The maple harvest is just now getting underway here in southeastern Manitoba.

Rolly Gagne is the President of the Ste. Pierre Museum. Despite the warm weather over the last few weeks, Gagne says they are only going to begin tapping this weekend.

Rolly Gagne President of the St. Pierre Museum"We are getting all our equipment ready and we are going to start tapping the trees effective Saturday and Sunday depending on my volunteer group. I know there are a lot of people who tapped earlier, like a couple of weeks ago, but it was just too soon and what happens is that there is a possibility you might stress out the tree if you are in too soon."

Gagne says the middle of March is as early as they like to go. He notes it will take a little while before the maple water really starts to flow.

"Maybe not this coming week, but the following week for sure. It is always slow to go and also the trees are cleaning themselves up at the beginning but I am sure by the end of next week, we should be in full production for harvesting."

Ideally, Gagne says they would like to see positive temperatures during the day and freezing temperatures at night for as long as possible to extend the maple harvest.

Gagne says they are holding a bit of a maple tapping and syrup-making workshop outside at the St. Pierre Museum at 11 A.M. this Saturday and if there is interest, they will run the workshop again at the same time next weekend.