It's Sap Season

It’s no surprise that Canadians produce and consume maple syrup by the gallon. We use it in desserts, salad dressings, BBQ sauce and you can drench almost every breakfast food in it for a naturally sweet flavour. Some even enjoy it on its own, poured over snow!

Discover all things maple in Wellington County below!

Experiences

Looking for more? Browse our calendar for upcoming events that will give you the opportunity to #ExperienceWellington.

Other Maple Producers in Wellington County

Regional Events

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Maple Weekend 

Hosted by The Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association during the first weekend in April; Maple Weekend gives you the opportunity to tour sap productions and see how local maple products are produced from tree to table. And maybe sneak in a pancake or two…

A map of the local sugar producers participating in Maple Weekend can be found here.

Annual Elmira Maple Syrup Festival

The first Elmira Maple Syrup festival in 1965 drew a crowd of more than 10,000 people and it has been growing ever since! It has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the World’s Largest Single Day Maple Syrup Festival.

Expect sugar bush tours, antique shows, craft sales and a popular outdoor mall featuring local arts and crafts and outrageously indulgent food, such as deep-fried Mars bars, maple burgers and sausages, potato torpedoes and funnel cakes.

The festival has been able to raise over $50,000 for local community groups.

For more information on the festival, view their website.

Maple Sap and Indigenous Cultures

Thank you to the County of Wellington’s Indigenous Advisory Committee for the following contribution.

Welcoming Spring

March 20, 2025 marks the Spring Equinox, when we start to emerge from long winter nights. In the medicine wheel teachings this is a time of new beginnings, sunrises and more light as our days start to get a little longer. Planting seeds, both actual seeds and ideas that turn into action. Some feel a renewed energy after the long winter.

This is also a time when maple sap starts to run. Canada is known throughout the world for our maple syrup, yet many don’t know it has its roots in Indigenous cultures. As there are several Anishinaabeg members on the Indigenous Advisory Committee, the following are teachings of the Anishinaabe peoples, including the use of some Anishinaabemowin language.

Ziinzibaakwadwaaboo (Maple Sap) Teachings

Traditionally maple sap was gathered with birch baskets under maple trees then consumed as medicine and boiled down to make both syrup and sugar, which was used during the year to season foods and preserve meat. Visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVuyoDmFFGM to watch a video of Caleb Musgrave demonstrating the traditional Anishinaabe way to gather maple sap. Ziinzibaakwadwaaboo (maple sap) or ziisbaakwadaaboo (sugar water) is so important that the fourth moon of the year (late March-April) is named for it. Different communities know this moon by different names. These are just a few: Izhkigamisegi Geezis (the Moon of Boiling), Iskigamizige-giizis (Sugarbushing Moon), and Ziinzibaakwadoke-giizis (Sugaring Moon).

“In my teachings, once the ziinzibaakwadwaaboo begins to flow in the spring it is consumed in its raw form for 28 days. Drinking one ounce of pure ziinzibaakwadwaaboo a day is said to be cleansing medicine, full of the antioxidants, vitamins and minerals needed to revitalize the body from the long winter. Ziinzibaakwadwaaboo is believed to have anti-inflammatory properties, so some Nish drink it for their arthritis or other inflammatory conditions.” ~ Amber (Naawayaa)