It is not known for sure who first dis- bored into the tree trunk, usually 7/16" in large amounts of water to be driven off as covered the technique of collecting sap diameter and no deeper than 21/2 inches, steam, leaving syrup. Most evaporators and cooking it into maple syrup, but when and slanted up at an angle of 5 to 10 consist of a long firebox (known as the the first Europeans arrived in North degrees. A "tap" of metal or plastic is arch) for a wood fire or an oil burner America and had contact with the Native inserted which functions as a faucet. A underneath and have shallow, partitioned American tribes of the eastern woodlands, new taphole must be bored each season, pans above the heat. The typical sugar- they report stories about the consumption and old tapholes usually heal over in a making evaporator is about five or six feet of maple sap in Indian lore. Here is a year or two. Recommended tapping wide and 16 feet long. After a roaring fire quote from a British Royal Society paper guidelines are observed to avoid shorten- has been started, the cold sap enters the written in 1685: "The Savages of Canada, ing the life of the tree. Generally a tree unit at one corner in the rear and moves in the time that the sap rises, in the Maple, will tolerate two or sometimes even three slowly in a zig-zag flow in the evaporator, make an incision in the Tree, by which it taps. The sap as it comes from the trees is around the partitions, steadily increasing runs out; and after they have evaporated a sparkling liquid with only a vague hint in thickness and sugar density. Additional eight pounds of the liquor, there remains of sweetness. At this point the sap has a cold sap is fed into the unit in a steady one pound as sweet ...."A publication in sugar content of 2%-2.75%. drizzle, float valves maintain the fluid lev- 1912 by the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers' There are two ways of collecting the els and the finished syrup, scalding hot Association credits both Native Americans sap. One is simply to hang a bucket from (around 217° F), is filtered and drawn off and French Canadians with "passing on each tap and travel around at least once a near the front of the evaporator. When the secrets of sugarmaking." Maple syrup day, emptying each bucket by hand into a you realize that such an evaporator can and maple sugar became the household big tank on a sled, either drawn by horses process six or seven 40-Gallon barrels of sweetener in the Canadian and American (the way it was always done in the past) sap in an hour, you can understand how colonies throughout the nineteenth centu- or by a tractor. A 16-quart bucket of sap, if much steam is created which can be seen ry, instead of refined white cane sugar, full, weighs over 30 pounds, and a single for miles around, billowing up from the raw sugar, or molasses. Maple trees were gatherer might be expected to retrieve and sugarhouse. readily available and a supply of syrup dump 750 to 1,500 buckets in a day. These It is this boiling process that produces and sugar cakes could be made for the days the buckets and covers (to keep rain, the great maple flavor. Just the right year ahead. snow, and debris out of the sap bucket) amount of cooking time is crucial! Too are made of metal, but earlier in this cen- much cooking will cause the sugars to The Tree tury, the buckets and covers were made of start to caramelize, the syrup will darken wood. Now these old wooden sap buckets and a lower-grade syrup is produced; or The magnificent rock maple, hard command a fine price at antique auctions! even worse, it can boil over and scorch, maple, or sugar maple tree (acer saccha- In the 1960s, another method of collect- ruining the entire batch! The sugarmaker rum) are the sources of the sap which is ing sap became popular. This method is tests for doneness by holding up a scoop converted to Maple Syrup. Any sugar particularly effective when the sugarbush of syrup and letting it drip, watching for maple with a trunk diameter of 12 inches is on a hillside. Plastic tubing is attached "aproning", when the syrup comes off the or more can be "tapped" for making syrup. to each tap which then forms a network of scoop in a slow curtain or sheet. A ther- It takes thirty years for a maple tree to tubing from all the taps, allowing the sap mometer and hydrometer are also grow to that size. to flow into a large storage tank at a loca- employed to ensure perfect density. Springtime is the season for "sugaring", tion close to the sugarhouse (the shed These days, a few large operations use when nights are cold (below freezing) and where the sap is boiled down into syrup). superfast evaporators and/ or reverse- days are warm. The sap gathering stops Sometimes pumps are used to facilitate osmosis units which substantially speed abruptly when the weather turns balmy, the flow of sap through this pipeline sys- up the boiling time. However, the majority for the tree's nutrients are being mobilized tem. It takes 32 to 40 gallons of sap to of sugarmakers are without these latest to feed the leaf buds, and these metabo- make one gallon of syrup! technological enhancements. lites cause objectionable off-flavors in When the hot sap is ready and has syrup. So the sugaring season may be very Boiling the Sap cooled to 180°-200° F, it is poured into con- short, just a few days, or may last for a tainers such as glass, metal cans, or plas- couple of weeks or more, depending on The boiling of the sap takes place in a tic. While some traditionalists prefer their the weather. "sugarhouse". This is a simple building syrup in metal cans, the new high-density that shelters boiling operations that is usu- plastic jugs are gaining favor, and some Tapping the Tree ally uninsulated, with a steam vent in the prefer to display the natural beauty of roof, a concrete floor and space for the syrup in sparkling clear glass. As the maple tree begins its new evaporator, fuel (either wood or oil) to growth each spring, the sap which stays heat the evaporator and sap storage. The frozen during winter, begins to thaw. Once sugarhouse is often located at the base of a the sap starts to flow within the trunk of hillside and accessible by a road. (See related story on Page 22) the tree, usually in February or March, the Sap is highly perishable and must be owner of the "sugarbush" (grove of sugar boiled at once to make fine syrup. The sap maple trees) can capture the sap. A hole is is heated in an "evaporator", which causes