{"id":12632,"date":"2018-04-09T08:42:10","date_gmt":"2018-04-09T13:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/?p=12632"},"modified":"2018-04-09T08:42:10","modified_gmt":"2018-04-09T13:42:10","slug":"ottawa-family-fun-open-house-at-olivers-mapleworks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/2018\/04\/09\/ottawa-family-fun-open-house-at-olivers-mapleworks\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa family fun: Open House at Oliver’s Mapleworks"},"content":{"rendered":"

E<\/span>very year on or around the first weekend in April, the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers host an open house<\/a>. I don’t remember how exactly we heard about Oliver’s Mapleworks<\/a> in particular, but they met my planning criteria of a fun family day out that would likely be a little less crowded than some of the larger local maple producers like Wheelers and Fulton’s, and within an easy hour’s drive.<\/p>\n

\"Documentary<\/a><\/p>\n

We had THE BEST time! It was a decent day for a ramble in the countryside, not quite spring warm (so not muddy) but not as windy or unpleasant as it has been the past few weeks. (Sidebar: has anyone seen spring? Please release it to the wild so we can all enjoy it!) We were immediately greeted by a friendly woman who engaged us right away, taking us on a tour of the maple condenser and extractor, and the reverse osmosis unit they use to further concentrate and purify the sap. <\/p>\n

\"Documentary<\/a><\/p>\n

I think she said they had a couple thousand trees tapped in a sugar bush that has been producing maple syrup since the early 1800s. (You’ll forgive me for any errors in fact or egregious speculation. I wasn’t taking notes!) Most Canadians can tell you that sap becomes syrup by boiling it until most of the water evaporates, but I thought it was pretty cool that they can use a condenser to remove up to 2\/3 of the water before the boiling process even begins.<\/p>\n

\"Documentary<\/a><\/p>\n

The tour itself was fascinating – turns I don’t know half as much about maple syrup production as I thought I did. And it seems like being a maple farmer is a LOT of work – she said on days when the sap is running, they get started around 10 am (when it warms up enough for the sap to start flowing) and often don’t finish until after midnight or later. Oliver’s is definitely a family operation, and our visit felt warm and friendly like a family-run business, too.<\/p>\n

After our tour, we sampled maple syrup, maple butter and my favourite, maple sugar. Did you know that they’re all basically the same thing, just with increasing amounts of water removed? And further, we learned that all maple syrup has a sugar content of 67%. The variations in colour from light to dark come from the sap itself and can change based on the time in the season when it’s drawn.<\/p>\n

\"Documentary<\/a><\/p>\n

After raising our own blood sugar levels to what felt like 67%, and after a delicious lunch of maple sausages with maple mustard on a bun and, I kid you not, maple coffee, we had a fun wagon ride with the owner and proprietor of the farm, Dave Oliver, who further educated and entertained us.<\/p>\n

\"Portraits<\/a><\/p>\n

But what’s a farm visit without animals? There were miniature ponies, goats, and bunnies to greet.<\/p>\n

\"Portraits<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh, and did I mention the free range chickens and five day old peeping chicks?<\/p>\n

\"Portraits<\/a><\/p>\n

This was seriously one of my favourite family outings this year. The Olivers and their employees and helpers were charming and welcoming, and answered my endless questions patiently. (Yes, I am still that curious nine year old with my hand in the air. Some things never change.) There are more than a dozen maple producers open to the public in Lanark County alone, but I’d have a hard time imagining any of them putting on a better family day out than Oliver’s Maple Works. It looks from their website that they’re open for visits but “please contact us by phone or email<\/a> if you are planning to visit us so that we can make arrangements to greet you.” It’s a drive we’ll definitely make again!<\/p>\n

If you go:<\/strong>
\nOliver’s Maple Works
\n158 Lakewood Lane, Perth, Ontario K7H 3C7
\nPhone: 613-264-8612
\nEmail: tree.mapleworks@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year on or around the first weekend in April, the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers host an open house. I don’t remember how exactly we heard about Oliver’s Mapleworks in particular, but they met my planning criteria of a fun family day out that would likely be a little less crowded than some of the … Continue reading “Ottawa family fun: Open House at Oliver’s Mapleworks”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,33,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ottawa-family-fun","category-ottawas-hidden-treasures","category-project-365"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12632"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12635,"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12632\/revisions\/12635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}