MAPLE SUGAR TIME

Year Published: 1941

Creator: National Film Board of Canada.

Description: 'Canada Maple Sugar Time' is a vintage Canadian wintery sweet treat. It relays the process of harvesting and producing maple sugar through lightly wooded and snow crusted maple forests of the Quebec. Origins of this sticky sweet process can be traced directly to Quebec; first accounts of maple sugaring were reported by Andre Thevet; the French priest and explorer in the 1600's. Production began among settlers somewhere between the 1700s and 1800s. Maple butter was invented in 1932 and by 1951; maple syrup cans lined grocery store shelves. Maple sugaring begins in mid-February to late April; lasting about five to six weeks. Traditional methods are exemplified in the feature; maple trunks are tapped allowing sap to pour through and the sap is then boiled. The film is presented by the Canadian National Film Board; Canada’s public film and digital media distributor and producer. The organization is an agency of the Government of Canada and was originally founded in 1939. The film was likely created to entice viewers to travel to Quebec and to try their popular sticky sweet commodity. The film opens with landscape shots in the St. Lawrence Valley and hamlets of Quebec (:32). Horses drag plows over lightly snow covered grounds (:40). Wide shots capture the forest (:50). The farmer wades through the snow with wide snow shoes (:55). His dog trails behind with a small cart (:59). The farmer enters the sugar bush with harvesting tools (1:13) to first tap the tree. Close shots watch the spout hammered in (1:58). Sap drips out (2:10). The sap farmer moves from tree to tree in the snow (2:40). The farmer’s ox (2:44) or horse is often used to drag the sled (2:48). The pail of sap is emptied (3:11) and readied for the sugar house. Proper climate conditions for maple sugaring are discussed (3:39). Full collecting barrels (4:18) are transported to the sugar house (4:20). Sap spills into large tubs (4:32). Old style cauldrons boil (4:55). A farmer refills a kettle from the tub outside (5:05). Boiling syrup falls from one kettle to the next (5:18). Split logs of dry wood (5:31) are cast into the fire. As the syrup bubbles (5:53). The farmer plunges a frozen snowball into the hot syrup (6:02). He chews a sweet snowball (6:13). Two farmers carry the thickening syrup (6:21). He stirs the mixture (6:39). The thick mix is poured into molds (7:00). Sugar hardens, golden cakes are flipped out from the mold (7:20). Gold cakes sit on the table (7:29). A sugaring off party celebrates in the woods for the new year (7:40). Hot syrup pours over frozen snow (8:03); a silver spoon scrapes it up for tasting. The film was presented by the Canadian National Film Board (8:23).

Complete Record: 'Canada Maple Sugar Time' is a vintage Canadian wintery sweet treat. It relays the process of harvesting and producing maple sugar through lightly wooded and snow crusted maple forests of the Quebec. Origins of this sticky sweet process can be traced directly to Quebec; first accounts of maple sugaring were reported by Andre Thevet; the French priest and explorer in the 1600's. Production began among settlers somewhere between the 1700s and 1800s. Maple butter was invented in 1932 and by 1951; maple syrup cans lined grocery store shelves. Maple sugaring begins in mid-February to late April; lasting about five to six weeks. Traditional methods are exemplified in the feature; maple trunks are tapped allowing sap to pour through and the sap is then boiled. The film is presented by the Canadian National Film Board; Canada’s public film and digital media distributor and producer. The organization is an agency of the Government of Canada and was originally founded in 1939. The film was likely created to entice viewers to travel to Quebec and to try their popular sticky sweet commodity. The film opens with landscape shots in the St. Lawrence Valley and hamlets of Quebec (:32). Horses drag plows over lightly snow covered grounds (:40). Wide shots capture the forest (:50). The farmer wades through the snow with wide snow shoes (:55). His dog trails behind with a small cart (:59). The farmer enters the sugar bush with harvesting tools (1:13) to first tap the tree. Close shots watch the spout hammered in (1:58). Sap drips out (2:10). The sap farmer moves from tree to tree in the snow (2:40). The farmer’s ox (2:44) or horse is often used to drag the sled (2:48). The pail of sap is emptied (3:11) and readied for the sugar house. Proper climate conditions for maple sugaring are discussed (3:39). Full collecting barrels (4:18) are transported to the sugar house (4:20). Sap spills into large tubs (4:32). Old style cauldrons boil (4:55). A farmer refills a kettle from the tub outside (5:05). Boiling syrup falls from one kettle to the next (5:18). Split logs of dry wood (5:31) are cast into the fire. As the syrup bubbles (5:53). The farmer plunges a frozen snowball into the hot syrup (6:02). He chews a sweet snowball (6:13). Two farmers carry the thickening syrup (6:21). He stirs the mixture (6:39). The thick mix is poured into molds (7:00). Sugar hardens, golden cakes are flipped out from the mold (7:20). Gold cakes sit on the table (7:29). A sugaring off party celebrates in the woods for the new year (7:40). Hot syrup pours over frozen snow (8:03); a silver spoon scrapes it up for tasting. The film was presented by the Canadian National Film Board (8:23).

