Fort Rose Maple Syrup & Pancake House

This morning Sean and I went out hunting for the Fort Rose Maple Syrup and Pancake house. It was easy to find and it is not too far from London, it makes a nice Saturday or Sunday drive. Especially today, today was just beautiful! Why did we pick this place out of all the sugar bushes in the area? Well a friend told me about the great breakfast you get there along with a tour of how the maple syrup is made. I think I may have gone to the Pioneer Village once when I was very small on a class trip to see how the syrup is made, but it is so long ago I do not remember, so I felt the need to revisit the experience. This trip is so much fun! When you get there, I suggest eating the big breakfast first, that way you can walk it off a bit afterwards. The breakfast is $9 for an adult and $6 for a child, but it includes a wagon ride and tour! The breakfast was really filling, you get: pancakes, sausages, baked beans, coleslaw,a muffin,a fruit cup and juice or coffee – oh and of course Fort Rose Maple Syrup. On the tour, we were shown the history of maple tree tapping. It takes 40 Litres of pure syrup to make 1 Litre of table maple syrup! Fort Rose taps about 6500 trees a year. The process is basically drilling a small hole into the tree, placing a spout in and attaching a basin to catch the syrup as it drips out. It is then boiled down to remove the water from it, making it sweeter as it”s consistency changes. The picture below on the left is how they used to boil the water out of the syrup, looks like a big witch”s cauldron doesn”t it? The picture on the right is how indigenous people were able to boil the water out of the syrup. That is a hollowed out log that they would then toss very hot stones out of the fire straight into the syrup to steam the water out of the syrup. The next picture after that is the modern big boiler that they now use to make the syrup. Before the wagon ride out to the bush, we were looking around the farm. There is a small barn tour for kids, where they can see cows, chickens, roosters, pigs and rabbits up close. Look at this little Wilber, isn”t he great – who else can look so cute with food all over the face? This place is a great place to take kids. I have to tell you though, when we were on the horse drawn wagon I looked down at my fellow passengers and they were almost all adults, you wouldn”t know it though, from the huge, childlike grins on everyone”s faces. Fort Rose Maple Syrup and Pancake House27382 Coldstream RoadRR#5 Parkhill, OntarioTel: (519) 232-9041http://fortrose.ca/index.html I have popped them onto my google map so you can find them easily.  Read More