Ontario Maple Syrup Festivals
by Gary McWilliams (aka Festival Nomad)
One of the great things about Ontario in the spring are the Ontario Maple Syrup Festivals! Judi and I have been fortunate enough to have visited a number of them. The following article is about the Maple Syrup Festivals we have visited.
Bowmanville Maple Fest
One of the later Maple Festivals is held in the Town of Bowmanville. It celebrates the maple sugar harvest.
The festival is held in the downtown area and includes a great pancake breakfast.
Along the street vendors offer various products, including, of course, maple syrup “goodies“!
There’s lots to do while enjoying the festival, entertaining music, carnival rides and games and pony rides for the kids.
Buckhorn Maple Syrup Festival
Each year the McLean Berry Farm hosts the Buckhorn Maple Syrup Festival.
This is a great spring event that offers visitors lots of fun activities!
You can start your maple syrup adventure off with a hardy pancake breakfast.
After pancakes, you can take the “horse drawn wagon ride” to the sugar shack. Here you can walk through the sugar bush, watch maple syrup being made or taste maple taffy!
Elmira Maple Syrup Festival
The Elmira Maple Syrup Festival is the world’s largest single day Maple Syrup Festival!
The whole downtown of Elmira becomes Maple Syrup central! Everywhere you walk there is an event or activity taking place!
Out in rural Elmira buses take Maple Syrup enthusiast to out lying Sugar Bush farms.
If you have never been to a Sugar Bush and Maple Syrup product farm, the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival should be on you “Must Visit” list!
Elmvale Maple Syrup Festival
The Elmvale Maple Syrup Festival was the first event that Judi and I, as Ontario Visited, visited!
Since that first “visit“, we have visited more than 400 communities and events. Eight of the event we have visited have been Maple Syrup Festivals and I am sure that more will be visited in the years to come.
The Elmvale Maple Syrup Festival will always be the most memorable because it was the “FIRST“.
But much more than that, it was a fun, well run event! If it wasn’t that way, Judi and I likely would not have continued with our “VISITED” Adventures!
Festival of Maples
Festival of Maples, help in the Town of Perth, is another late running event. The weather has warmed up, and the “sap from the maple trees” has stopped or slowed down, but not in Perth!
The Festival of Maples is a true celebration of “Maple Syrup” and of “Spring“!
It was amazing to see the number of people who came to the event! The main street was a “sea” of “Maple Syrup” enthusiasts!
Music and dancing were just “part” of the “Maple” celebrations!
Maple in the County
Prince Edward County is one of those “rare” communities where events take place throughout the entire area!
The County, as Prince Edward County likes to be referred to, holds art tours, wine tours, food tours and maple syrup tours.
My favourite is Maple in the County, their Maple Syrup tour.
Not only do you visit a number of great “Maple Sugar” producers, but you can travel and visit numerous other tour participants. Each Prince Edward County tour encourages visits to explore the entire County!
Sugarbush Maple Syrup Festival
The Sugarbush Maple Syrup Festival is a Toronto and Region Conservation Authority events and is held at 4 different locations ~ Bruce’s Mill Conservation Area, Kortright Centre, Terra Cotta Conservation Area and Island Lake.
The Sugarbush Maple Syrup Festival that Judi and I visited was at the Bruce’s Mill Conservation Area.
We went there with our friends, Ross and Cathy and their family. Everyone had a fabulous time, especially the younger kids (and Ross)!
The Bruce’s Mill store had too many Maple “goodies“, so Ross and I had to help them “lower” their stock!
Warkworth Maple Syrup Festival
The Warkworth Maple Syrup Festival is a terrific event. It is held in both the downtown Warkworth and at a nearby Maple Syrup farm.
It is one of the areas best attended events.
Like a lot of Maple Syrup Festivals, Warkworth Pancake breakfast‘s was worth “lining-up” for!
The Warkworth Maple Syrup Festival does have “bitter-sweet” memories for me. It was last event that I visited with my “late brother” Chuck.
The unique thing about Maple Syrup Festivals is their diversity. Some festivals, like the Buckhorn Maple Syrup Festival, are held just on the Maple Sugar Farm. Others, like the Festival of Maples, is just held in the town. The best, for me, are the ones, like the Elmvale Maple Syrup Festival, that combine the downtown and the Maple Sugar Farms. Either way you look at it, “Spring” and “Maple Syrup Festivals” go together “beautifully“!
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