Maple Syrup

1. red
   November 3rd, 2008 at 10:25 am

   Tastes like crap at that stage too. Oh the memories! I think teaching canadian kids how to make maple syrup is part of the mandatory curriculum or something.

2. Adam Stanhope
   November 3rd, 2008 at 10:35 am

   I beg to differ, red...

   It is indistinguishable from water at that stage.

3. jesssie
   November 3rd, 2008 at 10:48 am

   hahaha red,

   I know that one of my favourite trips in elementary school was always going to the sugarbush. I used to crave those little maple leaf shaped candies, but my parents would never let me eat them unless it was there. Can't say I blame them, I'm sure I'd have no teeth left at this point if they did.

4. Pudifoot
   November 3rd, 2008 at 11:37 am

   I guess it is a sad thing that my generation considers aunt jemima to be really good syrup.

5. Triseult
   November 3rd, 2008 at 12:21 pm

   Shows how Canadian I am... When I read this article, my first reaction was, 'Wait, what information does this contain?' Hehe.

   Maple sap is actually pretty nice... Mostly water, but with just a touch of sugar.

   As for Aunt Jemima, to contrast it with maple syrup, in Quebec we call this type of syrup "telephone pole syrup". I actually ate maple syrup for YEARS before I tried Aunt Jemima-style corn syrup... My initial reaction was disgust.

6. Ali S.
   November 3rd, 2008 at 1:00 pm

   I have been brought up on that corn syrup stuff from Aunt Jemima. Once I started living in Canada the first time I had real maple syrup it blew me away. It wasn't overpoweringly sweet like Aunt Jemima nor did it leave me with sugar buzz. It felt just right enough to go no my waffles and pancakes. Great pics. Makes me want to go up North and learn how to make this stuff.

7. CKS2996
   November 3rd, 2008 at 2:29 pm

   Bags is a new one on me.
   I have seen pails and hoses.
   Most commercial producers use hoses though.

8. Christophe
   November 3rd, 2008 at 3:56 pm

   I think Aunt Jemima is the reason people prefer the blander Fancy grade maple syrup.

9. Some Canadian Skeptic
   November 3rd, 2008 at 4:20 pm

   pleh. I'm Canadian, so I was raised by maple syrup. Not raised ON, but raised BY maple syrup.

   I had a delicious childhood.

10. seekshelter
    November 3rd, 2008 at 4:22 pm

    hah.... we eat tree sperm...or is more like blood?? i dont know trees

11. ted
    November 3rd, 2008 at 7:06 pm

    Sheesh.
    It's more like blood.

    I guess it's a Canadian thing, but I thought most people knew where Maple Syrup comes from.

12. Mel
    November 3rd, 2008 at 8:50 pm

    One of the camps where I used to work had a network of purple plastic tubes coming from each maple tree, using gravity to get the sap to a collecting vat. (The purple was allegedly because squirrels can't see it... but really it made the whole grove look like some sort of maple Borg collective.)

    I also used to work at an historical society, and one of the things I got to do was tromp around the sugarbush in February, showing the schoolkids and other visitors how to collect sap (in the buckets, poured into bigger buckets, poured into barrels on the sled pulled by draft horses, up to the tub on the uphill side of the evaporator) and make syrup.

    The saddest part was when we gave them the blind taste tests, and they chose the corn syrup crap over the real stuff, since they'd never *had* the real stuff, before.

13. cleek
    November 4th, 2008 at 11:06 am

    it's not just a Canadian thing. we used to make our own in upstate NY, too.

    and, no, the fresh sap doesn't taste like water. it tastes like... tree. slightly sweet, a bit of green wood, earthy. it's nice. when i was ten, my friends and i would snip little branches off the neighborhood maples, just to get a little taste of sap.

14. blackjackshellac
    November 4th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

    I have never seen these plastic bags for collecting the syrup, that's just bizarre. Here in Quebec, in the old days they used to use stainless steel buckets. Now most use plastic tubing directly from the trees to a large container to simplify collection of the syrup.

    That other stuff shouldn't even be mentionned in the same breath as maple syrup.

15. linty
    November 5th, 2008 at 12:49 pm

    same thing here, I remember the buckets (there were always little bugs floating in them...PROTEIN!), I know they use the tubes (connected to a pump) around here now but I've never seen bags like that.

16. hotea1313
    July 15th, 2009 at 6:58 pm

    my father used ot make maple syrup we used to hang those plastic gallons of milk containers it tasted alot better than store bought

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