Farm Market Report for March 28, 2017 Keith Helmuth
It’s no secret that Quebec and New Brunswick are in the centre of world maple syrup production. This is one of the great traditions that European settlers picked up from the First Nations People. In celebration of this tradition, the Woodstock Farm and Craft Market will hold its annual Maple Fest on Saturday, April 1st – no April fooling!
The Maple Fest at the Market is hosted by McLellan’s Maple. Laurie and Roy will be set up with taffy-on-snow making equipment. Folks young, old, and in between can roll up the hot syrup/taffy on a popsicle stick and have a taste treat like no other. From the maple tree, to the stove, to the snow, to your mouth with no international candy making conglomerate anywhere to be seen. You can’t get more local than that!
The Maple Fest will run from 10 to 12 Saturday morning, April 1st, with a scavenger hunt for the children and a special maple based breakfast for kids and adults, served from the Market Café.
Along with the birchbark canoe, maple syrup is the most widely recognized product of the Canadian Heritage, both of which come from the First Nation People. The maple leaf is the great Canadian symbol, known and respected worldwide.
So, to kick off the Farm Market’s yearlong Canada 150 celebration, we are declaring April as Maple Syrup Month. The new season syrup will be coming in and folks up and down the valley will be getting out the griddles to cook up the pancakes. It’s a good time to get out the frozen strawberries and blueberries from last year’s crop to go with the pancakes and maple syrup.
It’s a great thing to sit down to a breakfast of hot buttermilk pancakes (or any other kind) covered in new maple syrup with the April sun streaming through the kitchen window. That’s when you know that Spring has surely come even if there are still big piles of snow in the dooryard.
We’ll likely still have some gray days and chilly weather before we let the fires go out in our stoves, but it’s time to get out and welcome the coming Spring. The Farm Market Maple Fest is great way to get started, or, if you are already in a Spring mood, to keep it going.