Maple Syrup

Photo taken by Ashley Rinn

Growing up as a kid I always would douse my pancakes in syrup without knowing where it came from. When I went to Quebec, Canada in the summer of 2016 I met the other half of my family and discovered that most of my relatives in Quebec had a maple syrup business. My relatives taught my sister and I all about how maple syrup is produced and the importance of it in our family. Ever since my trip to Canada and learning about the family business I feel as if it's a part of my identity.

History

In the early 1500s a man named Jacques Cartier cut down a maple tree believing that it was a walnut tree to soon find the sweet sap of maple oozing out of the trunk of the tree.
Throughout the 1600s Marc Lescarbot found that heating up the maple sap would turn it into a sugary liquid that would restore a person's energy levels.
From the 17th to 18th century people started to export the maple sugary substance as a luxury to the wealthy people in France.
Agathe de Repentigny was a businesswoman who invented the maple sugar candy with one of her biggest customers being King Louis XIV increasing the demand for the maple sugar.
Sieur de Diereville created the method of tapping trees. He would cut into the wood of the tree then insert another piece of wood acting as a spout allowing the syrupy substance to flow right out.
Throughout time the methods of tapping trees and making maple sugars have modernized. A group of scientists even found that maple has many benefits to the human body shooting sales through the roof.

Infographic by Emily Rinn

How It's Made

Photo by Pascal Marchand

The Factory Way

First you have to tap the trees in the early months of the year. You do this by drilling holes in the tree then insert the tap connecting to a tube that ends up collecting all the syrup flow.
The temperature in the spring causes the sap to flow towards the tops of the tree, thawing from the cold winter. Warm weather causes the tree to expand creating pressure forcing the sap to the trunk.
Over time the way of harvesting has changed from a makeshift piece of wood to funnel out the syrup into a bucket and now trees have their own fancy tubing system with pumps.
The reverse osmosis system is used to create a syrup concentrate by using extreme amounts of pressure to reduce the amount of water in the product.
The Millard reaction is where you let the sap sit and evaporate causing the syrup to brown and gain health properties.

Photo by Bob Jenson

Our Family Way

My uncle’s Grant and Shawn harvest maple syrup by using the old fashioned way using the boiling method. They tap the trees as any maple harvester would do but they use metal buckets to collect the sap.
Once the buckets are filled they pour it into a put and boil the syrup until it turns into a deep rich brown color.
After cooled they pour in into Liter sized bottles and sell by word of mouth to close friends and family.

Sugar Shanty

Photo by Wikipedia

Many traditions are formed around maple syrup and its collection, but the sugar shack is one main tradition that most Canadians participate in. The tradition of the sugar shack starts with people having shacks in the maple forests so they could sleep close to the trees so they could dump the buckets frequently to get the most product out of the tree.

The sugar shacks are small wooden shacks built usually in the center of the maple forest for the convenience of the maple harvesters. The sugar shacks have held a feast infused with maple syrup. The ham, beans, dumplings, and omelet are all infused with one form of maple syrup to celebrate the coming of spring and syrup.

Three weeks after Easter many families had to stop producing maple syrup even if their trees still had sap in them because of the ground hogs and bears awake from hibernation. People who are very traditional when collecting sap use the shacks to be safe from the bears and groundhogs during the night. Traditional ways of harvesting syrup include using the moon phases and the height of the water to see when the best time would be to collect the most sap from the trees.

Conclusion

Photo taken by Ashey Rinn

As long as my family has been in Canada they have lived for maple syrup. The modernization and advancements in technology have taken over small businesses, including my family’s. My family values the traditions and memories that come along with collecting the syrup. For generations we have used the old fashioned way to harvest maple syrup to hold onto the traditions and the memories of our ancestors so we don't lose the heart of it.

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