Fenwick graduation 2012
Ponitz graduation 2012
Cars and Parts Swap Meet
Home > Blogs > Farm Life and Local Harvest > Archives > 2012 > January > 25 > Entry
What’s Liquid, Amber in Color, and Sweet…Maple Syrup!
The Native Americans have given us many gifts such as corn, beans, and squash. Another gift is that of maple syrup. The Eastern Woodland tribes are usually given credit for the discovery that sap from maple trees produces the sweet syrup. Maple syrup was an important commodity for the North American Indians. Maple syrup and maple sugar were bartering items for those tribes living around the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River regions.
Trees suitable for tapping include all of the native maples: silver, black, red, box elder, and of course sugar maple. Sugar maple sap contains the highest concentration of sugar at 2% or higher. Box elder produces a weak sap that can actually be drunk as it comes from the tree tasting much like slightly sweetened spring water. Other tree species that could be tapped are walnut, hickories, sycamore, and sweet birch.
In our area of Ohio, tapping usually takes place beginning the second or third week of February until late March or early April just before the trees bud. Sap flow from a tapped tree does not occur every day through the tapping season because of fluctuations of the night time and day time temperatures.
Maple Trivia
Want to know about maple syrup production? Link here Ohio State University Fact Sheet or link here How to Tap Maple Trees and Make Maple Syrup, the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Visit Possum Creek MetroPark Farm on Saturday, February 25 from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm to observe the sap boiling process and get your questions answered.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |
Tweet
Comments