It's maple syrup season, learn the history and how it is made today.

1. March 12th, 2013 Published by: daabraham
It's Maple Syrup Season
tomahawks and used curved pieces of bark to direct the sap
It's maple syrup season into vessels. The Indians reduced the sap by either plunging
hot stones in the sap or by freezing it at night and removing
It’s Maple Syrup Season the accumulated ice the next day, a process repeated over and
Posted on March 1, 2013 over until the sap darkened and became thick and sweet. They
used the syrup for both food and medicinal purposes.
It’s Maple Syrup Season The process has come a long ways from that used by the Native
It’s maple syrup season! How can I tell? The sun is higher Americans. Indeed it has come a long ways from when we
in the sky, brown patches are beginning to emerge from the started in 1961. We drilled the trees with a hand drill and
winter snow cover, the crows are calling just a little louder, the bit; the drilling is now done with a power drill. Originally
eaves are dripping and mud season is beginning. It is the time our sap dripped into buckets hung on the trees; as the science
of year when my winter blues subside and I think about new progressed the sap was drained into plastic tubing that went,
beginnings – the bears will soon be bringing their new cubs out either to large holding tanks, or directly to the sugar house
of hibernation, and one fine day I will see the blue and yellow for processing. Our heat source was unique in that we had a
faces of the tiny Crocus buds peeping out at me. steam boiler converted from oil field use. It was wood fired
enhanced with used motor oil, requiring far less wood than the
conventional furnaces. Few syrup makers boil with wood now,
having replaced their old wood furnaces with ones that are
exclusively oil fired. Modern day producers use sophisticated
units with a reverse osmosis process that has drastically cut
down on the boiling time, resulting in higher quality syrup.
www.realmaplesyrup.com/how.html
The Crocus Means Spring
Why do I get excited about syrup season? The reason is that it
has been an important part of my life for over fifty years. My
first husband and I bought our first home in 1961. It was much Modern Boiler
more than a home; it was a piece of property with 80 acres,
When my daughter married into a maple syrup producing
most of which was a sugar bush. A sugar bush is a mature
family my husband was delighted. He had given up maple
stand of sugar maple trees, with a rustic sugar house that, each
production several years earlier and this gave him an
spring, became a place where clear white sap was turned into
opportunity to sit in the sugar house and kibitz with the
gallons of golden liquid fit for a king. We knew nothing about
workers and reminisce about the “good old days.” My son-
making maple syrup when we bought the place, but with the
in-law was fully tapped a week ago and has been waiting
help of an experienced neighbor, we became expert producers
anxiously for that first drip that meant “game on.” That day
of the much sought after amber delicacy.
was yesterday, February 27 and the first sap will be “boiled in”
by March 1. The sap will not run until the daytime temperature
reaches at least 40* – followed by freezing nights and warm
days. It will take 35-40 gal. of sap to make one gallon of maple
syrup, depending on the sugar content of the sap, which can
vary from day to day. The syrup season usually lasts three to
four weeks.
At Cattagany Farm Maple Syrup, our western New York
product, we produced about 300 gallons of syrup per season.
Some of that syrup I turned into maple sugar, maple cream
Sugar House and maple candy. It was a very labor intensive process in the
1960′s, done in the family kitchen – one I did without benefit
The North American Indians introduced the European settlers
of the machines that many producers now use. Two of my
to the sweet syrup. They cut slashes in the trees with their
children were born smack in the middle of maple syrup season,
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2. March 12th, 2013 Published by: daabraham
but I carried on, making as much as 150 pounds of the goodies
each season. I look back at those times and wonder how I did
it!
Liquid Gold
I can still smell the fragrance of the maple syrup cooking
down in my kitchen. By the end of the day, everything in
the kitchen was slightly sticky, including me and the babies.
There were boxes of the molded sugar candy stacked on
the kitchen table, and jars of maple cream overrunning the
refrigerator. But it was a time of joy, ripe with the feeling of
accomplishment. It didn’t hurt the family budget either! Back
then a gallon of high quality syrup sold for $35-40 per gallon.
I saw syrup advertised on-line the other day for $70.00. It
is truly the golden liquid. But what would a big plate of
blueberry pancakes be without the real thing? The Vermont
Maple Producers’s Assoc. will be holding their annual open
house at most sugar houses in the state on Mar. 23-24. Stop
by and indulge in some “sugar-on-snow.” * For some yummie
maple syrup recipes try this web site: www.vermontmaple.org.
I’m so glad it’s
*Sugar-on-snow is syrup boiled down until it is firm enough to
drizzle over hard packed snow forming taffy-like morsels to eat
with a fork or your fingers. Sweeeet! It is sometimes served
with a dill pickle to cleanse your palate so you can try some
more. Slack’s Sugar House on Goose Green Rd. in Bradford,
VT is looking forward to seeing you at their open house.
Gramma Marlis
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