Forging Bellechasse region identity through maple sugaring heritage
Readers who have followed my work closely since my first volume in 2016, which marked the quest for a true Bellechasse identity, will appreciate how the project has evolved over the past five volumes. This is especially reflected in the changing themes of each biennial publication. As readers have come with me on this journey to forge a true recognized identity for the region as the cradle of maple syrup production—an identity that was solidified in 2017, some 300 years after the region’s beginnings in 1716—they have also surely seen how telling the story of Bellechasse’s maple syrup history has been the primary means to that end. By telling the story of the twenty or so Bellechassois who built our history between 1716 and 2016 (including the Chabot family, which is now known throughout all of North America and even in Western Europe), we can even better promote that identity to the rest of the world.
CDL was the first to proudly display our identity logo at the entrance to their Saint-Lazare-de-Bellechasse head office. They also generously offered, unprompted, to help promote the sale of my books by holding a book launch at their Open House. That made them the only leading manufacturer of maple syrup equipment to work that way in our region, supporting the growth of our now-recognized identity. CDL has also done the same for each subsequent volume, to the delight of readers with a taste for local and global maple syrup stories! And of course, let’s not forget that over 120,000 copies of our logo have been printed, distributed, and publicized by CDL in their annual sales catalogues, their CDL’s Way maple sugaring magazine, and their Open House invitations year after year to continue spreading this identity so dearly acquired for all of us over the years.
Renowned historian, ethnologist, and writer Matthew M. Thomas, who took the time to visit Bellechasse in the summer of 2023, quickly understood and declared that I had succeeded brilliantly in conveying Bellechasse’s place in maple history and the importance it must have had in defining Bellechasse’s identity and pride. Today, I continue to hopefully count on the unique support of the Chabot family, and particularly their technological knowledge in the maple syrup industry, so that we can work together to further solidify this growing identity. This collaboration will hopefully be continued with the proactive committee formed in November 2023 in the “MRC” of Bellechasse—an unprecedented collaboration that will consider many new projects thanks to the famous Bellechasse identity logo.
Thank you to CDL and the Chabot family!
