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Mont Saint-Hilaire Biosphere Reserve

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Taste Maple products

  • In a maple grove in winter, sugar shack in the woods with smoke coming out. A wooden storage shelter and a pile of wood on the ground in front of the shelter next to the shack.
  • Black-and-white photograph of a sugar shack with smoke coming out. The forest is snowy, and the trees have buckets for maple water.
  • A tap in a maple tree, with a drop of maple water hanging from the tap
  • A person’s hand pouring a pitcher of maple syrup into a narrow wooden container full of snow to make maple taffy
  • Buckets on trees in a snowy maple forest
Bouton fleche gauche Bouton fleche droit

Photo: Joan Ouellette

Photo: Centre de la Nature

Photo: Denis Lachapelle

Photo: France Boucher

Photo: Centre de la Nature

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Taste MAPLE PRODUCTS

Well before the arrival of Europeans, First Nations peoples discovered a use for the sap from sugar maple trees. It was a refreshing drink. When colonists arrived in Quebec, they discovered sugar maple trees and maple water, but it wasn’t until the French brought the iron cauldron that they learned together how to make maple syrup. In the early spring, when the trees are tapped to collect maple water, and the water is boiled down into a sweet syrup, take a trip to visit the sugar shacks in the region to learn more about how to maintain, use and protect our region’s maple forests.