Date: 02/21/2000

Number: 1

Feb. 21/00

Today, George and Alice Potter of Sandy Flats Sugar Bush outside Warkworth, Ontario began tapping their trees and collecting maple sap. There was some sap running yesterday (Feb. 20th), but it would only run for about an hour. For sap to run, you need the proper weather conditions - warm days (+ 4 - 6 C) and cold nights. George has a 116 acre property and 50 acres is sugar bush. Warkwarth is located about 21 kilometers north-west of Brighton, Ontario and Lake Ontario.

This couple hosts the Warkworth Maple Syrup Festival and every year, about 8,000 to 10,000 people pay a visit. In eastern Ontario, the collecting and boiling down of maple sap to syrup is an old tradition that goes back to the days of the pioneers and native Canadians.

In a good year, George says that every tap in a tree should yield one litre of syrup in a good year. But this has only happened once. Last years yield was 60 percent.

Don Davis
Toronto, ON

donald_davis@stu.wdw.utoronto.ca

Warkworth, ON

Latitude: 44.2 Longitude: -77.9

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