The trees being tapped are Bigleaf Maples (Acer Macrophyllum) as opposed to the Sugar Maple (Acer Saccarum) in the East. Although these trees have sap with similar sugar content, the flavour of the syrup is very different. I brought them a jar of my Dad's Golden Beach Road, Muskoka maple syrup and they quite enjoyed the different flavour.
Bigleaf maples particularly like wet and riparian areas, so there are many in the forest around the farm. They are also called Oregon Maple and have the largest leaves of any maple tree species (hence the name).
I will start with the collecting of the sap. The sap is collected in large white buckets that once had cooking oil in them. They are not hanging from the trees, but are sitting on the ground at the base of the tree with a hose attaching it to the spout on the tree.
Once the sap is collected, the sap is stored until boiling time. At boiling time, it is put into a huge pan (with a faucet on the side) and put over the fire. After much evaporation, and many pieces of wood later, the syrup is ready to be strained through a clean towel, into a coffee filter. Before talking more about the coffee filter, I will briefly discuss how to know when the syrup is ready. B.C (the man, not the province :)) showed me a device I had never heard of that measures the sugar content of the syrup. This device is called a Brix refractometer and looks more like a medical device than a sugar indicator device.
Brix Refractometer, that measures the sugar content
When the syrup is near being done, a drop is placed on the flat rectangular part. Then you look through the eye hole (round blue part on the other end) and you can see a scale of sugar content. Maple syrup legally must contain 66.7% sugar.
Sap near the end of the boiling process
So, back to the coffee filter. B.C and A.C's friend introduced this method to them, and it works quite well as the clean towel can be placed on top and the syrup can be filtered through it, into the coffee filter. From there, the syrup is easily poured through the bottom spout of the coffee filter.
Syrup being filtered into the coffee container.
Jars and lids are sterilized the same way you sterilize jars and lids for jam, and then the syrup is poured from the coffee container into the jars. The maple syrup is sold in the farm's store and is a popular item being sold on market days. AC flavours the syrup with apple, blackberry, blueberry and mint for different flavours.
The finished product, ready to be sold.
The sap:syrup ration declines near the end of the season. One site I found said that maple syrup was discovered one spring by an Iroquoian First Nations man who pulled his axe out of a maple tree where there just happened to be a birch bucket sitting under. The sap dripped into the bucket. The man's wife thought the sap was water and made a venison stew from it.
'A Part of our Heritage' minute long video about the European's discover of maple syrup from First Nations People found here: http://www.histori.ca/minutes/minute.do?id=10128
-There is quite a lot of chemistry to maple syrup (what an amazing thing this would be to bring to a science class!) Chemistry of maple syrup article here: http://www.nnyagdev.org/maplefactsheets/cmb%20202%20chemistry%20of%20maple%20syrup1.pdf
Thanks for reading, and I'll leave you with a view of the sunset from the farm.
Mount Arrowsmith and the Beaufort Range over the chicken house
Do they tap their trees all year? Is the sap the same "quality" throughout the year?
ReplyDeleteNot totally sure, but I think xylem runs throughout the year, but it's only worth tapping in the spring. I think it's the same quality and sugar content throughout the spring. It runs better with a warm spell after a few weeks of colder weather. In Ontario, warm days and cold nights make it run better. Thanks for reading, Jenn :)
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