Spring has sprung and the Sugar Shack in St Pierre is wasting no time collecting sugar water from the maple trees.

Rolly Gagne, President of the St-Pierre Museum notes they only have a period of approximately 10-14 days to collect the sugar water and now is the time that it's flowing. Gagne says his volunteers are currently hard at work in the boiling process.

"Our boiler who's been doing this all his life is here and he's transforming maple water to maple syrup. We've picked up this morning and now there's enough to do the boiling. Right now he's boiling the sugar water and it's a 40 to one mixture. 40 gallons of sugar water will give you one gallon of maple syrup."

Gagne adds this year on average they've been able to produce around four gallons of maple syrup per day but the most they've ever made in past years is 25 gallons throughout the whole season. Gagne specifies that what they're collecting is not sap but sugar water.

"Mother nature is the one that cleans out the veins for the sap that will be flowing in the next few days. With the freezing and thawing during the day, it sends the sugar water through the veins to clear it up for the sap that's going to be following."

Gagne says they are currently preparing for their upcoming Sugaring Off Festival and he's confident everything will be good to go.

"We've got our snow that's ready, hidden in one of our snow sheds and we're going to be ready to serve the public taffy on the snow and it's going to be a fantastic, sweet family fun time."

The festival will be held on April 8th and 9th at the Sugar Shack in St-Pierre and Gagne adds he's looking forward to this year's event.