Maple syrup

An Iroquois legend says that a hunter returned to his dwelling where he found a sweet aroma emanating from the kettle in which his wife was boiling meat. Sap from an overhanging broken maple branch had collected in the kettle. Another similar legend is that Chief Woksis had thrown his tomahawk into a maple tree late in a winter evening. After he retrieved it the following morning the weather had become sunny and warm. Sap began to flow from the cut in the tree and dripped down into a cooking pot that was at the bottom of the tree. When Chief Woksis's wife boiled the meat that night for dinner the sap became syrup. Most likely the Native Americans discovered maple syrup through eating icicles that hung from broken branches of maple trees. The icicles would have collected some sap giving them a sweet taste.

Maple syrup was, and still is, collected between winter and spring when the sap in the maple trees begins to thaw. To make maple syrup the Native Americans would cut a V-shaped slash in the maple and collect the sap in hollowed out logs. The Native Americans boiled sap by first heating rocks in open fires; then the rocks would be picked up with makeshift thongs and placed in a wooden bowl along with the sap. The rocks would heat up the sap enough to boil it. Often the Native Americans would boil the sap further making it a crystallized sugar, which could be stored and would not spoil. The Native Americans made "grain sugar" which is similar in texture to brown sugar, "cake sugar" which was poured into wooden molds and made into hard blocks, and "wax sugar" which was a thick syrup poured over snow.

A French missionary is reportedly the first settler to make maple syrup in the 1690s. Other settlers soon caught on. The first change from the traditional method of sugaring the settlers made was to substitute iron or copper buckets for the wood and clay buckets. As early as 1790 it was suggested that slashing the trees was not healthy for the tree and the settlers began drilling half inch holes in the tree and inserting a spile. Early spiles were made from soft woods such as sumac. The settlers would carry the buckets on yokes to large metal boiling kettles. Large flat pans would later replace the iron kettles.

Maple syrup was used in bartering. Maple sugar was the only sweetener in North America until the 1800's when sugar cane was introduced. Even then maple sugar was still more popular and less expensive than sugar cane. It was not until 1890, when the import tax on sugar cane was removed, that sugar cane finally outsold maple sugar.

When maple sugaring started to become a business sleds were developed to carry tanks and the syrup was brought to sugar houses where evaporators were used. Today plastic tubing is used to transport sap from trees to tanks. The tanks are then brought to the sugar house to a central storage tank which is connected to the evaporator. The evaporators today are very similar to the evaporators developed in the late 1800's in Vermont.

When making your own syrup at home you will need either a hand drill or a battery operated drill. Hand drills are a little simpler because you do not have to worry about the battery running out and it only takes a few seconds longer to drill with a hand drill. You will need buckets, covers for the buckets, and spiles. You will also need to know where some maple trees are, usually a grayish/white color with smooth bark and high branches, a predominant tree in North Eastern America. Timing is essential in sugaring. The best time to put out all the buckets is on the first sunny warm/hot day of the spring, this is when the sap thaws out and starts to flow. Sugaring is best when it gets warm and stays warm, particularly if the weather waits until late in the spring to warm up.

After identifying a maple tree drill a half inch hole into the tree and insert the spile. Sap should begin to flow after only a few seconds from the spile. If it does not try drilling the hole a little deeper. If this still does not work then one or more of a few things went wrong: 1) the first hole was too deep, 2) the hole was drilled in a spot that was not ideal for the sap flow, or 3) the sap has not yet thawed. The ideal spot for drilling a hole is along the trunk, underneath all the branches. You do not want to drill a hole on a branch or above any branches. Also if the tree is large enough you can drill more than one hole, but the holes should be at least a few feet, if not more, apart. Drilling does hurt the tree, but only a little. Drilling does make the tree more susceptible to bacteria and bugs that harms the tree. However, the tree will almost always be able to heal unless it is in a particularly hostile and unhealthy environment.

On the first day of sugaring you will want to put out ten to twenty buckets. The ratio for sap to syrup is 40:1 (i.e. 40 gallons of sap make one gallon of syrup). You will want to put the bucket out in the morning and check them before you go to bed; if it has been a very good day you may want to collect the sap before going to bed, otherwise wait until the morning to collect. Unless it was a very cold night, and/or the trees were not quite ready to be tapped yet, then you should have enough sap to boil within twenty four hours. Collecting sap from the buckets is a matter of common sense. If you are very close to where you are going to boil just bring the buckets to the central pan or pot and pour the sap in. If you are not so close get either a sled, or an easily movable big bucket (such as a never-used garbage bail), and bring the larger transport to all the buckets. Then bring the larger transport to where you are going to boil.

For boiling you can do it in your own kitchen. You can use any soup or stew pot, pour the sap in and crank the stove so that it boils at a constant rate. Certain temperatures are required to turn the sap into certain products, .... Ideally you will want a large flat pan that you can heat over either a bonfire or the entire surface of your stove using a few of the burners.

In no time you should have some syrup which will taste great on everything from snow to pancakes.