The Essence of Maple Syrup

Starting in the end of February or beginning of March, and continuing for about 4 weeks thereafter, when the daytime temperature starts to warm but the nights are still cold, the sugar maples in Vermont begin their yearly cycle of getting ready to bud and leaf.  Sap is drawn up into the trees to supply them with the nutrients it needs, including sugar that was generated by photosynthesis during the previous season when leaves were on the trees.  While the sap of all trees contains some sugar, in this area the sugar maple has the highest percentage, as well as the physiology that promotes the flow of sap.

The process of turning that sap into maple syrup or maple sugar is known in Vermont as "sugaring."  The sugaring season is a time of renewal.  As Stuart Osha of Turkey Hill Farm says, sugaring represents the opportunity to harvest the first crop of the year.  For the first time in several months, with the benefit of increasing sunlight, Vermonters can head out into the woods without all the trappings of heavy winter clothing.  Collecting sap from buckets is hard work, and although it is still cool out, the sun is warm on your face and you know that spring is coming.  Once the sap is collected, there is plenty of opportunity to sit around in the sugar house and watch the sap boil, catch up with neighbors, and argue over insignificant issues like the merits of throwing out ice in frozen sap buckets.

Nobody knows how Native Americans in Vermont first discovered how to transform the sweetness in the sap from the sugar maple into maple sugar.  Even though the equipment has changed, the basics of sugaring remain the same.  If you take 43 gallons of sap that has a sugar content of 2% and boil away 42 gallons of water, you will end up with 1 gallon of maple syrup, a solution that is about 66% sugar.  The Native Americans used hot rocks to evaporate the water.   Settlers boiled sap in kettles to evaporate water.  Later, they started boiling sap in pans over wood or oil fired arches.  More recently, sugar makers have used mechanical processes to increase the sugar content of sap before boiling.  The collection process has also changed over the years.  From birch bark baskets, to wooden buckets, to metal buckets, to plastic bags, to plastic tubing, all manner of containers have been used to collect sap and bring it to the sugar house for boiling.

During the period of the American Revolution, many looked to maple sugar as a way of avoiding the purchase of cane sugar from the British colonies in the Caribbean.  In a way, maple sugar was probably one of the first "localvore" food products.   Thomas Jefferson encouraged Americans to plant groves of sugar maple to produce local sugar, and Benjamin Rush believed that the best way to avoid enabling the salve trade was to produce and use maple sugar.

Vermont maple syrup is graded by color.  The lightest syrup is called "Fancy."  From there, as the syrup gets progressively darker, it goes to "Grade A Medium Amber," then "Grade A Dark Amber," then "Grade B."  As the grades get darker, the flavor of the maple gets stronger, even thought the quality of the syrup or the sugar content remains the same.  The grades of syrup that come out of the pans during sugaring change as the season progresses, usually from light to dark.  There are some days when the grade reverses that trend, for no apparent reason.  However, when the syrup starts to get darker than "Grade B," sugaring stops until the following year.

The amount of effort needed to make a gallon of delicious maple syrup is enormous, but the reward obtained from community sugaring is unsurpassed.

If you want to experience Maple Sugaring first hand, join us for a Maple Sugaring Weekend.