Waking up to the smell of fresh made pancakes and waffles is a traditional Canadian breakfast delight...but the sweetest part of all is the natural, golden topping known as Maple Syrup that you pour over top! For most folks that means cranking the top off a bottle of Aunt Jemima but if you have a Maple Tree on your property you could actually make your own Maple Syrup from scratch.
In Ontario there are seven different species of both hard and soft Maple tree's. The hard maples, such as Sugar Maple and Black Maple measuring at least 10 " in diameter, are the preferred trees of choice for tapping. They are both plentiful and yeild the most syrup. If those species are unavailable then you can tap both Red and Silver Maples as well. Vist Wiki for a historic rendition of how the Aboriginal peoples of eastern Canada discovered this delicacy.
Sugar Maple's are generally found on moderate to well drained soil and tend to have the brightest of colors in the fall. The leaves have five distinct lobes with a very smooth underside and are abundant in Ontario's cottage country. Take a peak out your window, do you have a Maple tree in your yard?
When to tap your Maple Trees...
The natural flow of sap within the tree is climate related and can occur as early as February given the right conditions. In the spring the cold nights and warmer days creates pressure within the tree and sap begins to move inside the trunk and branches. When the tree is tapped with a sharp object the hole acts like a wound and sap begins to seep. Under the right conditions one Maple tree can yield up to 80 gallons or as little as 5 gallons (5 gallons is equal to 20 litres). It takes approximately 10 gallons of sap to produce 4 cups of Maple Syrup. Hence the cost of liguid gold!
How to tap your Maple Trees...
The commercial Sugar Bush is an intricate maze of tubes meandering through the forest floor leading back to a huge main vat of sap. At home however, the process needn't be nearly so complicated. In fact when you think back to the days of old when the First Nations peoples first founded Maple sugar their tools of the trade were purely manmade.
Nowadays, I'd suggest using a drill and drill bit measuring 7/16" in diameter bore in at about 3 1/2 - 4 1/2" feet high. Drill your hole on the sunniest side of the tree about 2"- 3" deep on a slight upward angle which will encourage the flow of sap downwards. Place the tapping spout (Spile) against the tree and tap it securely into the hole with a hammer.Use any container to collect your sap such as rigged up milk jugs to plastic pails with metal handles. Simply hang the buckets from the spout itself and remember to cover the pail to protect it from rain and debry. The process of collecting sap takes approximately 4 - 6 weeks to gather a substantial amount due to it dripping out of the tree one drop at a time. Store the sap daily in a cold, dry location until you have enough to get started boiling it down overtop of the heat. Maple Tapping - 4 Spiles and Hooks with Step-by-Step Instructions.
Once you've collected enough sap I absolutely recommend completing the cooking process outdoors in a 'sugar shack' or over an open fire, definetly not in the house. Depending upon how much sap you have this process can take from hours to days to complete so be sure to allow yourself enough time. Use a shallow pot or vessel remembering not to overfill. Sugar does bubble and it also burns easily so keep watch. If you have friends and family involved that's all the better. You know they'll be at the dinner table when it's pancake time so put 'em to work in any of the above stages, at least on this last watch even if they are there for nothing more than company.
Strain the clear sap through cheeseclothe before applying it to the heat. As the sap boils down and evaporates keep adding more sap to the pot. Skim the surface occassionally and keep the level a safe distance from the top of your shallow pot so it doesn't spill while boiling. The process is complete when the water has evaporated from the sap leaving a rich, golden colored syrup behind. At this point the temperature ought to be 7.1 degrees above the boiling point of water (use a candy thermometer as temperature does vary based on elevation). Strain the syrup a second time to filter out any crystalized sugar. Pour into sterilized bottles before it cools for sterilization purposes. Once opened be sure to refrigerate.
Once you've concentrated the sap into syrup you can make some delicious Maple Sugar treats such as fudge, cookies, cakes or if you'd rather just eat em' then there's always premade Maple Shortbread Cookies
and Hard Maple Candies in the shape of a Maple Leaf to tempt your palette.
'Operation Maple Syrup'...
As a family, we set out to tap two of the large Maples on our property. Without reading up on anything beforehand, we really had no idea how long the process would take. After weeks of collecting sap in plastic pails and transferring over to larger ones for storage, we finally had enough to boil it down. We would have had more however, my hubby drank a few litres of collected raw sap saying it gave him energy. The raw filtered sap looks like water so I too tried it...well it's not really like water and I have no problem waiting for the gold!
A sunny spring weekend came so we all headed outside, and built a fire along with a rack to steady our cooking vessel. Rather than ruining a household pot we used a shallow stainless steel drawer that was being used as a toolbox. We began early on a Saturday morning and weren't finished until Sunday evening. Overnight we just covered and let sit, ideally you'd cook right thru but in most uncommercial scenarios, it ain't happening!
Our mission I consider as a success and resulted in about 3 cups of pure Maple Syrup. Sunday evening we devoured stacks of pancakes drizzled repeatedly with our own homemade syrup! Mmmm, it really was delicious.
Wiki has more information on Maple Syrup and the First Nations. The Ontario Government has information regarding Maple Syrup and it's commercial benefits to Ontario. Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association, OMSPA for even more details.
Sugar Free Maple Syrup - 18/12Oz Maple Syrup, Sugar Fre: GR
Check out one of the many Maple Syrup Festivals within Cottage Country in 2010
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