If you were to drive around the still snowy, gray roads around New Hampshire this month, you’d see these:
(I couldn’t find a “Frost Heaves” sign to photograph because they’ve all been plowed under at this point in the season. This does not, by any stretch of the imagination, mean that there are no longer any frost heaves. Most people spend about one third of the travel time from point A to point B in the air, rather than on the road.)
You would also see these:
It’s maple-sugaring season around here! This is NOT your grocery aisle’s fake stuff, either. This is the real thing, folks, the real McCoy. This syrup does not cause your pancake to become a foamy, muffin-type thing like that fake stuff does. This is liquid gold, and it makes me, a non-breakfast lover, into someone craving all forms of pancake and waffle, at all times of the day.
We’ve got our own little operation, not nearly as big as this one down the street from us:
But whether the production is big or small, the principles behind maple sugaring are the same: sap from the sugar maple (and occasionally other types of maple tree) is collected and then reduced to syrup. The sap flows during the late winter/early spring when night temperatures are still below freezing, but the days are warm enough to begin the spring melt. The pressure that results from the freezing and thawing cycle causes the sap to flow.
It takes A LOT of sap to make a little bit of syrup. No two batches of sap are exactly the same, but it’s safe to estimate that it’ll take 30-40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.
Most larger sugaring operations around here are family-run productions that make their syrup in a sugar house or sugar shack. The sap is evaporated over wood fires that have to be stoked for lots of hours a day to keep the liquid boiling. Ideally, sap should be boiled the same day it is collected. In our smaller home-based operation, we sometimes refrigerate smaller batches for a day or two until we have enough to make one good batch.
The syrup is usually boiled to 7.1 degrees above the boiling temperature (which varies slightly depending on your height above sea level). For us, it’s about 219F/220F. The syrup is strained through cheese cloth into boiling-water sanitized jars, and the hot caps and bands attached. Syrup does not need to be processed in a canner.
Maple producers are more than a cottage-industry here in New England. They typically produce 90,000 gallons a year. They’ve also been sounding the alarm about global-warming for some time now. At Clark Sugar House in Acworth, New Hampshire, they have a chart on their wall where generations have been recording the beginning and end of maple season for over 100 years. Clear shifts in the start and length of the season are obvious. In the last 20 years, the season has shifted so much that it begins almost one full month earlier than previous generations. This rather alarming article from 2004 gives some more detail.
There are also different grades of syrup. Generally, the earlier in the season, the lighter the syrup. Here, you can see the dark amber from the end of last year, and this year’s first batch of light amber.
For me, one of the very best things about the family tradition of maple sugaring is the “sugaring off party.” Typically, this is a time when the production is slowing down, and a maple farm with a large sugar house invites all their friends to come around for a party. Hopefully the weather is warm enough for kids to play outside and adults to hang out by the fire. My favorite memory of sugaring off parties, which I attended here:
was “Frogs on Snow.” Syrup is boiled until it reaches about 230F or 240F, and poured over cups or bowls of packed, clean snow. It makes a sweet, maple taffy. I don’t know if “Frogs on Snow” is a unique name to my region of the state, but I was able to find this candy called “jax wax” as well. Here’s a whole article about what you can do with hot maple syrup and snow (two things we’ve got plenty of around here right now).
These days, many northeastern states hold “maple weekends” when maple producers open their sugar houses to the public. Information about New Hampshire’s maple weekend, as well as much more detailed information about maple production can be found here.
We call our syrup “Free From Trees” and gift it to friends with pretty tags I make for the jars.
Many of my blogging friends are starting to post pictures of bulbs courageously popping up through melting snow and trees beginning to bloom. Here in my neck of the woods, we won’t be seeing our bulbs until at least two or three feet snow have melted. Neverthless, I know spring must be coming, because the buckets are out, and the shacks are steaming!
P.S. If you plan to try your hand at maple sugaring yourself, please note that you should do as much of the boiling outside as possible. The sticky steam generated in your kitchen will peel wallpaper and paint! You can finish off the syrup on the stovetop for a little more control during the last phase.
I’m planning to attend a maple weekend, not this week, but next weekend. I’m so excited! My parents used to take me to a sugar shack for waffles every Sunday after church during sugaring season, but I haven’t been for years! I saw opening weekend advertised (on Seacoast Eat Local?) and just about leapt for joy! Real maple syrup is one of the great treasures of living in NH, isn’t it? Great post.
We saw some sugar houses open this weekend while we were running errands. I was happy to see lots of cars parked outside of them (maybe because the sun actually came out!).
Great post is right! We are joining friends for syrup sundaes later today at our local sugar house. Yesterday was pancake breakfast, but we are all still getting over the flu and were moving too slowly for pancake breakfast at o’dark early yesterday.
Kim, how many trees do you tap, and how much syrup do you process? We have a gorgeous sugar maple in our yard but I’ve never tapped it, nor made syrup.
Ali
Ali – we only have six taps (on five trees), but we’ve already produced a few pints of the early, light amber. I’d say we end up with 15 to 18 pints. We give several away at Christmastime, with plenty left for us!
Maple Syrup Sunday was last weekend here in our parts. We missed the soiree at the sugar houses, and instead decided we’d tap our maples. We’ve been planning to for years, and so when we stopped in at the hardware store last weekend, I inquired about taps. We’re a couple of weeks late, but this being our first year, it’s been really cool. We’ll end up with about a quart :). Next year, though ….
Thanks for all of the “how to” information. It’s really handy :).