Favourable conditions boost Manitoba maple syrup production this spring

CTV’s Joseph Bernacki has the latest on tree taping season to gather delicious maple syrup in Manitoba.

Manitobans are collecting sap by the gallon this spring, and producers say this season is shaping up to be one of the best in years.

“It was looking really kind of like, ‘uh oh’ — might not get anything, might be too late,” said Julien Tétrault with a smile on Wednesday. “But I think it’s proved otherwise.”

Now in his second year of tapping maple trees on his family’s property east of Libau, Tétrault has nearly tripled his sap haul from last season.

“Compared to last year, I think I only brought in about 10 gallons of sap,” he said. “This year we’re going over 20—I think we’ve reached almost 30 gallons in total. For someone who’s in their second year, I’m happy with how it’s going so far.”

Tétrault said patience is essential to the process. Sap runs clear from the tree and requires days of boiling before it becomes that familiar, amber-coloured syrup.

“It’s about a 40-to-one ratio, so you’re boiling off about 40 litres to get one litre,” he said. “It took about 15 hours the first day, then probably 10 hours on the propane stove the next day, and about five hours yesterday.”

Beyond the production itself, Tétrault says he takes pride in passing the craft on to others through his work with the Métis Harvesting Collective, a group he helps with alongside friends. The collective held a maple syrup-making workshop on Sunday.

“The sharing aspect and the teaching aspect of it is probably my favourite part,” Tétrault said.

Roland Gagne has been overseeing maple syrup production at the St-Pierre-Jolys Museum for 15 years, and he says this season has been the best in recent memory.

“We think that Quebec and Ontario are the kings of that—and they are, with the northern United States—but we can do it here,” Gagne said. “We’ve got the Manitoba maple. They’re not pretty, but they sure do produce.”

The museum held maple tree tapping workshops on March 15, 17, and 19 to drum up interest in local production, and Gagne said the events were a big hit.

“We had in excess of 60 people show up over the three sessions,” he said. “If you’ve got kids who want to learn the process and show them how to transfer that sugar water into maple syrup, don’t be shy and try it.”

Gagne said the museum collected more than 30 gallons of sap this season, influenced by favourable conditions. In Manitoba, the syrup season typically runs from mid-to-late March through mid-April.

Tétrault finished this season with five jars of syrup—more than double his output from last year. He says every hour spent over the boil is worth it when he finally gets to taste the result.

“It’s very sweet, it’s woody—and depending on how you boil it, sometimes it can taste smoky,” he said. “Sometimes it’s just indescribable.”