Elmira Maple Syrup Festival celebrates ‘Sweet 60’ on Saturday
Spring has sprung and the sweetest start to the season can be found at the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this Saturday.
“Elmira is a town of 12,000 and we’re expecting to have 70,000 plus people here for the one day,” said Marjorie Wood, a volunteer with the festival’s promotions team.
Most people come by car to what’s been credited as the largest singleday maple syrup festival, according to the Guinness World Records.
“There will be special parking lots set up around town, so follow the signs when you’re coming into Elmira and there will be volunteers there to help you,” said Wood.
“Cash is king,” she noted, with costs attached to parking and attractions such as the toy and craft shows and Lions pancake breakfast, as well as items from local merchants and about 100 downtown vendors.
People can avoid traffic on the expressway by taking Northfield Drive, turning left on Line 86 (Church Street) and right on Arthur Street, and then park near Elmira Pet Products. The other way to get into town, which is a whole experience in itself, is the Waterloo Central Railway, Wood said, with trains running from both the Northfield station and St. Jacobs Market station.
Shuttles meet visitors and take them to different areas of the festival for free.
An expanded family area will have pony rides, inflatables, face painting, a rock wall and taffy-making demonstrations. There’s a horseand-buggy shed that’s going to be turned into a farm with livestock, Wood said.
Of course, a focal point of the festival are the sugar bush tours, with buses boarding throughout the day, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
This year’s festival coincides with Ontario’s Maple Weekend organized by the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association, with many sugar bushes across the province offering tours, samples of syrup and other goodies.
It takes 40 litres of sap to make one litre of syrup, and though modern technology has made the process quicker and more efficient, with powerful evaporators and reverse osmosis machines helping to separate sugar from water, milder weather and temperature fluctuations are being blamed for a dwindling reserve of the end product in some parts of the country.
Local producers Wood spoke with, however — including the festival’s producer of the year Synder Acres near Breslau — have reported good yields.
“In early February they got the days that they needed to collect the sap. They got the bright sunshine days and the cold nights, so they’re doing just fine,” she said.
“There will be lots of maple syrup available this Saturday here in Elmira.”
When the first Elmira Maple Syrup Festival was held on April 10, 1965, organizers never expected 10,000 people to attend and ran out of pancakes.
The late Herb Ainsworth, a former local merchant and board of trade member is credited for being the founder, though he never got to see it because he died just days before due to heart failure.
The tradition still lives on, mainly due to the sponsors and hundreds of volunteers that are responsible for all facets of the festival, from setup on Friday to takedown on Sunday, said Wood. Helpers are still needed, she said. Details can be found at elmiramaplesyrupfestival.com.