By: Purvi Shenoy

On March 21st, our ESL and Newcomers students got to experience one of Canada’s most historic, delicious, and interactive traditions: the Sugar Bush!

Sugar bushes are woods in which maple trees are utilized for maple syrup. Mountsberg’s Maple Town, home to the Mountsberg Sugar Bush, has been educating the public for 40 years, and has been producing maple syrup for 150 years. This tradition takes place annually from March through April. 

Our MD students, Ms. Balogh, and our youth settlement worker, Zebun Khan, ventured to Halton Parks, Mountsberg to take part in this exciting opportunity. 

During their visit, the students got to learn about the maple syrup production process and got to taste some delicious samples! 

Jana Ramadan, a grade 10 student at MD, thought, “The maple syrup tasted so sweet. I had no idea that so much maple sap was needed to make maple syrup. Also, the raptors were so beautiful. They had some sad stories about how they ended up at Mountsberg, but it is great they are being cared for.”

We received more wonderful feedback from those who had gone on the trip. Those who wanted to share their thoughts on this experience said:

Ahmed Abu Zneemah, grade 10, said, “I thought it was great that we were able to learn about how maple syrup is made. It was fun collecting the maple sap from the tapped trees. You need a lot of sap to make syrup”. 

Lily Chen, grade 12, exclaimed, “The light syrup really tasted like caramel. There are a few different kinds of syrup; it depends on how much sugar is in the sap.”

Ms Balogh added, “It was a beautiful day; the sun was shining, the maple sap was flowing and we got to collect and taste the sap and syrup. It was fun watching the students compete to collect the most sap from the buckets.”

Our ESL and Newcomers students had a wonderful time learning all about one of Canada’s most prominent claims to fame, maple syrup, during their trip to the Mountsberg Sugar Bush.