Maple Sugar: From Sap to Syrup: The History, Lore, and How-To Behind This Sweet Treat by Tim Herd

Author:Tim Herd [Herd, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781603427357
Amazon: 160342735X
Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC
Published: 2011-02-26T05:00:00+00:00

In spite of advances such as the metal sap bucket and power drills, the basic process of gathering sap and boiling it down to make syrup remains unchanged.

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The metal sap-gathering tubing invented in 1916 by W. C. Brower of Mayfield, New York, proved impractical: it was prone to freezing at night, leakage, and was vulnerable to damage by deer.

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YOU STILL HAVE TO COLLECT A WHOLE LOT OF SAP

For all the improvements, the basic job remained the labor-intensive project it had always been: individually tapping hundreds of trees, hanging the buckets, and visiting each one daily to collect the sap before boiling it down. Horses and mules were often enlisted to haul sledges or wagons carrying large tanks, whose job was later mechanized by farm tractors and heavy all-terrain vehicles.

But starting in the late 1950s, advances in the plastics industry introduced a revolutionary new collection technique that enabled hundreds of trees to be interconnected with vinyl tubing. Using gravity to drain the sap downhill through a network of tubing saved the countless hours and muscle aches of daily trudging and lugging chores. Most commercial operators now use miles of tubing to harvest the sugar bush directly to a large centralized storage tank, which in turn feeds directly to the sugarhouse.

The professional sugar maker is always conscientious to minimize any potential contamination of the sap by bacteria. Drill bits, spiles, buckets, tubing, and other equipment are all kept scrupulously clean, and collected sap is prevented from warming or staying too long in the sun. When transferring sap to the storage tank, some producers use an in-line ultraviolet light to reduce the amount of living microorganisms.

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