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Do you like maple syrup? Canada is known for maple trees, maple leaves, and maple syrup. Here in Ontario, Canada, March is maple syrup season, signalling that winter is ending.
Maple syrup is made from the sap in maple trees, usually Sugar maple trees. The sap, which is like water, is heated to condense it down to syrup.
When I tapped maple trees, I used a type of stainless-steel spout called a spile. First, my helper drilled a hole in the tree in a slightly upward direction, deep enough to reach the sapwood. Next, I used a hammer to pound the spile into place. Then I hung a bucket on the hook attached to the spile so the sap could drip into the bucket. When the bucket was three quarters full of sap, I would carry it inside so I could boil the sap on the stove.
It takes a lot of sap to make maple syrup. About forty litres of sap are needed to make one litre of syrup. It takes a lot of time to boil the sap long enough to make syrup. It takes a lot of trees to make a lot of syrup. The more trees you have, the more syrup you can make. If you have a lot of trees to tap, your farm is called a sugarbush. A large modern sugarbush would use tubing to move the sap from the trees to where it can be stored and/or heated.
Maple syrup can be used to sweeten and flavour many tasty things, including maple candy. Do you eat maple syrup? What is your favourite way to eat it? Come have a chat with me about trees, food, cooking, or whatever you like!
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