Posted on 08/29/2015 1:04:23 PM PDT by Lorianne
The scenic and narrow lane that leads to Robert Hodge’s sugar camp is surrounded by a cat’s cradle of plastic piping that draws sap from 12,000 trees. At the end of the lane, a ramshackle hut contains reverse osmosis pumps to concentrate the harvest. A stainless steel evaporator, about the size of a truck, finishes the conversion into maple syrup.
Just one thing is missing: the maple syrup.
For weeks, security guards, hired by the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, kept watch over Mr. Hodge’s farm. Then one day, the federation seized 20,400 pounds of maple syrup, his entire annual production, worth about 60,000 Canadian dollars, or nearly $46,000.
The incident was part of the escalating battle with farmers like Mr. Hodge who break the law by not participating in the federation’s tightly controlled production and sales system.
“It’s a good thing that I’m not 35, 40 years old because I’d pack up all my sugar equipment that’s movable, and I’d go to the United States — oh yes, in a minute, in a minute,” said Mr. Hodge, 68.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Actually, ‘Pearson’s rag’, as some Canadians of a certain age refer to it, is a stylized maple leaf design, not a California Bigleaf maple. Liberals, being the ‘simple’ people they be, wanted a flag that even a child (read ‘liberal’) could easily draw.
Liberals found the Canadian Ensign flags that Canadian soldiers and sailors fought and died under during two world wars to be revolting, as they each DARED to contain the Union flag! In a sop to the never satisfied Québécois, they ditched the Canadian Red Ensign in favour of Pearson’s rag. The same bunch of children (Liberals) ditched “The Maple Leaf Forever”, replacing it with “O Kanada” because again, the Québécois took offence to a reference to Wolfe defeating Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham in 1763!
Yes, even a liberal can draw that symbol. The question is, what is it a symbol of? It says nothing about our history, as the Canadian Red Ensign did, just as ‘O Kanada’ tells nothing of our history, as ‘The Maple Leaf Forever’ did.
In days of yore, from Britain’s shore,
Wolfe, the dauntless hero, came
And planted firm Britannia’s flag
On Canada’s fair domain.
Here may it wave, our boast, our pride
And, joined in love together,
The thistle, shamrock, rose entwine
The Maple Leaf forever!
Chorus:
The Maple Leaf, our emblem dear,
The Maple Leaf forever!
God save our Queen and Heaven bless
The Maple Leaf forever!
At Queenston Heights and Lundy’s Lane,
Our brave fathers, side by side,
For freedom, homes and loved ones dear,
Firmly stood and nobly died;
And those dear rights which they maintained,
We swear to yield them never!
Our watchword evermore shall be
“The Maple Leaf forever!”
Chorus
Our fair Dominion now extends
From Cape Race to Nootka Sound;
May peace forever be our lot,
And plenteous store abound:
And may those ties of love be ours
Which discord cannot sever,
And flourish green o’er freedom’s home
The Maple Leaf forever!
Chorus
On merry England’s far famed land
May kind heaven sweetly smile,
God bless old Scotland evermore
and Ireland’s Em’rald Isle!
And swell the song both loud and long
Till rocks and forest quiver!
God save our Queen and Heaven bless
The Maple Leaf forever!
Chorus
Good response!
Yes, it is “stylized” for sure, but the pattern is nothing like the leaf of northeastern maples, but an excellent caricature of the maples of the pacific region.
I posted a pic @ #32
To learn more: http://www.montrealpoutine.com/history.html
I was curious about the origin of poutine [in my own mind it looks like something a backwoods/off-the-grid lumberjack would have put together, lacking a lot of handy ingredients...or a thrifty mother who was cleaning out the fridge]; I imagined the french fries might have been hash browns. I am wrong.
It’s not something I would go out of my way to eat; in its own way, it’s fun to try. Seems to be available in restaurants to cater to the many Fr-Cans who are vacationing in New England. Never saw so many lovely Canucks, since the last time I was in Montreal. Nice, nice people.
You betcha.
I love the way the whole family is in tow...and the kids are always very well behaved. Nice folks.
Yes.
All of the above.
Perhaps Quebec has the most production.
We visited Montreal back in the 80’s. We also visited Nova Scotia. We met some wonderful people, and viewed some gorgeous sites. I’d love to go again.
LOL!
Ontario has some production as well. I’m in the county west of Ottawa, and there is a fair bit around here.
I swear to God, I love that song. I think I’ve mentioned here before that I attended Alexander Muir Public School in Toronto from grades 4 to 8 (1959-1963). Since the school was named after the author, we of course learned the song. Several years later when Trudeau the First was coronated, the name of the school was changed to it’s location, Gladstone Avenue. Gee, I wonder why that happened?
