March Is Maple Sugaring Time
If you live in an area where you find maple trees, you might just see sap buckets on those trees. If you drive by a sugarhouse and see steam, chances are they’re boiling the sap to produce maple syrup. Let me tell you, there is no comparison between real maple syrup and the corn syrup confection sold in grocery stores.
Maple trees are tapped when temperatures alternate between freezing and thawing. Nighttime temperatures must drop below freezing, and daytime temperatures must reach 40 to 50 degrees. Before winter, the maple trees store starch in their trunks and roots, which gets covered into sugar. As spring nears, the sap thaws and the sugar in the sap rises up the tree.
You need cold nights to make “sugarers” happy, so unseasonably warm winters (like we’ve had this year) aren’t good for the harvest. What happens when it’s not the right temperatures? Well, some seasons are good, some aren’t. Agriculture’s not for wimps! We weather the ups and downs!
You might wonder if all trees produce sap … well, yes, but it’s the sugar maple that has the highest content of sugar in the sap. There are many ways to tap trees to allow the sap to run out freely.
- Drill 2 to 3 inches into the south side of the tree at a convenient height, making the hole 3/8 to 5/8 inch in diameter (larger holes for larger trees) and the hole should slant upward slightly.
- Then drive a metal sap spigot into the hole, stopping short of the full distance of the hole.
- Hang a bucket or plastic bag on the spigot to collect the sap. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup.
- The sap is clear and almost tasteless and very low in sugar content. Boil the sap to evaporate the water, producing a liquid with the characteristic flavor and color of maple syrup and a sugar content of 60 percent.
Native Americans used maple syrup both as a food and as a medicine. In fact, it was the Native Americans that taught the age-old process of sugaring to the colonists.
Maple syrup contains fewer calories and a higher concentration of minerals than honey. It’s an excellent source of manganese and a good source of zinc, which sweetens your antioxidant defenses, your heat and your immune system.
Now if you’ve never tasted “real” maple syrup, there’s no way to describe its unique flavor and pure goodness. It’s a natural wonder of the world! Pure maple syrup has an earthy, naturally sweet taste.
Information gathered from the Old Farmer’s Almanac