Deborah Pease gave a very interesting (and tasty!) talk about producing maple syrup.
June 24th Meeting
After filling in for President Candy, Deborah Pease gave a very interesting (and tasty!) talk about producing maple syrup. Her family in York discovered a stand of 150 sugar maple trees on their property.
It takes a minimum of 40 years before a sugar maple is able to be tapped. (A minimum of 12” diameter for 1 tap, 18 “ diameter can support 2 taps, and 25” diameter for 3 taps). The average tree will produce 40 quarts. However, it takes 40 quarts of sap to produce 1 quart of maple syrup. The taps are set at 4 ½ feet. They are all connected by a network of plastic tubing.
A University of Rhode Island study discovered maple syrup contained 54 beneficial compounds. The Indians had realized the many benefits of maple syrup. Lacking suitable utensils, they preheated rocks which were tossed into the sap to evaporate the water content. The introduction of the iron kettle certainly changed things.
The Northeast’s early spring climate with its warm days and cold nights is ideal. Both the Europeans and Virginians tried to import and grow sugar maples with disappointing results.
After the sap is collected it is boiled over a very hot fire that requires being fed every 7 minutes. It is evaporated to 66 % sugar content. Deb cautioned that like warm milk, warm sap will sour. It is heated to 180 degrees before being bottled in sterilized containers.
At the conclusion of her talk, we got to sample maple syrup over vanilla ice cream and/or pound cake!!