A McKee gets back on taffy duty
Ramping up for the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival
FOR PHIL MCKEE, THERE REALLY
is nothing sweeter than traditional maple taffy.
That gooey goodness, after it’s dipped in snow to cool, delivers a satisfying sugar rush that’s “absolutely magical,” he said.
But it also brings back sweet memories of his father and uncle, the famed McKee twin brothers, who ran the taffy display at the first-ever Elmira Maple Syrup Festival in 1965 and then carried on the tradition for 36 years.
“I was 12 at the first one, and being there with my dad and uncle made me feel so important,” he said at his home near Glen Allan.
“There were 10,000 people there and they all wanted to take a look. And I saw friends and other people I knew. It was just great.
“We were all swept up in this magic, especially because as Canadians we have all been locked up so long by winter and finally spring was here and everyone was out.”
McKee, who is hoping to recruit volunteers to help with this year’s taffy stand and syrup festival, recalled a particularly “brutal” winter back in 1965.
“There were snow drifts that were 20-feet high,” the father of four and grandfather to 11 explained.
“They were so high in fact that you could climb up and touch hydro wires, although, of course, that’s a really bad idea.
“So coming to that festival was like an awakening. People were just so delighted to get outside.”
Maple syrup is in the McKee blood because, as well as the festival links, one of the family’s companies, Elmira Machine Industries, manufactures the North American sap trade’s best-selling vacuum pump, the Wally.
McKee’s father Russell and uncle Gerald, who were both born in 1920 and died in 2007 and 2009 respectively, grew up with a sugarbush on a farm established by Scottish ancestors in the mid-1800s.
“A big part of the reason they wanted to do a taffy display was because of memories of their childhood and wanting to share this tradition with others,” he explained.
But during the Second World War, in a bid to aid the war effort, the twins switched from farming to metalworking and set up shop in Elmira.
McKee Bros. Limited, which for decades also sponsored the syrup festival, has since spawned McKee Farm Technologies Inc., Vacutrux Limited and Elmira Machine Industries Inc.
And every year, between 1965 and 2001, the McKee twins liked nothing more than to set up their cedar rail corral near the historic Gore Park bandstand and get cooking maple taffy.
As he sat surrounded by news clippings in a barn that has a McKee tractor sheltered under its front awning, Russell McKee’s son fondly recalled the many years he witnessed the “crackle” of the flames, the “frothy sap” and the intense smell of smoke.
In fact, he makes certain to come every year and was glad to see the corral continued by Steve Bisbee and the Optimist Club for many years after his father and uncle retired.
This year, for the first time, the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival committee will run the display themselves, although they plan to move it from Arthur Street to the front of the Woolwich Memorial Centre.
“I can’t imagine ever coming to the festival with the crowded main street and all the children and not seeing a maple syrup demonstration.
“So I’m glad that they’re now spilling into the side streets and municipal parking lots off the main street and the festival is expanding.
“I’ll certainly be there and I’m hoping others will want to come and help out.”
He hopes to be among three generations of McKees as they honour what started with his father and uncle.
Among the things he best remembers of their decades of doing the display was having to bag up snow in February and keep it in cold storage to ensure there’d be enough to cool the taffy.
Looking at the unusually snowless landscape of early February 2024, McKee, whose own twin sister is St. Jacobs-based artist Frances Gregory, is still hopeful there will yet be a return to proper winter in order to make the taffy stand another success.
If you would like to volunteer to help out at the 60th festival, go to www.elmiramaplesyrupfestival.com.