From the Desk of Murray Lincoln: Warkworth Maple Syrup Festival – George and Alice Potter and the Sandy Flat Sugar Bush

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Today’s Blog Post

"There is nothing as sweet and satisfying as

Maple Syrup Taffy on a stick!"

Warkworth Maple Syrup Festival – George and Alice Potter and the Sandy Flat Sugar Bush – WOW!

Yesterday we celebrated with hundreds of other people from all over Ontario (and maybe even the world). We took part in the 25th Anniversary of the Maple Syrup Festival in Warkworth, Ontario. So much fun!

The Maple Syrup Festival involves the whole community in and around Warkworth… and then specifically it involves the George and Alice Potter family – and/or the farm. Actually George and Alice run the Sandy Flat Sugar Bush business. And each year they invite everyone in the world to their Sugar Bush.

Now it will make very little sense to my readers in Asia or Africa or other parts of the world… when I write about a Sugar Bush. They may know about Canadian Maple Syrup… but may never have been to a Sugar Bush.

Yesterday we savored the whole Eastern Canada Maple Syrup tradition personally. It was beautiful to say the least.

The links at the end of this post have great descriptions to help you understand all about Maple Syrup and how it is produced.

Simply stated, for hundreds of years folk have tapped the Maple Trees to get its sap. This happens in the still cool season that has some warmer times during the daytime. Usually it is the middle of March when the cold at night is freezing and the daytime temperature rises to above the freezing mark. That is when the sap runs best… and pours into the buckets hanging from the spigot which was tapped into a tree.

The person making syrup cooks down the sap to make it into a beautiful sweet treat that tastes wonderful. My mouth is watering.

Yesterday we had another 39 the Second Time(older folk like me that love to have fun) outing together… and the Maple Sugar Bush was our treat. And we had a ball!

I am not sure what my favorite part is at the Sugar Bush. Maybe it was the Horse drawn sleigh or was it the Maple Taffy poured on to the snow.. making that delicious treat. Mmm..MMMM!

Watching the kids and adults attempt the cross cut saw and trying to beat the time of the last person… was fun too. Or the snow shoeing or the plank race…

Listening to the huge sap cooker’s fire box snap and crackle as the syrup is cooked down was amazing. And add to that the smell of the wood burning brings back so many memories of long ago.

This was a Canadian treat that few countries can duplicate…. except maybe our American neighbors just south of the eastern Canadian border.

Now one final happening that was a great treat.…
Back in the mid 1970s George Potter began his participation with the Maple Syrup Festival. George is the operator of the Sandy Flat Sugar Bush. But if I caught all that was said about the area… folk have been making syrup in these parts since the early 1800s (maybe even longer if you consider the aboriginal folk that once lived in these parts).

At one point around noon George Potter took to the stage with his fiddle. He nodded to someone off to his right. I assumed that it was a tapped background that was on their sound system. Then he played some amazing reels and jigs, and some favorites of everyone there. Could this guy ever make that fiddle talk!!! And the background music was totally with him.

Off to his right, sitting inside at a piano and listening through the sound system was his sister, Helen King. She plays a mean piano. Beside Helen stood her sister-in-law Alice Potter, playing a big ole Base Fiddle. With her fingers taped for the action she needed to do, she played on and on… never missing a beat. You guessed it Alice is George’s wife.

The two ladies were snug as two bugs in a rug inside. When George looked off to his right and nodded, his partners inside were ready to go inside.

Two of George’s friends told me about George and his abilities.

George is now 80 years old this year. They are trying to get George to slow down… but that doesn’t seem to be registering with him.

Retire? Yah right! When you love something as much as George loves his friends and his Sandy Flat Sugar Bush… how could you retire? Retiring from a job is what you do after working at something you hated for 25 to 45 years.

The difference is that George loves what he does.

Fortunately I had my small video camera… and with some luck the video that I shot this amazing trio – will be on Youtube someday soon.

I want to thank Warkworth’s Maple Syrup Festival committee for all that you have done for us outsiders. From our hostess on our buss rides and the drivers, to the volunteers doing so much in the town and out at the Sugar Bush… it was a wonderful day. Warkworth folk – you have blown me away!

I will let the photos do the rest of the telling for you.

~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/

Resource
http://www.sandyflatsugarbush.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_syrup

YouTube Video of George and Alice together with Helen King -performance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xx2I0rPmXs