The mercury is rising, the white storms are gone, and it’s time for Quebecers and visitors alike to indulge in the most delicious of spring rituals. Like a sweet sap awakening in the heart of the maple tree, the call of the sugar shack is felt!
So what is a sugar shack? When should you visit one in Quebec? What’s for dinner?
Let us guide you! We tell you all about this Quebec spring tradition. 
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Tradition on the Table
Before a drop of syrup has even passed your lips, the sweet and salty aromas of the sugar shack will have you salivating. But nothing is as inviting as the sense of tradition.
Expansive wooden tables, red-and-white checked tablecloths, a roaring stove… The rustic, homelike decor gives off a familiar feeling that has flocks returning year on year to celebrate maple syrup season with their nearest and dearest.
After the pea soup starter and fresh, homemade cretons (a traditional meat spread), the tables are loaded with baked omelettes, smoked ham, baked beans and other comfort food classics. Every sugar shack is unique, there’s something about the recipes handed down through generations that ensures no two family-run operations are the same.
Who cares if it’s served buffet-style or at the table? The best thing about the sugar shack is its simplicity. Don’t forget: maple syrup season is fleeting, you’ve got to seize the opportunity when it comes around. Of course, the actual dates are dependent on the weather, but it tends to fall around mid-March to mid-April.
Shared Culture
Well before the colonists came to Canada, the First Nations of eastern America held the key to the sweet, sweet elixir. In those days, it was consumed as a beverage or used to season vegetables and meat… Maple syrup is even the stuff of legends! One Iroquois legend about the origins of maple syrup has it that the chief, Woksis, threw his tomahawk, which lodged in the trunk of a sugar maple. His wife discovered the slightly sweet water seeping out of the tree and used it to make a stew. However, it was the Europeans’ technology—more precisely their cast-iron kettles—that made it possible to turn the water into syrup.
As early as the 18th century, producers were building rustic shelters in the sugar bush to protect them from the elements while sugaring. But permanent sugar shack buildings weren’t commonplace until the late 19th century. In the 20th century, sugar shacks grew in size and comfort, becoming the second homes of many maple syrup producers.
Families would gather at the sugar shack during maple syrup season to savour the delicacy and enjoy the festivities marking the start of spring.
And that is the origin of sugar shacks as we know them today, not to be confused with sugar bushes: the sugar shack is where you eat, the sugar bush is the sugar maple grove surrounding it.
Liquid Gold
Another Indigenous legend says that a syrup sweetened to perfection once flowed from the heart of maple trees. Having seen his people lying around at the foot of sugar maples, Nanabozo (an Indigenous culture hero) is said to have poured a pail of water into a maple tree to dilute the taste and prevent humans from becoming lazy.
That way, anyone wanting to pour this liquid gold over their pancakes or make a syrup sponge pudding would have to roll up their sleeves and do some work! Which is exactly what Quebec’s maple syrup producers do each spring.
Maple water is collected from the tree, then filtered and boiled for hours in an evaporator where it turns into syrup. The colour—from a light gold to dark bronze—simply depends on when the water is collected.
Dress Warm!
Whether you’re going all-in and wearing the traditional plaid flannel shirt or going for more comfortable look with an elasticated waist (we all know that second or third serving is hard to resist), the important thing is that you dress for the weather, and springtime in Quebec is cold! After you’ve enjoyed your grand-pères dans le sirop (a syrup sponge-type dessert), you’ll need to grab your coat because the festivities continue outside.
You might think you’ve eaten all you possibly can, but you must save some room for the traditional maple taffy on snow — the crowing glory of the sugar shack experience.
To further the experience (and help your food go down), many sugar shacks have set up walking trails through their sugar maple groves. Others even offer horse-drawn carriage rides. One thing’s for sure, you’ll need a good pair of waterproof boots to keep your feet dry and your spirits high! Most sugar shacks are only open during maple syrup season (March and April). However others put on the traditional sugar shack experience year-round (reservations required).
☝️🤓 Did You Know?
✅ It takes 40 litres of maple water to produce 1 litre of syrup.
✅ Quebec is home to more than 20,000 sugar shacks, and 6,500 operate commercially!
✅ In 2020, Quebeckers consumed an estimated 3.2 litres of maple syrup per person.
✅ Quebec produces more maple syrup than anywhere else in the world: 71% of the world’s maple syrup comes from our province. Our maple products are exported to 70 different countries, yet over half are destined for the United States.
✅ Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques took small tubes of maple syrup with him for his 204-day orbital mission — what a comforting taste of home!
✅ The municipality of Laurierville, in the Centre-du-Québec region, is the maple syrup capital of the country. A 267,000 sq. ft. warehouse has been erected to house reserves of the blond gold, a solution to ensure a constant supply and stabilize the price of the product.
✅ Chaque année depuis 2010, le Concours de la Grande Sève couronne le meilleur sirop d’érable produit au Québec. Pour sa prochaine édition, tous les yeux sont tournés vers la Ferme entre deux pays, à Sainte-Sophie-d’Halifax, dans le Centre-du-Québec, qui a remporté les honneurs lors des deux derniers concours.
✅In addition to its exquisite taste, maple syrup is a food packed with nutritional properties. It’s rich in polyphenols, which help slow cell aging!
✅ In 2021, there were 8,653 maple syrup operations in Quebec.
✅ Each year at the Oscars, nominees are given swag bags full of gifts. You might think those bags would be full of expensive jewellery, cosmetics and the latest technology, and they are … but they also contain maple syrup produced in Quebec.
Photo couverture : © Francis Gagnon, Destination Québec cité
