2025 A to Z Challenge Blog for the Letter D

Posted bySusanne MatthewsPosted inUncategorized

April 4, 2025. Glad you decided to stick with me. Today’s Friday, the end of the workweek for many people. It was for me when I was teaching, but all that meant was that Saturday was grocery and house cleaning day.

In my younger days, I indulged myself by getting my hair done at the salon every Friday after school. Few people do that now, another habit that’s gone out of style, like dressing up for special occasions, or NOT wearing your pajamas to Wal-Mart.

After getting all gussied up, I would join my husband for an evening of mixed curling in the winter or dinner and drinks with friends, but Friday nights were the nights we spent enjoying ourselves. I suppose they call it Date night now. But I digress.

Today’s letter is D, so I decided to give you a little bit more information about one of Canada’s most famous exports, not steel but maple syrup–and no, we don’t bathe in it, but we do pour it on fresh, somewhat clean snow, let it harden, and roll it on spoons or sticks and eat it. You haven’t lived until you’ve had one of those treats. We also eat it with pancakes, crepes, French toast, in oatmeal, and on ice cream.

When I was much younger, each spring, we would drive to my great-uncle’s farm and spend a day at the cabane a sucre, the sugar shack. I loved riding on the horse-drawn sleigh through the woods, collecting the sap from the tin pails nailed to the trees, and dumping it into the large keg on the sleigh. That was the only time I saw all of my extended family, and some of those memories are my fondest. We had maple toffee made fresh on the cleanest patch of snow mon oncle could find. When we went home, it was always with six liquor bottles filled with the sweetest treat on earth. Today, few places tap the trees and collect the sap that way, but I still love the stuff.

This post is dedicated to teaching you a little more about out delectable sweet. And, yes, I know that Vermont and other states also make excellent maple syrup, but it just isn’t the same.

Canada, particularly Quebec, is a world leader in maple syrup production, with Quebec accounting for the majority of Canadian production and a significant portion of global supply. My great-uncle’s farm was in Ontario, just west of the Quebec border. Maple syrup is a cherished part of Canadian culture and identity. 

Here are some key facts about maple syrup and its production in Canada:

  • Quebec Dominates Production: Quebec is the largest producer of maple syrup in Canada, accounting for approximately 91.6% of the country’s production. 
  • Global Leader: Canada is a global leader in maple syrup production, producing about 85% of the world’s supply. 
  • Seasonality: Maple syrup season typically begins in February or March and continues until the sap stops running, usually around the end of April. 
  • Maple Tree Species: While many maple species exist, the sugar maple (Acer saccharum) is the primary source of sap for making maple syrup. 
  • Nutritional Value: Maple syrup is a natural sweetener that contains minerals like manganese, riboflavin, and zinc. 
  • Cultural Significance: Maple syrup is a symbol of Canadian identity, with the maple leaf on the Canadian flag representing the country’s abundance of sugar maple trees. 
  • Indigenous History: Indigenous peoples of North America were the first to harvest maple sap and create maple syrup, passing down this knowledge to early settlers. 
  • Export Destination: Canadian maple syrup is exported to approximately 50 countries, with the United States being the primary importer. 
  • Color Variations: Maple syrup comes in different colors, including light, medium, amber, and dark, with darker syrup having a more robust flavor. 

Here’s your song of the day!

Come back tomorrow for the letter E. Have a great day! Check out the other blogs here: MASTER LIST https://tinyurl.com/tauke86z

Published by Susanne Matthews

Hi! I live in Eastern Ontario. I'm married with three adult children and five wonderful grandchildren. I prefer warm weather, and sunshine but winter gives me time to write. If I’m listening to music, it will be something from the 1960s or 1970s. I enjoy action movies, romantic comedies, but I draw the line at slasher flicks and horror. I love science fiction and fantasy as well. I love to read; I immerse myself in the text and, as my husband says, the house could fall down around me, and I’d never notice. My preferences are as varied as there are genres, but nothing really beats a good romance, especially one that is filled with suspense. I love historical romance too, and have read quite a few of those. If I’m watching television, you can count on it being a suspense — I’m not a fan of reality TV, sit-coms, or game shows. Writing gives me the most pleasure. I love creating characters that become real and undergo all kinds of adventures. It never ceases to amaze me how each character can take on its own unique personality; sometimes, they grow very different from the way I pictured them! Inspiration comes from all around me; imagination has no bounds. If I can think it, imagine it, I can write it!

21 thoughts on “2025 A to Z Challenge Blog for the Letter D”

    1. I was always amazed at the way the men poured the clear sap into the huge cauldrons hanging from a tripod over a wood fire. They would take turns stirring it, diooing in a ladle and then checking it. If we went early in the season, the syrup would be golden. Later on it would be more of an amber color. If we went later, then it would be darker, stronger tasting, but still good. By the end of the season, it would be dark, almost like molasses and best used for cooking and baking. No matter when we went, even when the sap was running it’s course, there would still be a bottle of the good stuff to pour on the snow and make taffy.

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  2. We’ve always got a jar of maple syrup in the house! We usually stock up on it in CostCo whenever we go there (we have to drive two hours to the nearest one in Seville though!) and we tend to use it in cakes as a sweetener or on porridge and things like that. Given the choice, I’d much rather have Canadian maple syrup though! I’ve never tried it on snow before…I do sometimes wish we had snow here in the Algarve! It sounds like you have the most beautiful memories at your uncle’s place with all your family!

    Suzy xx

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    1. LOL If a sugar maple will grow where you live, it’ll take many years before it’s large enough to tap. Good news is other maples can be tapped although they don’t give as much sap, but it takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.

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  6. My son is a big fan of maple syrup, we always had a bottle handy when he was a child. Didn’t know about so many positives though, thanks.
    All the best for the challenge.

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