Despite it seems like winter weather will never end, maple syrup season has arrived as a sure sign that spring conditions are slowly arriving. Phillipe Viau of Vankleek Hill has been busy in his sugar shack in recent days now that the sap is flowing and needs to be boiled down into the maple syrup everyone enjoys.
This is the third maple syrup season for Viau, who graduated high school in 2025 and is studying business at Collège La Cité. He said syrup production has become a series activity for him this year.
Viau has already been selling maple syrup at the Vankleek Hill Farmer’s Market for three years and it has become a main part of his regular business activities.
“Now, I’m into the real deal!” he said.
His business is Jardin la Serfouette. He grows vegetables on his family’s property and sells the produce year-round at the farmer’s market.
“I really enjoy making maple syrup and selling at the farmer’s market,” Viau said.
Along with a wood-fired evaporator in the sugar shack, Viau also has a reverse osmosis machine to help remove water from the maple sap before boiling. He has a small hand-operated canning machine that is about 100 years old which he uses to seal syrup inside barrel-shaped tin cans with a traditional maple sugar time illustration printed on them. He also bottles the syrup in decorative glass bottles, including the always attractive maple leaf-shaped bottles.
Viau said this maple syrup season started with darker syrup when there was warm weather during the second week of March. But, since cold weather returned, the syrup has been lighter in colour with a very mild flavour.
Photos: James Morgan
