Ottawa’s Hidden Treasures: The Log Farm Sugarbush

Looking for an inexpensive March Break adventure? I’ve got a great suggestion for you! There’s a delicious breakfast, an historic farm with friendly barnyard animals, mud, maple, sap, mud, hiking, mud, maple taffy, marshmallows, lunch — and did I mention the mud?

We headed out with another family and a half and spent a spectacular Monday morning at the Log Farm sugar bush. It’s a true hidden treasure, hiding in plain sight just off Cedarview Rd (runs parallel to hwy 416 from Hunt Club to Fallowfield) in the Greenbelt just north of Barrhaven. We’ve been to a couple of sugar bushes over the years, and I have to say, this one was our favourite by far — and not just because it was an easy five minute drive from our house!

We started the day with this:

You know how sometimes the breakfasts in a sugar bush can be a little, um, meh? Not this one! Yummy pancakes, sausages, home fries and scrambled eggs, with plenty of hot sauce and of course, fresh maple syrup. Delish!!

When we were full, we wandered through the woods and across a great big open field to the farm buildings. (Little did we know, we’d only begun our hiking for the day!)

(Yes, one is wearing ski pants and a toque and one is wearing shorts. That is one of many differences between two and nearly a teenager! He was super-patient with Lucas, though, and since Beloved was at work I didn’t mind the extra help at all!)

The farm itself is a treasure. Build in the 1850s, you can wander through and imagine what life must have been like living with two parents and NINE children in a tiny two-story log cabin outfitted with a lot of period items. It’s really quite lovely!

Across the barnyard, you can play with Pearl and Wilbur the potbellied pigs or watch in amusement as the unfriendly goat tries to headbut them. (Whoops, forgot to upload the picture of the pigs and the goat. Oh well.) I missed the cows and the sheep, too, but here’s a shot of Simon and Lucas trying to feed the not-hungry sheep.

The pony was a little friendlier but beware — he nips!

After breakfast and the farm and the animals, our adventure had only barely begun. We set off on what would seem like a seven mile hike back into the woods in search of the sugar maples.

I also missed taking pictures of the squelching mud path and the pond-sized puddles we had to traverse on the way. Sorry, I was too busy keeping the clumsy toddler from soaking himself. Thank goodness we had the foresight to wear boots despite the gorgeous spring day!

I did, however, get lots of pictures like these! Have you ever seen how maple trees are tapped? These are the sap buckets.

The tap doesn’t hurt the tree, and the sap drips out steadily throughout the day. Sap needs warm days and cold nights to run well.

Much to our delight, we were invited to collect some sap in these aluminum buckets.

Each kid got his or her own bucket and headed out into the woods to retrieve the sap from the collector buckets.

This is what a bucket of tree sap looks like!

The sap goes into a giant tub called the evaporator and boils down until it becomes maple syrup. You boil it down even more and it looks like this:

Then you pour it out on snow it becomes maple taffy. Yum!

After another long, squelchy hike back out, we took a marshmallow-roasting break back at the farm on the way out. (I know, I know — maple syrup followed by maple taffy followed by marshmallows! Good thing we had to expend all that energy on the hike to the sugar shack and back!)

Finally, we wandered back to where we started.

By the time we got back to the pancake house, it was close enough to lunch time that we had a few more pancakes and sausages to fortify us for the drive home. Breakfast, adventure, lunch — talk about a complete morning of entertainment!

If you’re looking for an amazing sugar-bush adventure close to home, I highly recommend the Log Farm. You know what I liked best about it? I didn’t feel like one of 600 people they were planning to shuffle through today. The friendly staff make the long, muddy walk to the sugar shack worth the adventure. And the three-hour afternoon nap for the toddler was a nice bonus, too!

If you go:

The Log Farm
670 Cedarview Rd, Nepean
(613) 843-8090
Open weekends through March and daily for March Break, 9:00 am to 2:00
$9.50 for adults, $7.50 for kids over age 3

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