The Christmas season was the most wonderful time of the year at the BC Forest Discovery Centre and February is the sweetest.
The Annual Syrup Festival comes to one of Vancouver Island’s premier tourist destinations February 2 and 3 and General Manager Chris Gale said a lot is planned.
“We have tapping demos, mini-workshops, live entertainment, a syrup competition, the train rides, a marketplace, and a place to do kids crafts,” said Gale.
It takes about 50 buckets of sap to make one litre of maple syrup and Gale said the syrup competitions are always fun.
“Nobody does it to make money because it’s so labour intensive,” said Gale. “The Sapsuckers, that’s one of the groups that do it, they’re all very proud of their syrup and we have three or four judges and about a week before, they all bring their syrup in and we judge them all.”
Gale said, “Whoever gets first place always sells out of their syrup first.”
He said the event gets bigger every year and hobbyist syrup producers from Washington State, Oregon, and Wisconsin are coming to the festival.
