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All Canada Ontario Maple Syrup Museum of Ontario
AO Edited Gastro Obscura

Maple Syrup Museum of Ontario

This quaint museum taps into the sweet history of the maple syrup industry.

Hillsburgh, Ontario

Added By
Longinus Balo
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Maple syrup bottle.   Longinus Balo (atlas obscura user)
Maple syrup bottle.   Longinus Balo (atlas obscura user)
Taping a sugar maple tree.   Longinus Balo / Atlas Obscura User
Multiple tap scars in a sugar maple cross-section.   Longinus Balo / Atlas Obscura User
Maple syrup bottle.   Longinus Balo / Atlas Obscura User
Horse team collecting sugar maple sap.   Longinus Balo / Atlas Obscura User
Street level sign for the Maple Syrup Museum of Ontario.   Longinus Balo / Atlas Obscura User
Native American maple sap collection vessels.   Longinus Balo / Atlas Obscura User
Maple syrup production equipment.   Longinus Balo / Atlas Obscura User
Sign at the basement entrance to the museum.   Longinus Balo / Atlas Obscura User
Maple syrup collection pails and barrel.   Longinus Balo / Atlas Obscura User
Collecting sap.   Longinus Balo / Atlas Obscura User
Maple tree sap pails.   Longinus Balo / Atlas Obscura User
Maple syrup cooking paraphernalia.   Longinus Balo / Atlas Obscura User
Sugar maple spiles.   Longinus Balo / Atlas Obscura User
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About

The Maple Syrup Museum of Ontario is a sweet spot dedicated to documenting the lengthy history of maple syrup production and consumption.

Though small, the museum provides an immersive history of the maple syrup industry, ranging from interpretations of possible early indigenous production methods to the development of the sugar maple industry in Ontario and surrounding regions in the United States and Canada. It’s essentially packed with everything you’ve ever wanted to see about maple syrup production—and then some.

The displays give you a sense of what it was like in the old days, back when people had to drive a team of horses across the snow-covered ground in March and April to collect buckets of tree sap and transform it into a tasty treat. You’ll spot saws, syrup evaporators, barrels, sap buckets, spiles (the little tubes hammered into the tree to drain the sap), pancake griddles, maple candy molds, and various maple-related photos housed within the space. A wide variety of the ubiquitous maple syrup bottles found on every store shelf within 100 miles of St. Jacobs is also displayed all over the museum, ranging from 50-year-old bottles to those still sold today.

Of particular interest is the cross-section of an ancient maple that bears the scars of numerous syrup tapings over its lifetime. Visitors can see the spots where the spiles had been tapped into the tree trunk on no less than 25 occasions and the associated scars from where these punctures healed as the tree continued to grow.

In October 2023, the Maple Syrup Museum of Ontario moved from the Village of St. Jacobs to the Elliott Tree Farm in Hillsburgh.

Related Tags

Museums Museums And Collections Food Sweets Maple Syrup Candy

Know Before You Go

The Maple Syrup Museum is open at specific times of year. Check the website for more information.

Community Contributors

Added By

Longinus Balo

Edited By

Kerry Wolfe

  • Kerry Wolfe

Published

August 7, 2018

Updated

January 10, 2025

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  • https://extension.psu.edu/maple-syrup-production-for-the-beginner
Maple Syrup Museum of Ontario
9467 E Garafraxa Erin Townline
Hillsburgh, Ontario, L9W 7G8
Canada
43.826142, -80.178918
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