The Maple Harvest in southeastern Manitoba has begun. 

Rolly Gagne is the President of the St. Pierre Museum and runs the maple harvest for the Sugar Shack. He notes they tapped all of their trees this past weekend. 

"With the tapping, our first volley out was good, we got about 150 litres of water which is a good start for us. I have got four volunteers and myself, and all our trees are throughout town. For us, the sugar bush is the community so we go on people’s properties and we tap our trees there. I have got about 300 trees tapped in the community itself."

Gagne says they will now begin the process of boiling down the sugar water as they continue to harvest around town.

Meanwhile for Colleen Edmunds from Grunthal Berries, making maple syrup is more of a personal hobby. She says she only taps around 10 trees every year. 

"I had a lady in town that I go to church with and she also tapped her trees and she made maple syrup and I thought well what a good idea so I started to do it and now I know several people from Grunthal that are doing it. It’s amazing and what else are you going to do when you are isolated this time of year?"

Gagne says for maple water to run, we need freezing temperatures at night and warmer weather during the daytime. He says the weekend was perfect, but so far, this week nights have been a bit too warm. He notes ideally, we would see a nice dip in temperatures overnight to keep the maple harvest rolling. 

Read more: Record Maple Harvest In St. Pierre This Year