Post by Ella.
Maple trivia:
- The sap from a sugar maple tree looks and pours like water.
- There is very little maple sugar in the sap. One tree might, in the end, produce one quart of syrup.
- 40-50 gallons of sap boils down to one gallon of syrup.
- You are not going to get a drop of sap unless you have the proper temperature differential – a night below freezing followed by a day of 40° or above. It’s all chemistry, botany and a little physics.
- Sapping doesn’t harm a tree. Only a small percentage of sap is taken. The tap hole heals over in a couple of years. The same trees can be used every year.
In Vermont, sugaring season begins sometime in February to mid-March. When temps dip below freezing (ideally 20°-30°), sap is pushed up from the roots, coursing through the veins of the tree. As the temperature rises during the day, the sap flows back down and conveniently some flows into the metal tap. If the daytime temperature gets too warm, the maple tree starts to bud and needs its sap to open the buds. That’s the end of sugaring season.
Despite the meteorologists best efforts, it’s still some guess work to predict the exact day the sap begin its fatal rise from roots to metal bucket. 3000 trees (at this particular farm) are tapped manually a few weeks in advance of the expected “rise and fall” of the sap. In the older olden days, a metal bucket was hung on each tap, each bucket emptied manually. Nowadays, plastic tubing is attached to each tree. The tubing is connected to other tubing and then hooked into a plastic pipe (maybe 2-3 inches in diameter creating a maze of tubes and pipes in the stand of maples.
We learned all this and more during our stop at the Sugarbush Farm, just outside of Woodstock, Vermont. The farm is run by a family. A working farm with ancient buildings. Nothing glitzy. An old sugaring shack had been converted to an exhibit area. The displays were printed and laminated sheets of paper with explanations, news clippings, and photos tacked haphazardly to the walls. There was a huge world map where visitors could pin their country of origin. A very small cluster from New Mexico.
One 15 minute video described the toil that is life on the farm. Beginning with a Paul Harvey speech (given in 1978 to the FFA – Future Farmers of America) “So God Made a Farmer”. And ends with “God provides”. Everything in between is all up to the physical and psychological endurance of human beings. There is a tiny chapel on the farm.
Cheese is made at this farm as well so we did our duty and visited the cheese workroom to sample two different grades of map,e syrup and four different varieties of cheddar cheese. Smoked, jalapeño, aged, and super aged. And then we bought a bunch. To be shipped home. An impulsive moment.
That was really interesting, Ella. I had no idea how getting maple syrup worked. I certainly would not have expected the sap to look like water. It is also interesting that they invite people onto their farm. I wonder what percentage of their income comes from these guests. I am assuming you had to pay something to do the tour and try the samples??
No admission fee and the samples were free. There wasn’t really a tour. You just wandered around. I think they depend on sales. The gift shop was doing a booming business and they sell online also.
Our cupboard has Shady Maple Farms 100% pure organic maple syrup, product of Canada. In the US, despite the hype and nostalgia, I think the biggest producer of maple syrup is Wisconsin. They produce more cheese too.
Being in Vermont, I am loving sampling all the local cheese, maple syrup, creemees, and lots of great Vermont artists as well.
Being a Vermonter, I only buy Vermont maple syrup. I order it from Mount Mansfield Maple Products. Maple sugar too. Imagine how much sap it takes to produce a pound of maple sugar! Last Christmas a package thief stole my delivery in broad daylight. Fortunately it was replaced at no charge. I hope the thief enjoyed it.
I added some maple sugar to my coffee. Gave it a nice bit of flavor.
And damn those package thieves!