Nectar of the Gods- It's Maple Syrup Time

It’s chilly March- snow still covers the ground and ice still covers the lake. I’m tired of winter now and looking for signs of spring.

The very first one every year is the phone call from my neighbour asking for permission to tap my maple trees- hurray!

our tapped maples

Maples and other sap-producing trees store starch in their stems and roots before the winter; the starch is then converted to sugar and rises in the sap in the spring.

The trees can be tapped and the exuded sap concentrated by boiling to evaporate the water.

My neighbor likes my trees because of the high sugar content in the sap – over 3 percent. Two to five percent is necessary for syrup. The sap itself in natural form is a nutrtious drink- high in glucose, antioxidants and vitamins. In South Korea in particular it is traditional to consume maple sap, which they call "gorosoe", instead of processing it into syrup.

Gorosoe, anyone?

Maples are usually tapped beginning between 30 and 40 years of age. According to Wikipedia, each tree can support between one and three taps, depending on its trunk diameter. The average maple tree will produce between 35 to 50 litres (9.2 to 13 US gal) of sap per season, up to 12 litres (3.2 US gal) per day. This is roughly equal to 7 percent of a tree’s total available sap. During the day, the above- zero temperatures allows the starch stored in the roots for the winter to rise through the trunk as sugary sap, and to flow out of the tap into the sap bucket (or tap line).

Sugar Shack

When my neighbor readies for “a syrup run”, he has to be committed , because the process from start to finish takes 12-15 hours. He first empties our sap buckets into a large plastic barrel on the side of his sugar shack. He built this small modular sugar shack himself - he puts it up and dismantles it each spring. He bought the evaporator in Vermont- the world’s #1 maple syrup-producing area. Lanark County (where I reside) bills itself as the maple syrup-producing capital of Ontario, and with the abundance of maple trees and sugarshacks in the area, it’s not hard to see why.

Sap Evaporator



The harvested sap drips down into the left side of the evaporator where it is super-heated over a woodfire. The water steadily evaporates and as the sap travels mysteriously from the left to the right side of the evaporator, it starts to turn to syrup. My neighbor continously skims off any debris or “sugar foam” on the top.

When it reaches 7 degrees above the water boiling point, its at the right stage. My neighbor removes it and “finishes” it on his gas kitchen stove, where he has more control over the temperature. He then pours the syrup into sterilized mason jars, and our very own “Nectar Of The Gods” is captured in glass, just waiting for a golden (pancake or french toast) opportunity.