Is the sap running yet? It was sunny but cold when I talked to Janice Hubbs. “More like trickling right now,” she said. “Needs to warm up a little, but it’s early. We boiled sap all last week and have a quarter of our crop already.” She’s not too concerned about the weather, and flighty, unpredictable March has had maple producers on their toes for a couple of hundred years. “Okay, my knees are a little sore from all the praying, but that’s nothing new,” she laughed. She’s busy prepping for the 33rd annual pancake breakfast at Hubb’s Sugarbush, and she’s feeling the warm sun on her face and telling it to get over there and warm up that sap!

It was a little milder “down south” in Cherry Valley, where Todd Vader had just spent a 12 hour day in his sap house. “When the sap is running you just keep at it,” he said cheerfully. The Vaders have been at it for generations. They’ve all got a touch of syrup in their blood. And for Maple in the County the whole family pitches in, gathering, boiling, bottling, labeling and entertaining visitors. Todd was pretty happy with the weather when we spoke, but then he’d just come out of a steamy, sweet, state-of-the-art sugar shack to a gorgeous March County sunset.

Young John Nyman pulls out all the stops at maple time on his organic farm. He’s one busy guys, running the farm, working another job off the farm, checking 660 maple taps and working through the night sometimes because it’s lambing time, too. He told me his smartest move for the maple was having two evaporators. “I use the little one to get started when there’s not much sap, and fire up the big one when it starts running fast.” The baby lambs have arrived at Nyman Farms, as sweet as maple syrup and very popular with kids and soft-hearted grown-ups like me on Maple weekend. Are the babies okay with being petted and fussed? “Are you kidding?” he laughs. “They’re all over you when you enter their pen, they love it and so do the kids.”

Just outside Picton, Doug Stone is eyeing the weather, checking the lines and polishing his old tractors – a big attraction on Maple weekend. Some are antiques but, like the best old County farmers, still strong and good looking! Cliff and Dean Foster, the father and son maple producers at Fosterholm Farm, would say I’m crazy to say stuff like that. But they’re not bad looking themselves. Maybe I’m a sucker for hardworking men, but my husband, aka The Bald Photographer, has photographed the Fosters (with their huge gorgeous dog) and many other County farmers, recording the faces of the folks who produce our food – and who make delicious maple syrup. Me? I can’t wait for the 2010 vintage!

The 9th Annual Maple in the County, March 27 & 28, 2010 is presented by The Waring House and Prince Edward County Maple Syrup Producers ( Hubb’s Sugarbush, Vader’s Maple Syrup, Stone’s Maple Syrup, JC Nyman Farms and Fosterholm Farms). Visit www.mapleinthecounty.ca for information on all 33 participating locations.