That explains why maple sugar candy is now adulterated with regular sugar, which is criminal IMHO. Cutting it to keep or increase the margins.
That makes sense.
When I was growing up my mom made pancake syrup with imitation maple flavoring and brown and white sugar.
I liked it, didn’t know any better.
But recently I’ve come to appreciate what wondrous stuff maple syrup is.
I use some of it in making spaghetti sauce.
Vermont gets very cranky when a product has *Vermont* on the label. They are very protective of the *made in Vermont* label.
100% pure Vermont maple sugar candy is not hard to find. Good stuff for a sweet tooth!
I was only four when ‘Pearson’s rag’ arrived on the scene, so I know of the battles only through family stories and history. It is unfortunate for Canada that ‘Rocky Waterhole’ was a communist. Canada would have been so much better if a man of his intelligence had been conservative. Bébé Turd-owe has all of Rocky’s arrogance, but his mama’s intellect. Until he is 95, he’ll never be ready to govern!
Typical ‘progressives’ that he and Lethter Bowels Pearthun were, ANYTHING remotely associated with the UK and Canadian heritage had to be destroyed. Even 9 years of Harper has done little to recover our heritage.
The ‘dumbing down’ of our population, and the re-writing of our history by the socialists has been ongoing at least since Pearson’s time.
Until the late 50s/early 60s, the Canadian military was something to be feared. Out of a population of less than 8 million in 1914, 620,000 served in the RCN and CEF. Out of a population of 11 million in 1939, over 1 million served in the RCAF, RCN, and Canadian Army.
The lie of the socialist for decades has been that Canada has always been a “peace keeping” nation. German survivors of the Battles of the Somme, Vimy, and Passchendaele would beg to differ! The Germans named the CEF ‘storm troopers’ as the Allies, facing defeat in late 1917, with the release of thousands of German troops from the Eastern Front, unleashed the very experienced and well organized Canadian First Army. Spearheading attacks on the Western Front, the CEF led the destruction and collapse of the German front lines, eventually leading to Armistice. In WW2, after Italy and Normandy, the Canadian Army was tasked with the less than glorious, and very difficult task of rooting out the Krauts from the Atlantic coast of Europe, capturing the heavily defended Scheldt Estuary and the Low Countries.
Decades of Liberal indifference to the military, and too much spending on useless social programs has turned many Canadians into ‘gibs me dats’. Sure, there are some social programs that I agree with, but over fifty years of multiple billions of transfers to Québec? NO WAY! Why should my hard earned income go to subsidize all the social programs in Québec? I believe in a hand up, not a hand out.
“They are very protective of the *made in Vermont* label.”
A few decades ago my grandpa sold sap from our trees in western NY to Vermont. That stopped when Vermont had to quit taking it. Now my little nephew, age 11, taps the trees and makes the best syrup I’ve ever tasted. When he was eight he won prizes at fairs. When we go out for breakfast, I take it in my purse.
We used to get the syrup warm and thick, then pour it on snow to make “candy”.
I notice reading the accounts of both world wars from the British military brass point of view, that they considered Canadians the most faithful “to the war effort cause” (defeating Germany) of their commonwealth countries. That says a lot, for the Aussies and New Zealanders were tough fighters.
I want to take my GD to Niagara Falls, cross into Toronto [ugh!]...over to Montreal, Quebec and do Nova.
But I have to get her a passport first. Maybe next summer. ;) I love Canada.
The exchange rate is favorable too.
1 Canadian Dollar equals 0.76 US Dollars
I know a guy who wes a Un of VT grad, got involved with maple syrup production there. He worked on an osmosis system to cut the time to turn the sap to syrup. [Which ended in failure] Later, he for some reason bought some sap from some guy in Rhode Island, and boiled it down and bottled it as *Made in VT* .....turned out the VT agri tested it....and it was largely, cane syrup....they prosecuted him and he spent time in Federal prison. Ruined his life.
*We used to get the syrup warm and thick, then pour it on snow to make “candy”.*
We call it *sugar-on-snow*....do you remember serving it with a sour pickle and cider donut on a plate of snow?
How are you doing darling? Good to cyber cya!
From the poutine website above:
Do you recall this story to be true? It’s pretty funny.
**In 2000, then U.S. Presidential candidate George W. Bush was asked by a “reporter” how he responds to an endorsement from Canadian Prime Minister “Jean Poutine”. Bush replied, “I appreciate his strong statment.[sic] He understands I believe in free trade. He understands I want to make sure our relations with our most important neighbor to the north of us, the Canadians, is strong and we’ll work closely together.” Of course, the prime minister at the time was Jean Chretien, and the “reporter” was Rick Mercer from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation comedy TV show, “This Hour Has 22 Minutes”. **
http://www.montrealpoutine.com/history.html
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