BY ANDREW COPPOLINO
Drizzle it on pancakes or waffles, use it to sweeten whipped cream, roast vegetables with it, or create a hip cocktail, maple syrup is a versatile and truly Canadian ingredient that has captured world-wide attention – all at the same time it also makes for a pretty dynamic food festival in Woolwich Township each April.
So dynamic, in fact, that the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival (EMSF) ranks as the largest single-day maple syrup festival in the world. The event began humbly in 1965, and while the original organizers were hoping to have 2,500 visitors back then, they were surprised – and nearly overwhelmed – when 10,000 showed up. The rest is history: this long-lived event is successful year after year because it relies on more than 2,400 volunteers and 60 sponsors.
The EMSF is part of a dominant Canadian market where there are more than 8,600 maple syrup businesses. As a whole, Canada produces nearly three-quarters of the world’s maple syrup and includes major production in Ontario, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia; Quebec is the country’s major producer accounting for about 90 percent. As for the global gold medal when it comes to maple syrup festivals, the folks from Guinness World Records officially calculated that 66,529 people attended the Festival in 2000. That same year, the Festival estimated that it served its 500,000th pancake. That’s a lot of maple syrup.