Yesterday afternoon, MY Jane and I decided, just for a change of pace, to take a ride toward Orillia. We followed a road which paralleled the lakeshore, a road that neither of us had been on before. As were driving along, we saw a whole bunch of plastic tubing strung amongst the trees. I said to Jane, “There’s a sugar bush”. Sure enough, a short distance down the road, we saw a sign that read Shaws Maple Syrup.
We pulled in to the driveway and took a short walk down a trail to have a close look at the tubing
Later, we learned that the Shaw Family have been tapping these trees for five generations.
They are a vacuum system that draws sap from over 5000 trees to a central boiling down station.
We were the last customers of the season. They were closing down the restaurant and shutting down the sap operation a half hour after we left.
Needless to say, we couldn’t leave without some maple syrup.
We continued on as far as Orillia where we drove by the port of Orillia docks, a favourite destination for Lake Simcoe boaters. The office had burnt down last Winter and has yet to be re-built.
An interesting and fun day.
Life Unfolding 