Maple Festival in Essex doubles in sweetness with expansion to second location

The annual Maple Festival in Essex is now twice as sweet, expanding to a second location with more things to do and learn about the sap-tacular treat.

The festival runs across three weekends in March and allows visitors to learn about different aspects of how maple syrup is made, with an array of interactive things to do.

At the event's original home of John R. Park Homestead Conservation Area, visitors learn about the "early settler method" of making maple syrup using buckets and spiles sticking into a tree and the Indigenous innovations that have gone into it.

But at Holiday Beach Conservation Area — which also hosts Windsor-Essex's first-ever Lumber Games where people of all ages can try out different activities to unleash their inner lumberjack or lumberjill — visitors learn about more modern methods.

"You put your unrefined sap into your evaporator and there is a fire underneath it. It would boil all this up, until the point that it has turned into maple syrup," said festival coordinator Kyrsten Burns of the Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA).

According to Burns, Essex County produces a "large percentage" of the world's maple syrup due to its placement on the map.

"Maple is only produced in a certain part of the world. We're at the southern end of that of that range," said Burns. "So it's a really neat thing to come here and see the process of it. It's a natural sugar so nothing is added in the process of making it."

Kris Ives, curator and education coordinator for ERCA (Sanjay Maru/CTV News Windsor)Kris Ives, curator and education coordinator for ERCA, said there is also maple treats to explore not just at the two festival sites ⁠— but between them as well.

"We have our Maple Trail connecting the two sites with various partners, wineries and businesses, all with their own special maple features just to create a full-day experience," said Ives, adding maple syrup seems to draw a lot of wonder from people.

"I think maple syrup is really special because it's Canadian, right? We've had a lot of new Canadians come and say, 'Okay, tell me about this. I need to know more.'"

The expansion of the festival, which wrapped up its first weekend Sunday but will return on Mar. 11, 12, 18 and 19 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., coincides with ERCA's 50th anniversary.