CABANE A SUCRE /SUGAR SHACK
Spring
is in the air! The days grow a little longer, the sun is a little warmer, and
the snow is starting to melt. Soon the trees will be in bud and the birds will
be winging their way back north. Nights are still cold, though, and conditions
are perfect for the maple sap to rise.
It's a seasonal ritual in Québec. As soon as the
moon is right, or the wind from the southwest blows a certain way, the maple
syrup producers head into the sugar bush and begin tapping their trees. The
buckets fill with a sweetish, watery liquid that will be boiled down to make the
delicately flavoured syrup everyone loves on pancakes.
Don't for
a moment think that maple syrup is just for breakfast. The Indians used it to
cook venison; later, the French pioneers added it to all kinds of dishes they
cooked up on wood fires. Today, the whole family gathers in late March and early
April at the sugar shack, where groaning tables are laden with the traditional
"cabane à sucre" foods: pea soup, baked beans, maple-cured ham, "oreilles de
crisse" (fried strips of salt pork), omelettes, and maple-sweetened desserts
like sugar pie, crepes and "grands-pères" (dumplings poached in maple syrup).
Then everyone goes outside for the traditional hot maple taffy, served on a bed
of fresh snow and scooped up with wooden sticks.
The syrup starts as a watery sap that's collected
drop by drop by little spouts inserted directly into the tree trunk. Originally,
buckets were hung from the spouts; as they filled, they would be emptied into
huge barrels carted through the forest on horse-drawn sleds. Today, most modern
operations use an ingenious system of plastic piping that siphons the sap into
an evaporator, where the water is boiled away. Absolutely nothing is added to
the precious nectar. It takes about
40 litres
of sap to make one litre of pure syrup, but the delicious golden liquid is well
worth the trouble.
There are many maple syrup operations not far from
Québec's
major cities,
and all welcome visitors at sugaring off time. In addition to featuring lots of
hearty food, the "cabane à sucre" recreates the spirit of earlier times with
traditional music, dancing and merrymaking.
Sugaring off time is the perfect occasion for a
sleigh ride, a tromp through the woods or a stop at one of Québec's famous maple
festivals, like the one at
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|