The Delicious World of Maple Syrup.

I lied.
Two posts in one day. Again. -sighs-
But, I had waffles, and waffles are inspiring. So, dear friends, we enter the wonderful world of maple syrup.

Maple syrup. One of the most delicious things on the planet. Sugary and sweet. One of my favourite childhood memories is going to the sugar bush and wandering around the old log cabins learning about pioneer times and sipping maple water. Oh my. Canada, to me, is partially made up by our maple syrup, with Quebec being the largest producer of Maple Syrup in the world.

Maple syrup is quite possibly one of my favourite foods. Up till very recently, I would go to farmer markets and buy the tiniest amount of syrup available in jug form. I would then repeatedly dip my finger into it and then lick it. The process of emptying the jug would take about two weeks. I have a notorious sweet tooth, well known to friends and family alike. It is feared. The hushed whisperings at family gatherings can attest to that.

There is no known date where people in Canada first started making maple syrup. Native Americans were doing it when we arrived on the shores of Canada. Their way of making maple syrup differs from the modern way, though it still is very similar.

Maple syrup comes from the sap of some maple trees, primarily the sugar maple and the black maple, with the red maple and silver maple being used as well. The tree is tapped at a convenient height with the holes being drilled between 2.5-5 cm deep. Some trees may be tapped up to four times. Immediately after the drilling, a plastic or metal spile is driven into the wood. The spile leads to a metal bucket (sometimes a hose is also used that leads to a sap tank) that is attached to the tree. The bucket has a metal lid in order to prevent bugs and other animals getting at the delicious sap (or maple water). The sap is like sugar water; I remember our tour guide letting all the children taste it straight from the tree. This type of sap collection is the traditional way, with the plastic hose being the modern approach.

When the buckets have a fair amount of sap in them, they’re collected and dumped into a mobile tank, often on a wagon or tractor. The sap needs to be collected daily in warm weather. Once the sap is collected, it’s taken to a sugar hut or sugar shack. The sugar shack is essentially a small building used for the boiling of the sap and the production of maple syrup. The sap is then filtered and is passed through an evaporator unit (in the modern approach), where it is passed continuously through and becomes more concentrated, acquiring that deep rich colour. It passes to a flat pan and once finished, is filtered once more. More traditional maple-syrup makers will boil their maple syrup in large vats, and when it is finished, it is filtered. The syrup is finished when it reaches a temperature of about 4 degrees Celsius above the boiling point of water, which differs with varying altitudes. If the maple syrup continues to be boiled, it can be made into soft or hard maple sugar candy. You need approximately 40 gallons of maple sap to make 1 gallon of genuine maple syrup.

Here are some fun facts on Maple trees and maple syrup;

A maple tree lasts at least 30 years and is 12 inches in diameter before it is tapped.
As a tree increases in diameter more taps can be added, up to a maximum of four.
Tapping does no permanent damage to the tree.
Only 10% of the sap is collected each year.
Each tap yields an average of 10 gallons of sap per season,
yielding about one quart of syrup
Warm sunny days (above 40º F) and frosty nights are ideal for sap flow.
The maple season may last 4 to 6 weeks, but sap flow is heaviest for 10 to 20 days.
Sap flowing in high volumes is called a "run".
The harvest season ends with the arrival of warm spring nights and early bud development in the trees.
30-50 gallons of sap are evaporated to make one gallon of syrup.
Maple Syrup is boiled even further to produce Maple Cream, Sugar and Candy.
It takes one gallon of syrup to produce eight pounds of candy or sugar.
A gallon of pure Maple Syrup weighs 11 pounds.
The sugar content of sap averages 2.5%
The sugar content of syrup averages 66.5%

Maple syrup is awesome for a variety of reasons. Just think; not only is it delicious and wonderful, it’s one of those things that come from something right outside our doors. It’s a natural resource. I know I may not be getting that across as well as I’d like, or be able to share my enthusiasm for it, but the process and the history behind maple syrup staggers me. Nature has given us something delicious and amazing.

Hopefully, I’ll be dragging my boyfriend to the Sugar Bush next week, so I can share with him my love for maple syrup and the process behind him, and I can turn back into an 8 year old filled with simple wonder and joy, dipping my fingers into a bucket of maple sap and getting them all sticky all over again.

Yup, Maple syrup sure is awesome.