There are over 128 maple species but only 4 or 5 have a high sugar content which is needed for maple syrup production.
Sugar, Black, Red, and Silver Maples are the preferred trees to use.
For someone who loves to spend time outdoors, especially in the wooded areas, I have never seen tree tapping in person. Never. And I am a maple syrup lover. Real maple syrup, that is, not the Aunt Jemima kind that is not even maple syrup — it's corn syrup with fake maple flavoring.
Last weekend I noticed some trees that were tapped and dripping sap into buckets attached to the stem. The entire bucket and spile (the fawcett) were covered with a lid to keep stuff from contaminating the sap. I lifted the lid and saw that the sap was a clear liquid. For some reason, I thought it would be at least a yellowish color.
I learned that the color happens during the boiling process where the liquid is boiled down. As it reduces, the color change happens and the liquid turns from the clear to a beautiful amber.
If you've never tried real maple syrup put it on your bucket list. It's more expensive than syrup but you can purchase small bottles of it as a treat.
How dear the woods are!
You beautiful trees!
I love every one of you as a friend.
Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea, 1909
My Granddad had a sugar bush. As kids, we loved to "help out". Not sure how much help we were, but eating maple sugar candy and taffy was to die for!
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Taffy is something I've never had....well not the maple syrup kind.....always wanted to - I'll have to wait until the weather is just right to do that however.
Nice memory of your Granddad. That's what John's called too....Grandad, and I'm Grandmom.
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so fascinating that the clear sap could turn into the liquid amber that's sweet as honey - beautiful photos and instructive as well :)
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I like it waaaay more than honey - any day. You already know that though.
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I would rather eat my pancakes plain than but corn syrup on them. I love my maple syrup as dark as it comes. So much flavor:) Wonderful post, country girl:)
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So true. Nothing but the best for my pancakes too! Thanks @prydefoltz.
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A girl after my own heart:)
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Lovely stuff!
Tried it when I visited your country once,
that and icewine, yummie 🤗
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O Canada.....we do make some nice things, altho I have to say, I've never tried icewine.
Where are you from?
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The Netherlands ✌
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Clear colour? Thought it'll gonna be like yellow brown! Pancakes!!
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I know...I thot so too!!! But it's like when we reduce a liquid in cooking....it gets richer and darker.
I LOVE Pancakes....eeee...too much.
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Fuller and darker? Too early to crave for pancakes lols...maybe tom. Hey, how's you??
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I'm doing well, thanks for asking :) No more heart related questions. How bout you? I hear you are going to the Philippines soon. Enjoy your visit!
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Oh ask away! Been busy with our new project. Yeah, will be going home soonest. Be well!
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Very nice documentary photos! Those look like pretty fancy taps!
There is a maple syrup producer around here, but I'm not certain as to where. Driving around where I went to college as an undergraduate in Wisconsin, there were several maple syrup producers with excellent syrup. It would be fun to produce your own, but I bet it's a lot of work between collecting sap, boiling it down, and bottling it.
Of course, the best part isn't the syrup... It's the maple sugar candies that settle out when the syrup is super-saturated and sugar crystals form in the bottle. :-)
I've heard that some birch trees also produce a sweet sap, but it is more difficult to collect and probably not as sweet as maple.
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I did purchase two maple syrup suckers....they were sooooo good. That's my last treat for a while. I have to cut sugar out of my diet for a while. I have never had the maple syrup chewy stuff they put on snow though. That will have to be planned for another year when the snow is still around.
Producing your own would be tough unless you were a homesteader I think. I have some sugar maple trees but wouldn't collect and boil the sap down. I'd rather buy it! So lazy.
Birch tree sap. I wonder what that would taste like?
Thanks @fotosdenada!
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I've actually seen the birch syrup for sale somewhere, but I don't remember where. I'll have to keep an eye out for it and actually try it. The maple sugar candies are amazing. It's a lot like eating compressed brown sugar, except that it tastes like pure maple goodness. When I lived in Spain, I ordered a box of small maple sugar candies for my Spanish friends to try. Maple isn't well known over there.
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Did you friends like the maple candles vs the birch syrup taste?
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I've never gotten to try the birch syrup. My friends did like the maple sugar candies, although the tast was very foreign to them. It was fun to hear them try to describe it.
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used to have them on my pancakes :)
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All this talk about pancakes, now I'm craving them!! hehe
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I didn't know that the sap was clear until boiled. Facinating! I have a friend who has sugar maples on her land and her husband taps them each winter and makes maple syrup. It was amazing! So light, didn't last long in our house, yum!
