View of our Farm “ENDLICH”

100-year old barn…and the farmer’s young wife…

The sugar hut is about 1km along this path on snowshoes or by snow mobile

Typical Laurentian Mountains mixed forest

The maple grove on the hill side showing the tubes by which the maple water flows to the sugar hut

(We have about 400 maples on tap)

The sugar hut at the bottom of the hill

A snowshoe Rabbit…

End of March at the sugar hut

Our supply line: Adrian with snow mobile and trailer

Terrie and Benji tapping a maple: 1- drill hole, 2 – tickle out chips with little branch, 3 – hammer in tap

Hand drill with lawn tractor-battery in backpack

Gun holster for drill

My helper Vincent, Frenchman & geographer.

Adrian and Gillian – the love birds.

Do these two like each other?

The collection tanks at the bottom of the hill

Some buckets around the hut to taste a sip…

Adrian’s friends from Toronto…and their hard working women!

Fire wood to heat the evaporator

3-stage evaporator with steam condensation hood(the hut has neither power nor running water)

…in anticipation of the first drop of syrup

Gillian draws and filters the first draft of syrup…

The syrup is ready when the boiling point reaches107°C

Filling it into cans

Sealing the cans

A Champagne Toast to the first harvest!

Now the heroes are tired…

The final product(We made 200 of these in two weeks)

To make maple candy for the kids we heat the syrup to 118°C where it caramelizes; then we drip it onto the snow and pick it up with a candy stick...yummmmi!

Typical maple season dinner at the farm: French pie soup, ham boiled in maple syrup, omelet with maple syrup, baked

beans with maple syrup, maple sugar pie – you get the message?

Cheers - once more!

My women and friends at the Lake House…

Our Bec-fin in profile…

The hut from up the hill, steaming away…

Afternoon sun at the maple grove

All this thanks to the sun:Her rays plus chlorophyll and water makes the carbohydrates to grow,

to be stored in the roots over winter,dead and frozen until spring,

when the sun unfreezes the ground,turns the starch into sugar,

sucks it up the tree, so we can drill a hole,

send it to our hut in the tubes, boil the hell out of it,

reduce it 35 : 1,put into cans

and offer you this gift from the sun!