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The annual maple syrup season marks the end of the often brutal central Canadian winters and heralds the beginning of spring. The maple tree, whose leaf dominates the Canada's flag, plays both a symbolic and practical role in the identity of Canadians who produce around 95 percent of the world's supply of maple syrup.
Show all 15 1 /15In pictures: Maple syrup season in Ontario In pictures: Maple syrup season in Ontario Maple syrup production Sarah Gibbons grades a new batch of Maple Syrup at Gibbons Family Farm in Frankville, Ontario
In pictures: Maple syrup season in Ontario Maple syrup production A couple samples the Maple Syrup produced by Golden Moment Farm at their stall during the Perth Maple Festival in Perth, Ontario
In pictures: Maple syrup season in Ontario Maple syrup production Visitors view a demonstration evaporator during the Perth Maple Festival in Perth, Ontario. The annual maple syrup season marks the end of the often brutal central Canadian winters and heralds the beginning of spring. The maple tree, whose leaf dominates the Canada's flag, plays both a symbolic and practical role in the identity of Canadians who produce around 95 percent of the world's supply of maple syrup
In pictures: Maple syrup season in Ontario Maple syrup production Wayne Pelton flits over a thin crust of hard packed snow carrying one gallon buckets full of fresh sap at his old fashioned sugar bush camp in Burritts Rapids, Ontario
In pictures: Maple syrup season in Ontario Maple syrup production Wayne Pelton and his team of Belgian draft horses unload newly collected sap as smoke and steam rises from a wood fired evaporator at their old fashioned sugar bush camp in Burritts Rapids, Ontario. Pelton's day starts with an early morning feed of his two blonde Belgian draft horses who have both worked his sugar bush for over 20 years
In pictures: Maple syrup season in Ontario Maple syrup production Wayne Pelton's horses haul the 1,200 pounds (550Kg) of the collected sap through the snow to the sugar shack where his wife Janet keeps a wood fire going under the evaporator until all of the days sap is boiled down into pure maple syrup
In pictures: Maple syrup season in Ontario Maple syrup production A tap line (L) is seen snaking through the maple forest or 'sugarbush' at Popplewell's hobby farm in Jasper, Ontario
In pictures: Maple syrup season in Ontario Maple syrup production Wayne Pelton and his team of Belgian draft horses head into the forest to collect sap at their old fashioned sugar bush camp in Burritts Rapids, Ontario. The 70-year-old farmer who has been making maple syrup every year his whole life flits over the thin crust of frozen snow carrying two one gallon pails of sap to his horse sleigh
In pictures: Maple syrup season in Ontario Maple syrup production Bill Gibbons monitors production at Gibbons Family Farm in Frankville, Ontario
In pictures: Maple syrup season in Ontario Maple syrup production A drop of the season's first sap is falling from a tap at Temple's Sugar Camp in Fallbrook, Ontario
In pictures: Maple syrup season in Ontario Maple syrup production A worker uses snowshoes to navigate the snow filled sugarbush while repairing a tap line at Temple's Sugar Camp in Fallbrook, Ontario
In pictures: Maple syrup season in Ontario Maple syrup production The sun sets behind a maple line running with sap at the beginning of the season on Russell Popplewell's sugarbush in Jasper, Ontario
In pictures: Maple syrup season in Ontario Maple syrup production Janet Pelton feeds wood into the evaporator at her traditional wood fired sugar bush camp in Burritts Rapids, Ontario
In pictures: Maple syrup season in Ontario Maple syrup production Janet Pelton monitors production of the evaporator at her traditional sugar bush camp in Burritts Rapids, Ontario
In pictures: Maple syrup season in Ontario Maple syrup production A 'chip' is seen on the bottom of a ladle informing experienced boilers that the sap is forming into maple syrup at Popplewell hobby farm in Jasper, Ontario
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