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The things we learn on here....my whole life I never knew until I looked into that pail.
Maple syrup doesn't last long around here either. Especially in the summer with ice cream around. Maple, walnut and vanilla yogurt. Yum.
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I just love maple syrup. I hope we make it to Canada one day and see this process too. Didn't know it was a clear substance either! Learned something new today!
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It makes sense that it's clear though doesn't it? I love maple syrup as well.....maybe a little too much. I grew up eating the fake stuff....only to find out it was corn syrup with color and other chemicals. When I had my first taste of real syrup I wasn't sure about the liquidity....but now I love it.
Thanks for stopping by @amy-goodrich.
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If I would live in Canada I would probably eat too much of it too. It's def my favorite sweetener. We always get it from a Canadian friend who brings it for us. The first time I saw it coming in a can I was a little surprised but it's so good! Can't remember the brand now as I always pour it into a glass jar straight away!
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I took up making Maple syrup last year.. this year is just starting! I have considered making a steem blog about my journey this year, but not sure what kind of interest it would grab.
Nothing more fun than listening to that sap drip into the buckets, nothing better than the smell of sap boiling over a fire, and nothing tastes better than you very own Maple syrup made from your own trees!
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Ah, to live in Maple Syrup Land. I spend a fortune buying the good stuff here. Once you've had it you just can't go back.
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Maple Syrup Land. I like that. You can't go back that's for sure. I'd rather eat dry pancakes than put fake syrup on them.
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A cool little article. Here in the UK we do have birch trees you can tap and the sap is lovely but not quiet up to the sweetness of the maple tree.
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I heard from @fotosdenada about the birch tree sap too.
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oh i guess that does make sense now that i think about it! when you make caramel... you boil sugar water. and that's clear! hehehehe yeah! :)
and i absolutely love maple syrup! My hubby (executive chef) buys some from Two Pigs Farm.... it's very expensive - but worth every penny! they always have limited supply every year. twopigsfarm.com check them out if you're interested heheheh love!!!
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Maple syrup....is so worth it. You don't need as much and it is just heavenly as a sweetner. And it's good for you...so "they" say. So I need to have it more!!
Elf used it on his pasta so it must be okay.
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hahahahahaha that is true!!!! and i'm not sure how much better it is nutritionally than sugar - but IIIIIIIIIIII DOOOOOOOOOOON'T CAAAAAAAARE. its so yum!!!! hahahah
and i came back today and you were gone!!! LOL i think you misunderstood what i meant - but i left a DM for you :)
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Fascinating facts about Maple Syrup @countrygirl I've heard about true maple syrup connoisseurs like yourself. I used to have Canadian employers who celebrated Canadia Day every year by cooking pancakes and bacon with REAL maple syrup for the staff. I have to admit, it was delicious even though I had not eaten sweet stuff with bacon before.
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mmmm....bacon and pancakes and maple syrup....!! Real maple syrup is very liquid and thin compared to the pancake syrup found on restaurant tables for example. And it's amber and clear and oh so beautiful. Liquid gold :) Can you tell I'm drooling? lol
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Sorry to stimulate your maple syrup loving taste buds @countrygirl, especially if this was around mealtime with no REAL maple syrup in sight. Although by the sound of things you probably always have some in your pantry. (lol)
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I do!!! How did you know?? And, I didn't have any of those pancakes everyone was talking about.
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Haha......just a sneaky suspicion ......or perhaps women’s intuition ?!? Maybe you can cook up some 🥞 pancakes in the weekend.😋
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I have never seen maple tree tapping let alone maple tree. I like maple syrup in my pancakes but prefer not too sweet. I don't know if the brand we have here is even made of real maple. It's interesting that the real maple syrup is colorless. That is surprising indeed.
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I'm glad I posted this then because not as many people as I thought have seen this process. I wonder how many have had cravings for pancakes and syrup since? hehe
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That would be cool to see in person...I want a maple streusel muffin now!
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Are you thinking Timmies??? I've had one of those before....so rich and good :)
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Oh yeah real maple syrup!! One of the joys of life!!! Not cheap but worth the splurge!
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yup....it's THE best. :)
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This is another trade I'd love to try my hand at...
I've been told that you can tap birch trees and make sugar of their sap also. I think it would be a blast to sample different "flavors" of syrup.
😄😇😄
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Mmmmm...I love maple syrup, on pancakes or in pie mmmm...great post dear!
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mmmmm....pancakes!!
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