Sugar shacks hope new meals-to-go initiative will make 2021 much sweeter

As the maple sap starts flowing,Quebec's sugar shacks are hoping a new meal-to-go campaign will get them through another difficult season.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the province's roughly 200 sugar shacks to close last March, and the restrictions still in place across Quebecmeansestablishments can't welcome as many guests as usual.

That's the case atrablire J.B.Caronin Gracefield, Que., which is keeping its doors closed for now, even though the region moves into the less-restrictive orange zoneon Monday.

"We can only have two adults and their kids per table," said owner Frdric Tremblay-Carle, who can usually welcome 100 guests into his establishment.

"So we won't open for only 20 people."

'It's going to save my season'

Instead, Tremblay-Carle's establishment is one of 65Quebec sugar shacksparticipating in a new initiative called Ma cabane la maison that also launches Monday.

The initiative allows people to ordera gourmet box of reheatable or ready-to-cook dishes from sugar shacks across the province.

Atrablire J.B.Caron, that includes classics like pea soup, sugar pie and tourtire.

"It's going to save my season," Tremblay-Carle said about the program.

It's a sentiment shared by the program's founder,Stphanie Laurin, who also owns Chalet des Erablesin Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Que., just outside Montreal.

Laurinsaidmost sugar shacks, including her own, lost 90 per cent of their income in 2020. Roughly 40 have closed since the start of the pandemic, she said.

"If nothing is done, 75 percent of Quebec sugar shackscould disappear forever," Laurinsaid.

"It's our history ... most of them are open since, I don't know, maybe 1940, 1950. And it's passed through every generation, so it means a lot [to keep them going]."