Ever wonder how Maple Syrup is made?

History

New England has long been recognized as the largest producer of pure all natural maple syrup and delicious maple products around the world.

Maple Syrup come from the sweet sugar sap, which is obtained from the sugar maple, one of the most beautiful and stately of American trees. Native Americans were the first to discover the fact that sap from maple trees could be processed into maple syrup and sugar. While there are no authenticated accounts of how this process was discovered, there are several interesting legends that are still talked about during sugaring time. The making of maple syrup is truly an American art, passed down from one generation to the next.

A popular legend is that a Native American chief hurled his tomahawk at a tree which happened to be a sugar maple, and the sap began to flow. The clear liquid that dripped from the wound collected in a container on the ground below. His wife, believing the liquid was water, used it to cook venison. Both the meat and the sweet liquid that remained were found to be delicious. Retracing what had happened, they discovered the sweet sap from the maple tree made the difference. The process was repeated and the rest is now sweet maple history and a rich New England tradition of making maple syrup began. (This is so cool right? Sweet sap flowing out of the tree! Slurp slurp!!!)

The maple tree is an integral part of the New England landscape, with much history associated with it. Thousands of families come to New England each year in the Fall to see the beautiful and colorful foliage the maple tree shows us. Memories are created each New England spring as families take to the woods to start the maple sugaring process. The maple tree reminds us of the past, and shares with us the future. Spring becomes a time to awaken from the cold New England winter and for joyous celebration as the hard work of maple sugaring is completed for yet another year....!!!

From late February through early April, home town folks and farmers in nearly every hill, town, or village in New England get ready for an old New England time honored tradition. They take to the woods with drills, spouts, and buckets, to gather the sweet sap from sugar maple trees, and begin boiling it down to pure, all natural maple syrup, maple candy and maple sugar. (This sound so cool... I want to try Maple Candy one day! =p)

Let get drunk by Maple Syrup.... =)

The Process of making Maple Syrup

The process of making maple syrup involves several steps. The first and most important step is having a supply of sugar maple trees, commonly known as a sugar bush. The trees have to be at least 10 inches in diameter to be tapped (small hole drilled into tree). Once the trees are tapped, a spout is inserted in the hole and the sweet sap that comes out of the tree has to be collected. The old way of doing this is to hang a bucket under the spout and the sap drips into the bucket. When the buckets fill with sap, the sap is gathered by the owner and his helpers and brought to the sugarhouse.

In the modern times, the trees still get tapped, but the maple syrup producer uses a type of spout that attaches to a tube. The sap travels in the tubes to a central holding tank which, when full, gets emptied into a transport tank on a truck. The sap is transported to the sugarhouse and is unloaded into large storage tanks. The sap is then filtered and pumped into the evaporator.

The evaporator boils the sap and as the name suggests-evaporates the excess water out of the sap. As more water evaporates the sap gets sweeter and thicker and starts to change color. When enough water is evaporated and the sap is thick enough, the liquid is now considered syrup. The syrup is checked for proper density (thickness) and color graded.

There are four different grades of maple syrup.
Grade A Light Amber- very light in color with a very delicate maple flavor.
Grade A Medium Amber- a little darker in color with a more pronounced flavor.
Grade A Dark Amber- darker still in color with a robust maple flavor.
Grade B- the darkest in color with a very strong maple flavor.
(Wah... So now i know Grade B is the best... =p)

Most people consider Grade B good for cooking because the flavor is strong enough for recipes, but some like it on waffle, pancakes and ice cream

Ya you may also like to view the making process which I think is very educational too... Enjoy the video ba!!! =)

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