South Ridge a Special Place

New Brunswick is a sparsely populated province on Canada’s eastern coast. It borders the state of Maine and shares the northernmost reaches of the Appalachian Mountains, tracing back almost 480 million years. South Ridge is positioned on the height of land between the Miramichi River (draining east) and Saint John River (draining west). The soil is glacial till rich in minerals and rock flour left behind when the glaciers retreated some 10,000 years ago.

Pioneers in the 1700’s settled the land and began to plant potatoes in the rich soils. The indigenous Maliseet and Mi’kmaq people had already learned to collect sap from local maple trees and boil it down to
syrup. It was their only source of sugar.

The ridges run north east to –south west and on the southwest facing slopes grow huge stands of mature sugar maples. These ridges and slopes are ideal for maple sugaries. The soils are rich, the slope is ideal for letting the sap run on grade, and the spring sun helps bring the trees out of dormancy early in the season.