Maple Sugar Holds Appeal All Year Round

​Wooden spiles, troughs and buckets are highlighted in the Middleville and District Museum’s Maple Exhibit. Visitors learn about First Nations sugar making with tales of sumac spiles and birch bark muhkuks. Sugar molds first made of wood and later of iron and tin, were used to harden the sugar for storage. Maple sugar was considered more of a necessity than a treat in early settler days. Refined sugar was expensive and supplies often ran low. Families relied on their store of maple sugar they could produce each spring to sustain them through the many seasons of the year, especially at the end of a long hard winter. The Museum has artifacts from the early days through to the ‘modern’ sap buckets, pails, gathering tanks and finishing pans. Visitors are intrigued by the evolution of spiles from wooden to metal with many designs adapted through the years.
With the leaves turning their brilliant colours, it’s a great time to take a drive to the Middleville and District Museum in the heart of Lanark County to learn about sugar making in the 1800 and 1900s. Many pictures and artifacts tell the story of this tradition in days gone by. Be sure to pick up a recipe from the display when you visit.