It`s not something I do myself, but I do know a couple of people who do. They tap maple trees to make maple syrup.
I am all in favour of this. I so like me some maple syrup. Do not give me a pancake unless you have maple syrup handy. Nothing else is quite the same.
Now I know there is a lot more to maple syrup than I know about. To start, this could end up being a bad week for sap collection. You need warm days and cool nights. And those cool nights have to drop just slightly below freezing, then have it warm up above freezing to get that sap flowing. If the temperature stays up too high, the sap will stop. If it drops down to far, the sap will stop. It has to be just right to keep that sap flowing.
Then you have to boil the stuff for hours before it becomes syrup. On top of that, there is a whole grading system with the colour and clarity of the syrup involved. I just want to eat it.
But I will admit that maple syrup is one of those things that leave me wondering about the first person to figure it out. There’s lots of sap that will run out of a pine tree, but you don’t want it on your pancakes. So whoever that person was who thought, “I’m gonna poke a hole in that tree, collect the juice and boil it down,” I salute you.
I can remember many years ago, a family trip to a maple syrup operation. At the end of the tour, you were given syrup, a pile of snow and a stick, much like a popsicle stick. You poured the syrup on the snow and scooped it up with the stick. That was the point where the rest of the details of how you make maple syrup left my brain, never to return. No snow ever tasted so good.
I have noticed a few trees that have sprouted hoses and buckets. As I say, I don’t make my own, but I am a fan. I may even know where to find a patch of snow, if you have any fresh syrup handy.
