Maple Syrup Festivals And Events In Durham Region

Take a self-guided tour to visit a modern evaporator, enjoy games, activities, horse-drawn wagon rides, and watch as sap is collected from the sugar maple trees and boiled into delicious maple syrup at the Purple Woods Maple Syrup Festival. Enjoy all-day breakfast pancakes with Halenda's sausages and Purple Woods Maple Syrup! Gluten free pancakes are also available. Plus, don't forget to stop by their Heritage Store before you go and take some sweet maple treats home! Tickets are $8 per person online or $11 per person upon arrival. Children two and under are free. Entries are from 9:30 a.m. to noon, or noon to 2:30 p.m.

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Brooks Farms Maplefest

Location: 122 Ashworth Road, Uxbridge | Dates: Weekends starting March 1 and March Break

Visit Brooks Farms Maplefest for a festival so sweet, you’ll want to come back year after year! Enjoy a train or wagon ride, self-guided and guided educational tours, evaporator demonstrations, maple syrup tastings, and a campfire in the sugar bush with marshmallows. The barnyard playland is also opened (weather permitting) with animals, a pirate ship and more. Tours take place from 10 a.m. with the last tour of the day starting at 2 p.m. You can purchase a ticket to Maplefest for $12.99 + HST, or bundle your ticket with a Pancake Breakfast for $21.99 to $25.99 + HST. Children under two are free. Maple sugar products are also available for an additional cost.

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Each year, people travel near and far to experience the Sunderland Maple Syrup Festival! This well-loved event offers a great opportunity to discover the many things that make Sunderland special, while celebrating the Canadian tradition of making maple syrup. Enjoy the local sugar shack tour, a historical bus tour, live entertainment, air bounce adventures, bathtub races, and—of course—a delicious pancake breakfast! Explore Sunderland's local shops and wander through the vendor market to shop everything from syrup to toys, hand-crafted items, clothing and other great finds. Admission and parking are free.

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The highly anticipated Bowmanville Maplefest showcases local syrup producers who offer up the best of the region. You’ll be delighted to find maple treats including doughnuts, cheese, candy, nuts, fudge and much more. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., stroll along the four city blocks to explore unique items from craft and food vendors, and browse the many independent shops and restaurants in historic Bowmanville. There will be plenty of kid-friendly activities to enjoy too. Admission and parking are free. New this year, guests can park for free at Clarington Fields (2375 Baseline Road, Bowmanville) and a shuttle bus will drop you off at the festival and return you to the parking when you're done. Shuttles run approximately every 15 minutes.

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Maple Syrup's Sweet History

Did you know that Indigenous Peoples living in northeastern North America were the first to produce maple syrup? Zhiiwaagamizigan is the Anishinaabe word for maple syrup, and it’s prized for both its medicinal properties and sweet taste. The earliest method of sap collection was done by cutting a ‘v’ shape into the bark of a maple tree, then placing a wedge at the bottom of the cut and letting the sap flow into a bucket at the base of the tree. Today, the collection process has changed, yet the result is that same sweet liquid gold. You can discover this original method of processing maple syrup by visiting Harlaine Maple Products during the Sunderland Maple Festival.

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