Elmira Maple Syrup Festival

I don't know if there is anything that I love more in a year (besides my bday, and maybe the summer as a whole) than the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival.

For me it means a lot more than just maple syrup. It's a chance to see family, friends, eat my weight in things available on buns and sticks, watch the population of Elmira triple (and all the people are on the main street) and sit on my grandma's porch and people watch.

I've been attending the MSF since I was born. Actually, I can pretty much guarantee that I was there as a fetus. The MSF has been part of my family's background from the very first event, almost 40 years ago. My mom actually clearly remembers the first festival.

When I was a child, we had a booth along the main street, right smack dab in front of my grandparent's house, which is an Elmira landmark in itself. We sold, surprise surprise, maple syrup that we got from neighbouring farmers, maple butter, apple butter, dried apples and maple sugar. The night before the festival was spent bagging the apples (8oz bags, I seem to remember...maybe less) and counting out the maple sugar and putting it into baggies.

My cousins and friends would bring the mattress from the futon downstairs and pull all the cushions off the couch to create a giant bed in the front living room. This is where we would sleep, going to bed late at night and getting up super early to watch the people start arriving to sample the goods around the "mall". As a teenager it was always great fun to sneak out of the house at night and go running around town, watching the people set up their booths and chalking the lines on the road to mark out where the booths all go.

The morning of the festival always starts with the sound of a hammer outside. We would get up, put away all our bedding and take a quick walk up one side and then back down the other side of the mall, giving everything the once over. Then back to Grandma's house we would go, to make pancakes or waffles (I've only actually eaten pancakes at the festival once...) and drink coffee. The day is then spent sitting on the porch watching people go by. Friends and family are always stopping in, sometimes the occaisional stranger comes in the door not realizing that the little green and white house is just that - a house - and not another buisness.

Favorite attractions have always included the wagon ride back and forth between the downtown area and the parking located a bit farther out, Old MacDonald's Farm, the pony rides, the back bacon hecklers (they'll should at you while you walk by), maple taffy, and sometimes going to the sugar bush.

This year promises to be just like all the rest. I was so upset last year when I missed out on the festivities. I've already promised myself that I'll never miss a festival again, and my travelling will always start after the first weekend of April and end by the 2nd week of March to make sure I'm home in time.

However, this will be the last year we have my Grandma's house as home base. With her recent passing away, the house is no longer in our possession and I don't quite know what that means in terms of the festival. One of us will just have to get a house right near downtown, I suppose.

Lots of pictures to come....