup. Well... they did.

It was just about the best deal ever. I paid $15 and then showed up at the University at a certain time. That was all I had to do. I boarded the cheese wagon with other students and we were on our way. I was with a friend of mine from the MBA Program (and from the trip to Quebec) and I was informed quite quickly that there were two different factions on the bus. It turned out that most of the people on this little adventure were from France, and that there were the people from Paris, and the people from France. I was on the France side, and the Paris side were... well... what I think most of us would see as the stereotypical french. It is unfortunate because the people I with were all fantastic, but negative actions are louder than positive.

Cheese wagon away. We drove out of Saint John and up to Quispamsis, there we took a ferry across the K-Word river to the Kingston Peninsula. Kingston, New Brunswick, not Kingston, Ontario the home of the Beer Mile (http://www.beermile.com/). We drove through Kingston, which was like... tiny... and then we were off into the bush. New Brunswick is a very interesting place. You get away from the cities and it is beautiful. There are tiny lakes everywhere, so as you go through the middle of the forest there are always houses scattered about. They are spread far and rest on lakes and field and all manner of nature. They are just houses, with people trying to make their way. The unfortunate part is that New Brunswick is also not the wealthiest place in the world, so there are many gorgeous houses, and there are many... well... not so much.

We made it to the Sugar Bush and dispatched. On to our interpretive tour.

Evidently there is a rumour that maple syrup was discovered by the natives. One native stuck his tomahawk into a tree for the night, and in the morning he pulled it out to go about his business. There was a hollowed log at the base of that tree, and throughout the day the sap ran out of the tree and into the hollowed log. Needing water, the man's wife took the sap from the tree to cook their meat with. It cooked, and it gained a different flavour and it was sweeter. So was discovered, Maple Syrup.

We were shown Maple Syrup through the ages, so to speak. How the natives would hack into the tree to get the sap, but when the settlers came they brought augers and they could bore holes. This was less damaging on the tree and more effective. This same method is used today, but where wooden buckets were used to catch the sap, then metal, most farms now use plastic piping. This way people do not have to go from tree to tree every morning to get the sap. The sap runs in the spring when a warm morning follows a cold evening. The sugar bush we had visited collected more sap then ever before and all of their barrels are full.

The natives put the sap in a hollowed log, and used hot stones to evaporate the water (by heating the stones in the fire, and then placing them in the sap). They evaporated it to a point where they could store it over the rest of the year. The settlers used cauldrons, and then evaporators to thicken the sap. This produces an enormous amount of water since the sap to syrup ratio is 40:1 and thus has to be done outside. Now farms use a Sugar Shack, where the evaporator is housed. It boils the sap until it reaches 104 degrees at which point it is syrup. Our guide has two trees in his front yard, and when he boils them it takes about 4 hours to go from sap to syrup.

The Old

The New

The Sugar Shack

At this point our tour was nearly done, but there were two more things that needed doing. We walked over to a trough were our guide was shoveling snow. Then he poured syrup over the snow and gave us all sticks. I had heard of this process from a friend, and we had tried the result in Quebec City, but now it was our turn. We stuck our sticks in the syrup and began to roll. Delicious, and there is a certain satisfaction in knowing that you just walked through the forest that gave you that delicacy.

Out of the woods and back to where we started. We had tried the syrup as candy, but not as syrup... good thing that at the end of these tours there is lunch. Pancakes, sausage, beans, and more importantly... maple syrup.

It was good. All of it.

I would highly recommend this to everyone I know. Sure, chances you will be in New Brunswick in spring might be limited, but if you are, check it out... www.elmhurstoutdoors.ca

They also sell some maple products... I did purchase some maple toffee, which is amazing... hmm... maybe I will go have some now...

...

...

...

Oh wait! I have to finish the story. They got on the cheesewagon drove back to Saint John where Alexander wrote about it then had his Maple Candy and all was right with the world...

The.

End.

mmmmmmmmmm......