Transcription

[Music] [Music] Down the St. Lawrence Valley in the villages and hamlets of Quebec, the long Canadian winter is coming to an end. [Music] Once again, the strengthening sun has begun to melt the deep snow which has covered the earth for nearly 6 months. [Music] A new year begins for the habitat farmer. He rejoices to be out in the open air, to feel again the warmth of the spring sun after being penned up all winter. It is too early yet for work on the farm, but the warm days and cold nights have started the maple sap flowing. So into his sugar bush goes the farmer, as he and his forebears have done every spring for generations. [Music] First job is to tap the trees. In each tree, he makes a hole for the spout, not too near the cuts of former years. His trees probably have been going for 50 years. He may have 2,000 of them or more. Now they are of good size, strong, healthy, with a good space between them so the sun can reach each tree and warm it, starting a vigorous flow of sap. On each tree beneath the spout, he hangs a bucket. Buckets like this have been made by village tinsmiths at Bopar and St. Marie, Bose, and Preville for nearly 100 years. On a good day, 70 drops of sap a minute will fall into it. [Music] Every day through the softening snow, the farmer makes his rounds to empty his buckets of the sap they've collected. His sledge is his own workmanship. It may be drawn by an ox or perhaps by one of the sedate horses of the farm which has done this job so often he knows the tracks by heart. It may even be drawn by a dog. He empties the pales of sap into hogs heads ready to go to the sugar house for boiling. At the height of the flow, the big hogs heads may be filled several times a day with clear sparkling sap. [Music] Maple sugar is made only in North America. Nowhere else in the world does the climate provide the right conditions of warm days and freezing nights. The Indians first discovered the secret of making it, and they passed on their knowledge to the early settlers in Canada. To them it was a godsend for one of their great problems was to get sugar. For generations the descendants of these early settlers have carried on the old methods with little real change. [Music] When the big collecting barrels are full, it is time to take them back to the sugar house. Around the sugar house stand the clean bare maples. The air is full of the fragrant steam of the boiling sap. The sugar farmers pour gallons of the sap from the collecting barrels into big tubs to be ready when needed for boiling inside. Then they go back for more. [Music] Inside the sugar house, the oldstyle cauldrons are already boiling, filling the air with the sweet scent of the hot sack. Only small quantities are boiled at a time, and the farmers fill the kettles whenever necessary from the tubs outside. He keeps them boiling for several hours over a blazing hot fire and pours the boiling syrup from one kettle to the next as it reaches each stage of thickening. He must be sure the fire stays hot. Dry split wood is the best for it. And he takes it from the stack which he had prepared at the end of the previous stream. [Music] The fire is kept blazing all day and night, and a man is kept busy from dawn to dark, sometimes all night. He must watch the kettles carefully as the syrup gets towards the final stages. When it bubbles and splutters, he knows it is thick enough. Then he may dip a snowball into the boiling mass and taste the hard, brittle coffee that sticks to it. [Music] The syrup is now thickening nicely and when it is taken outside it hardens rapidly. Now was the great moment when the sugar is nearly ready. All eyes are on the kettle of syrup. A final stir to bring it to the proper state of granulation. And they are ready to pour it into the wooden molds. [Music] [Music] [Music] While the batch is setting, there is time to scour out the kettles with warm water and a stone. But soon the sugar is hardened and the golden cakes are turned out at last. [Music] Each year since the early settlers first made maple sugar, sugaring off parties have celebrated the first batch of the new year. The winter is behind them. Summer is ahead. It is a time of gayity and hopefulness, of the fresh smells of spring mingled with the scent of the sugar. All their lives, these young people will remember the soft spring day and the taste of the newly made maple sugar with its tang of hardwood smoke. [Music] [Music]

1 user has this film:
Periscope Film

Related films:

Original permalink · Record added: 2025-07-19 19:56:23