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Vermontville Maple Syrup

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Vermontville Maple Syrup , A aoser Look, by Richard M. Klein Maple Syrup: Confection from the Forest The sap that comes from the tree is comparable taste. The sugar concen­ Fortunately, sugaring in upper New rainwater-dear and with comparable nation averages less than 3 percent England and adjacent Canada is a taste, but boiling turns it into sucrose, almost below the amount part-time job during the farm's slack the only topping fit for pancakes capable of Stimulating taste buds. But season and is rarely seen as much more averages can be misleading. Syrup than icing on a family's economic producers have known for over a cen­ cake. Even in romantic, nostalgia­ JUSt about everyone has seen nostalgic tury that the magnificent, Stately trees filled, picture-postcard-scenic Ver­ Currier and Ives prints of 19th-century that line country roads in New En­ mont, maple sugar amounts to a very maple sugaring, an operation that gland or the umbrella-shaped giants small fraction of the «anomy of the made Vermont's most renowned growing in solitary grandeur in state-dairying and those lovely product-next to Calvin Coolidge, of pastures tend to produce sweeter saps tourists and skiers are what keep the course. Modern producers in the syrup than do the average run of trees in a state semi-solvent. states of Vermont, New York, Ohio sugarbush (a stand of maple). Some of and in La Belle Province, Quebec, these trees contain sap with up to 8 Native American enterprise plug their trees into plastic tube sys­ percent sugar and this high sugar con­ The early settlers of the North Amer­ tems and vacuum pumps, feed the sap centration usually goes along with a ican colonies probably were unfamil­ directly into oil-fired stainless steel high rate of sap flow. iar with maple sugar; the coniferous evaporators and package the syrup in Maple syrup and sugar are among forests of Massachusetts and the plastic bottles. The bottles bear litho­ the very few farm products still ob­ Canadian Maritimes contained few graphs of the 19th-century sugaring tained from wild plants, with genetic maple trees. Much of our knowledge operation, complete with horse-drawn constitution-and sap sweetness-as of maple sugar dates from 1784 when sledges, wooden buckers and stacked variable as the winds that disseminate John Carver noted that the Nan­ cords of rock maple fueL their pollen. Nevertheless, even before dowessie Indians "consume the sugar Although the hand-crafted wooden the trees are big enough to be tapped, it which rhey extracted from maple buckets have all been sold at fabulous is possible to determine which ofthem rrees." Legend has it that an Indian prices to big-city collectors of Amer­ are likely to be superior producers. woman decided to cook with the water icana, the trees remain, reliable Sweet trees outperform their neigh­ dripping from an injured maple tree moneymakers, feeding their sap into bors year after year, and it is to the instead of taking the long trip to a tubing systems, or steel vessels or cut­ advantage ofthe farmer to upgrade the spring-and thus were born sweer off bleach bottles. sugarbush by removing those trees stews. However taken from the tree, maple that are less exuberant producers. Certainly as early as 1650 the Chip­ sap is dear as rainwater and has a Even with a population of superior pewa and Winnebago tribes were trees, the volume and sugar in the sap making sugar, for the traders of the will vary a good deal due to differences Northwest Fur Company were ex­ in the previous year's growing condi­ changing hatchets and kettles for the With the first signs 0/ thaw, the sap tions, the amount of water held in the Indians' coarse brown sugar with the begins to run. This Vermonter will soil over the winter and other, virtu­ unusual flavor. Before the introduc­ have to pour 28 gol/ons ofsap into ally unknown, factors that seem to be tion of metal kettles, the Indians the vot for every gallon ofsyrup he under the control of maple nymphs brought the sap to boil with hot stones produces. Photo by Hans Wendler. and sugarbush sprites. dropped into birchbark vessels, the 9 , , sap having been collected from trees ticularly those involved in the forma­ evaporation, yet the evaporator must whacked with a stone ax. The whack­ tion of wood lignins. Concentrations be heated just enough. Too cool a fire ing procedure usually killed the tree in ofall ofthese chemicals vary from year will leave the syrup languishing too a few years. to year and from one part of the sap­ long in the evaporator pans. Too hot, Europeans introduced the brace and flow season to another, usually in­ and some will scorch or boil over. The bit, the spite and