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Sap's Up!

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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

Great Pumpkin
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Back in the day (when I was but a lad ...), Yankees who were ardent abolitionists wouldn't have white cane sugar in the house. Cane sugar came from slave states.

So we'd tap maple trees for sap, boil it to syrup and finally to sugar.

Here's Marge Bruchac, of the Abenaki nation (and a good friend of mine), talking about some "maple sugar history". We're actually boiling syrup each weekend now.


Trivia time - trivia time ... Native Americans were boiling maple sap long before Europeans brought iron pots.

How'd the Native Americans boil the sugar?
 
not even close!
 
Lots of trees are tapped here but I have to say the recent move to plastic lines leading to one big container aren't as picturesque as the galvanized buckets.

It's been a while since I've had syrup, pickles, and doughnuts - maybe this year. I suspect it's just a New England thing?
 
hint: you can heat a liquid from inside the container ...
 
Getting warmer (pun intended!).

Collect the sap in a wooden trough.

Put a stone in the fire and heat until steaming hot.

Toss stone into sap.

Sap boils.

Vwalah!

(You can also just leave the sap out in the cold overnight. The water freezes and rises to the top to give a surface of ice. Next morning, remove ice. Takes a lot of "overnights" - but eventually you've removed lots of water and have concentrated syrup.)

Vwalah Vwalah!
 
Pilgrim Gangsta "Sap s'up dude"
 
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