Just the Facts....
Pure maple syrup is a natural food, processed from the pure sap of maple trees.
Did you know it takes about 40 gallons
of sap to make one gallon of syrup?
That's the equivalent of 1,642,233
drops! The sap in Ontario, Canada is usually
between 1 1/2 to 3 per cent sugar.
The sap must be boiled down for
hours until it is 66 to 68 brix
(roughly per cent) sugar! That's
a super concentrated solution.
Maple trees which are tapped, only
lose about 10% of their sap during
production runs. It doesn't hurt
a tree. Each tree can be tapped
for years and years and years! There
have been trees which have had 20
buckets put on them at one time...
the industry no longer recommends
it though. Usually the max is 4,
if it's a big tree. The number of
taps, depends on the circumference
of the trunk.
Originally, the native Americans
collected sap from the trees by
cutting a gash in the trunk with
a tomahawk, then inserting a piece
of bark or wood to direct the liquid
into birch bark containers. They
would hollow out fallen trees, pour
the sap into the hollow, then add
rocks which had been heated in their
fires. This process would take weeks!
Finally, they would end up with
a syrup or quite often, they would
repeat the process until they had
a crystallized sugar. The early
settlers almost always turned the
sap into sugar. It was easier to
handle and since they did not have
a ready source of cane sugar, the
maple provided them with sweetener
all year long.
