Maple Syrup • Maple Cream Drought and the mild winter this year could have a big influence on maple syrup production underway in western New York. Local producers, including Maple Grove Farm in Clarendon, report heavy sap flow with high sugar content which could lead to a bumper crop of especially fine high grade syrup and granulated maple sugar. Sugarbush operators Jim and Debbie Day, with the help of their son Bob, Debbie’s father, Lee Bartlett and "uncle" Al Blank, will collect approximately 4,000 gallons of sap, from which they hope to produce close to 100 gallons of syrup. Altogether this year they made about 500 taps on half as many sugar maple trees. Their most productive trees are about forty years old, self-seeded descendents of the original stand. These relatively young trees are the prime producers, providing heavy flows of sap. They also heal quickly from the tap wounds. Maple Grove Farm dates to the 1840s when the Bartlett family first settled the 110 acres. Debbie Day and her sister, Sandy Shay, are the fifth generation of the Bartlett family to continuously live on the land and tap its trees. The eastern Native Americans are thought to be the first people to make maple syrup, according to written accounts of European explorers in the early 1600s. Although no clear evidence exists to tell us exactly how they did it, it is thought that they chopped a groove into a tree with an ax and drove a wooden stile, carved from sumac branches, into the wound. Dripping sap from the stile was then collected into a leather bucket or gourd. There are several Indian legends describing the first discovery of the sweet liquid. A brief synopsis of two of them goes something like this: A tomahawk was left in a maple sugar tree, sap dripped from the opening into a vessel left at the base of the tree. A cook, mistaking the sap for fresh water, used it in cooking a venison stew; as the liquid evaporated, a flavorful sweet "gravy" remained. Voila! Maple syrup. Early pioneers, as well as the Native Americans, without metal vessels, probably boiled sap by placing hot stones in hollowed out logs or other open containers. By boiling successive batches over and over they ended up with pale sweet syrup that, along with honey, was the only available sweetener on the frontier. The process of making maple syrup is not a complicated one. The flow of sap in sugar maples, as well as other trees, is triggered in the spring by lengthening warm days followed by freezing nights. As the sap rises from the roots toward the branches, it is collected - these days by plastic tubing connected at the receiving end to large metal tanks. Some operators even use vacuum pumps to draw the sap through the tubes. Trees are still tapped by hand using a drill aimed upward at a 10- degree angle to allow the sap to drain from the tree. A metal spile is gently hammered into the half-inch wide, three-inch deep hole and either an old-fashioned bucket or plastic tube is attached to receive the liquid sap. Modern maple syrup producers use sophisticated evaporators and other equipment that enables them to boil the sap at constant, controlled temperatures resulting in a refined product with a sugar content of approximately 67-percent. It takes between 32 and 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup depending on the sugar concentration of the sap. Sap sugar concentrations vary from year-to-year depending on weather, soil conditions and the variety of tree. 2-3 percent is average. The sugar maple tree (Acer saccharum), aside from being the state tree of New York, is prized for its beauty and abundance. There are 148 species of maples found in the Northern Hemisphere, but only seven of those are commonly found in New York. Only the sugar maple is tapped to make syrup. In western New York, the sugar maple has found a special place in the folklore and economic history because of its value as a hardwood and in the production of maple products. Maple wood is prized for its hardness and strength. Pioneer settlers used maple wood for rolling pins, kitchen and farm utensils, grinders, apple and cheese presses, flooring and furniture. A mature sugar maple ranges from 70 to 90 feet tall, with a girth of two to three feet. Trees grown in the open often have crowns that spread 60-80 feet. The largest sugar maple on record measured 110 feet tall, 5.6 feet in diameter with a crown spread of 75 feet. On average, a young tree grows a foot per year until it reaches 30 to 40 years and first begins to produce seed. It will then be between 8 to 12 inches in diameter and about 30 feet in height. A healthy sugar maple continues to grow until it reaches an age of about 150 years when its growth slows down. Old growth sugar maple trees, while extremely rare, can reach 300-400 years old. In 2000, New York state produced a little less than 20 percent of the nation’s maple syrup - 210,000 gallons - making it the second largest producer in the northeast. Vermont is the nation’s largest maple syrup producer. In 2000, Vermont sold 460,000 gallons Maple syrup food facts
A favorite recipe A vanishing art Maple Grove Farm is one of only three sugarbushes still operating in Orleans County. No commercial sugarbush operators remain in Monroe County. Maple Grove Farm products include: Grade A Maple Syrup: Light (Fancy), medium, or dark. Maple Candy pieces individually shaped in a mold, coated and packaged. Granulated Maple Sugar: syrup super-heated and hand stirred until it crystallizes. Ideal for cooking, baking and sweetening of hot and cold drinks. Note: Maple Grove Farm products are sold at Kirby’s Farm Market on Ridge Road; Partyka Farm Market, Rt. 272, Kendall; Union Street Primitives on Main Street in Spencerport; Ridge Road Station in Holley; and at Lone Pine Collective on Rt. 31 east of Brockport. Maple Grove Farm products are also sold at the farm. Call ahead: (585) 638-6245 |
