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What kind of maple trees are out there?
When to start maple syruping?
Making yummy maple syrup
Syrup Production at the Audubon Center, 2004
Recipe with maple syrup
A quick history of maple syrup

Of the over 100 species of Maple Trees that exist in North America, Minnesota is home to four of these species. They are:

• Sugar Maple
• Silver Maple
• Red Maple
• Ash-leaf Maple

Of these four species, the Sugar Maple is the one with the highest percentage of sugar in its sap. More than 75% of all maple syrup comes from the Sugar Maple.

When to start maple syruping?

Spring time is maple syruping time! However, sap flow does not occur every day. Sap flows the best on a warm sunny day that immediately follows a freezing cold night. Sap collecting seasons can range from about 3 days to about 3 weeks. It all depends on Mother Nature.

Making yummy maple syrup!!

What tools will you need?

1. A drill with a 7/16" bit
2. A metal spout (spile) for each taphole
3. A collection container (bucket or plastic bag) or tubing for each taphole
4. Large cans for sap storage
5. Large pan for boiling down sap

Buckets and bags: Most sap collection at the Audubon Center is done in buckets and bags. The buckets and bags are hung from the trees on the spiles. The buckets are washed and reused each year. However, the plastic bags are thrown away and replaced after the maple syruping season is over.

Spiles: You can use a type of metal or plastic spile on which buckets are hung.

Rubber tubing: Another system to collect the sap is by using rubber tubing that carries the sap into a large holding tank. This system is used a little at the Audubon Center and is most useful for those who produce large quantities of syrup for commercial sale.

• A tree must be 10 inches in diameter to install one tap. One more tap may be installed for each additional 5 inches.
• Place new holes 6" above or below and 3" to one side of any old tap holes. (Old tap holes heal in 2-3 years)
• Drill holes 2-3 inches deep with a slight upwards angle. (This helps the sap run out more easily.)
• Look for trees with a full, healthy crown.

Collecting sap

On an average, a single tap hole will produce 20-25 gallons of sap in a season. Once the sap is collected from the buckets and moved to the cooking facility ( we use a tractor at the Audubon Center to get the sap to our "Sugar Shack"), it is transfered into a bigger container to be cooked by our maple syruping expert, Tyrone Johnson. Sap is perishable and must be processed within 4-5 days of collection.

Buckets of sap are brought to the "Sugar Shack" by tractor.

The cooking process involves keeping the sap at a constant boil, which cooks off the excess water, leaving nothing but sweet maple sugar behind. Historically, wood fires were always used for the boiling of sap. Many syrup makers (including the Audubon Center) still use wood fires for their cooking, however some producers use modern fuel oil burners instead of wood.

Ty, our local syrup guru, cooking up something sweet!

This spring we collected enough sap from our "sugar bush" that we expect to make about 25 gallons of syrup! You can purchase Audubon Center syrup at our Nature Store or use as a fund-raiser for your school's visit to the Audubon Center.

Our production of maple syrup varies every year depending on the weather. This year was a great year for maple syruping! Even so, quantities are limited, so be sure to stop by and pick up your supply of maple syrup before it's gone!

MAPLE HEAVEN in a velvey cheesecake. It comes from Carolyn Tandy, chef owner of Emma's Restaurant in Jericho, Vermont.

To make crust: In a small bowl, stir together butter, graham cracker crumbs and brown sugar and press into bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan.

To make cheesecake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until light and fluffy and beat in sugar and eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in vanilla. In a small bowl, stir together flour and baking soda. Add to cream-cheese mixture, mixing well.Mix in cream and maple syrup. Spoon into spring pan.

Bake until firm, about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. When cheesecake is done, turn off the oven and leave cake in oven for 1 hour, then remove from oven and cool on a rack for 30 minutes. Refrigerate. Remove the sides of the springform pan after the cake has cooled.

To make topping: Beat heavy cream until soft peaks form and beat in maple syrup. Frost the top of the chilled cake with cream and sprinkle with walnuts.

This recipe is included in "Sweet Maple. Life, Lore and Recipes from the Sugarbush" by James Lawrence and Rux Martin.

Co-published by

Chapters Publishing Ltd.
2031 Shelburne Road
Shelburne, Vermont 05482

Vermont Life Magazine
6 Baldwin Street
Montpelier,Vermont 05602

A quick history of maple syruping

Native Americans discovered how to collect sap or tree water from maple trees. In fact maple sugar comprised 12% of the diet of native Americans. The Indian name for maple sugar is--Sinzibuckwud (drawn from the wood). The Indians cooked down the sap by heating hot rock in an open fire. They picked the rocks up with sticks, and placed the rocks in a wooden bowl. The rocks were hot enough to make steam to cook down the sap.

Information on the benefits and practice of maple-sugar making was included in tracks for immigrants to Canada and the United States. It was pointed out as one of the attractions of the New World that, whether settling in the South or in the North, one could "grow one's own sugar in one's own back yard." And so, like the Indians, from whom they learned the art, the first settlers gashed the trees, collected and boiled the sap, and made their own sugar in their own back yards. The more resourceful among the new settlers immediately started to improve some of the utensils with which trees were tapped and in which sap was gathered and boiled. The first innovation introduced into the Indian method of sugaring was to substitute iron or copper kettles for vessels of wood, bark, or clay which could not stand high heat."

Pioneers used spouts or spiles carved out of hard wood. For containers to catch sap, ash or basswood trees were felled in the late fall or winter, the trunks being sawed up in desired lengths, the sections split and the halves hollowed out by ax or adz into rude shallow troughs. Bass or ash were selected because they split and worked most easily. The hollowed sections were then brought to the maples and stood on end with the cut side against the tree. At sugaring time these troughs were ready on the spot and only had to be put into position under the taphole.

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