Québec produces close to 80% of the world’s maple syrup; the early spring thaw is cabane à sucre (“sugar shack”) season here, when the maple trees are tapped and the sap cooked down into the treacly stuff we all love on our pancakes and waffles.
Celebrating this harvest is a big part of Québecois culture, and it comes at an especially welcome time. Though originally one gathered to help neighbors and friends with the long process of maple syrup production, sugar shacks today give QCers different reasons to emerge from their winter hibernation. It’s a chance to play and socialize while the snow’s still on the ground…and to eat BIG.
Traditionally, the sugar shack experience centers around a huge communal meal made up of local dishes drowned in maple syrup, topped off with maple toffee (made by pouring maple syrup onto snow). These days sugar shacks are big business, often adding activities like sleigh rides, bouncy houses, and petting zoos to the mix. Families can spend the day having fun and gorging themselves on hearty winter grub in a uniquely Québecois fashion.
We’ve always wanted to go to a sugar shack, but unfortunately the season ends before we arrive in Montréal (we also don’t have a car, which makes it a problem logistically). Luckily, we got a taste of sugar-shack joy from our landlady, who happens to own a sugar shack a couple hours out of town.
See that glowing jar of golden nectar? That’s freshly drawn and boiled maple syrup, straight off the landlady’s farm.
And…it’s a revelation.
We’ve never tasted maple syrup like this. There’s a complex flavor profile of green, wood, nectar, honey–so much more, hard to describe–along with that beautiful golden color. I will never have maple syrup again without comparing it to this sublime stuff, even the bourbon-aged Vermont product I’ve grown fond of in recent years.
Now I understand why a person could steal 3000 tons of it (aka “The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist“.)**
Okay okay, the stolen syrup was also worth about C$20 million, but I bet they dug into a fair bit of it themselves if it was fresh as this stuff. Yum.
Maple Report Rating, Landlady’s Farm Syrup:
10+ on a scale that includes peak life/culinary experiences, of which this is one.
If you’re ever up Québec way in March or early April, make a point of seeking out this golden treasure. It’ll be worth it.
**The story of The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist will soon be a streaming series called “The Sticky” produced by Jamie Lee Curtis; it’s shooting around Montreal and Quebec as we speak.