the collecting bucket, creasing in concentration as spring evaporator is warched carefully and all of which increased efficiency and draws closer. All are, somehow, in­ only small batches are processed at a allowed a tree to continue to produce volved in the development, during time. without apparent injury. Since even boiling, of that very special maple Hotsyrup burns so fast it will nearly the most efficient modern vacuum flavor and odor. explode, taking the sugarhouse with it. pumping systems extract no more than A film of fat rubbed onto the top edge a small percentage of the sap, a sweet The fine art of boiling of the evaporator before boiling, or a roadside tree can deliver for a century. Like other arts, the conversion of sap draft of cold air blowing over the fire, The running of sap is still poorly into syrup or sugar requires skills that or a tiny drop of fat flung into the understood. During the previous can't be learned from books, although roiling liquid, will all prevent the sap growing season, sugars formed in the it can be described well enough. from climbing the walls ofthe pan and leaves by photosynthesis move down The sap flows from holding tanks catching fire and setting everything to the trunk and the roots where they into evaporator pans, which are fired, ablaze. The syrup maker is alert to are converted into starch and stored in still, by wood (ten hours of boiling every sound the evaporator makes. living ray cells ofthe wood. When Feb­ uses up to three cords of wood) and If the operation is going success­ ruary and March nights are below nowadays ofttimes by oil. fully, geysers of steam shoot up from freezing and the following days are High-quality syrup requires quick the evaporator pans and the warm and sunny (glorious skiing wea­ ther!), the trunk warms up just enough for the starch to be converted first into Maples bordering old fields have more space than forest maples, grow glucose sugar, then into invert more luxuriantly and have higher sugar concentration - up to 8 percent. , x sugar-a mixture of glucose and fructose-and finally into sucrose. We are almost completely ignorant of the mechanisms that cause the sugar solution-the sap--to flow, although we do know that both positive and negative pressures develop in the tree, with sap moving both up and down. The making of maple syrup is essen­ tially the process of getting rid of ex­ cess water by rapid evaporation. If maple sap consisted only of water and sucrose, boiling it down would merely result in a caramelized syrup tasting much like Karo syrup or caramel candy. Sap, however, contains small amounts of calcium, potassium, phos­ phate and sodium ions which, al­ though nutritionally insignificant, may contribute to the taste of the syrup. There are also a variety of or­ ganic compounds including sucrose, invert sugars, amino acids and small amounts of citric, malic and other acids that make the sap slightly acidic. Equally important, there are minute amounts of phenolic compounds, par- 10 •• sugarhouse is shrouded in a steamy fog. Eventually the liquid approaches the "finishing point"-an ephemeral state the experienced sap maker can discern by the look of the boiling­ liquid, the color, and the pattern of bubbling. A thermometer also hdps: The liquid is taken off when its boiling point is reached. A hydrometer, regis~ tering the liquid's density, is also used. The finished syrup is drawn off and strained before bottling. If, instead, it is boiled further, the syrup reaches a higher temperature, becomes more concentrated and becomes, finally­ maple sugar candy. Since the composition of each batch of sap differs, so must its processing. In general, the early runs of sap pro­ duce the light-colored. aromatic "Fancy" grade of syrup. As the season advances, the syrups become darker, Maple syruP. or the more highly concentrated maple sugar azndy. is a ltJte­ progressing through grades A and B to winter cash crop for Vennont farm families. Photos by Hans Wendler. the late·season C and 0 grades, which are very dark with strong, almost un­ pleasant maple tastes, and which ate bits of dill pickle to cut the cloying trees is obvious. used to flavor breakfast cereals and taste of the syrup. Kids and avaricious Current economic reports show that junk foods. In all of the grades, how­ dentists love it. the greatest amount of maple syrup is ever, the sugar concentration is the Although the sugar, or rock, maple, made in Quebec, with upstate New same. Acer saccharum, is the only species of York and Vermont arguing each year When spring finally arrives and the any importance in the maple industry, as to which state has ourproduced the leaves begin to appear, the sap be­ the black, or hard, maple, Acer nigrum, other.
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