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PAKENHAM, Ontario — By 9:30 a.m. the line for Fulton’s Pancake House and Sugarbush had snaked out the door and down the driveway toward the parking lot, like the day a new iPhone goes on sale.

But the restaurant, roughly 40 miles southwest of Ottawa, isn’t brand-new. It’s in its 50th year, and its star attraction, maple syrup, is much older. It was invented by Native Americans long before Europeans arrived in the Americas.

“Maple is a social crop,” said Shirley Fulton-Deugo, the owner. “It’s the first crop of the year and a sign that spring is here.”

Fulton’s sits on 400 wooded acres in Eastern Ontario, and Mrs . Fulton-Deugo is a fourth-generation maple syrup producer. Her children help her run the business, and three of her grandchildren are already making their own syrup and selling it under the label Triple Trouble.