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Sugar shack owners across Quebec are reopening their dining rooms for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and strangely, they are crediting the novel coronavirus with revitalizing their industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The spring sugar shack experience — eating beans and ham at long tables with strangers, enjoying tractor rides through the melting snow and nibbling snow-chilled maple syrup on wooden sticks — was on the decline before the pandemic. But two years of COVID-19 lockdowns have forced the traditional industry to reinvent an outdated business model, and some say it is more sustainable than before the health crisis hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We’ve been doing the same thing for 50 years,” Camelie Gingras, manager of sugar shack La Goudrelle in Mont-St-Gregoire, Que., southeast of Montreal, said in a recent interview. “When I told my 84-year-old grandfather that we were going to do boxed meals for online orders, I can tell you, oh boy, he looked at me with a question mark on his face.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gingras and other owners of sugar shacks — know as cabanes a sucres in French — credit the industry’s resurgence to an online retail platform launched in February 2021 that allows them to sell take-home versions of the traditional spring meals. Created by the association that represents the province’s sugar shacks, the platform — Ma Cabane a la Maison — ended up reinventing the experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sugar shack owners can now sell their products online year-round. They can also run a hybrid model: reopen for a limited indoor dining experience — with lower overhead costs — and sell take-home meals as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“People who didn’t go to sugar shacks before the pandemic are now ordering our meals to eat at home,” Gingras said. “It’s such a great opportunity for us.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pandemic might have been exactly what Quebec sugar shacks needed to revamp their staid, traditional offerings, Stephanie Laurin, chair of the industry association, said in a recent interview. Before the pandemic, the industry was facing an existential threat: mom-and-pop owners were getting old and had no one to take over the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ten years ago, there were more than 200 sugar shacks across Quebec, but that number had dropped to about 140 before the pandemic, Laurin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We were caught in our old ways and traditions, and we didn’t dare to evolve,” said Laurin, who also manages Chalet des Erables sugar shack north of Montreal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The pandemic made us realize we had stagnated while society was at a place where we needed online stores and for things to be accessible.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sugar shack owners across Quebec are reopening their dining rooms for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and strangely, they are crediting the novel coronavirus with revitalizing their industry. The spring sugar shack experience — eating beans and ham at long tables with strangers, enjoying tractor rides through the melting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n