The sweet smell of maple syrup took over the little Cataraqui Creek Conservation area over the weekend.
Visitors were drawn by the scent for the annual Maple Madness event, which doubled as an educational opportunity.
Maple Madness has been running since 1983 and the event gets about 10,000 visitors every year over its 13-day schedule.
The tour began at Anne Brown’s station where visitors were taught how the Indigenous community produced maple syrup.
“The most common question here is how long does it take to make maple sugar. Doing it the way I’m doing it … in a hollowed-out rock, with hot rocks, the answer is all day, but you have to imagine a whole community is involved not just me,” Brown said.
Without modern-day technology, a fire was used to boil the sap and deer antlers were used to stir the mixture.
The tour ended with fresh pancakes and hot chocolate. The real goal of the event is to keep history alive, its organizers say.
“There are folks that have been coming since they were children and now they are here with their children,” operations supervisor with the Cataraqui Region Conservation Area, Richard Horton, said.
Maple madness continues running on weekends until April 1.