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See, smell and taste how maple syrup is made in Summerland today

Sap tapped from local sugar trees is being boiled and turned into syrup
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Roch Fortin of Maple Roch taps sap from some sugar trees on the Nomad Cidery property in Summerland. (File photo)

If you are looking for something unique to do today, head over to Summerland and see, smell and taste how maple syrup is made.

Roch Fortin and the Maple Roch team are boiling sap and turning it into syrup Sunday, from 11 to 4 p.m.

He has been boiling all weekend long from the back of the Maple Roch store at Victoria Road.

The sap tapped from a dozen or so local sugar maple trees including some on the Nomad Cidery property is boiled for days to a certain brick count and then bottled.

After all this work, Maple Roch will only get around 15 litres of the pure Summerland syrup.

“It’s a labour of love and it’s worth it because we can say that we can make pure maple syrup here in Summerland, not just in Quebec or New Brunswick,” said Fortin in 2021 when he boiled syrup at Nomad.

When we think of maple syrup, we think of Quebec where the majority of Canada’s maple syrup is made.

But Fortin has been tapping from some local trees and having success with it.

Maple Roch is a store dedicated to everything maple syrup.

READ MORE: Turning Summerland sap into syrup



Monique Tamminga

About the Author: Monique Tamminga

Monique brings 20 years of award-winning journalism experience to the role of editor at the Penticton Western News. Of those years, 17 were spent working as a senior reporter and acting editor with the Langley Advance Times.
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