That stuff running down the syrup bottle, oozing over your pancakes and puddling on the plate is probably not maple syrup but corn syrup, however “maple-y flavored” it’s touted to be.
That’s because the real deal is a sticky proposition. It takes 40 gallons of sap tapped from black, red, silver, box elder or hard (also called sugar or rock) maple trees to produce one gallon of maple syrup. And syrup harvesting is dependent on weather conditions, and we know how unpredictable that can be.
When maple trees unfreeze, the syrup season begins. It’s known as sugaring, which also describes the process of tapping trees and collecting their sap.
If you are lucky enough to sample maple syrup on your hotcakes, you can thank the squirrels. At least that’s what some experts say. Some believe the French introduced tree tapping to North America; others say Native Americans were the first to experiment with a wood-wedge tap after they saw squirrels bite into maple trees and then return to eat the sugary crust that had formed at the wound.
All trees have sap, but only the maple has such a high sugar content. Early in the season, sap travels up during the day, then slows to a halt at night when it gets cold. The sap begins again on the next day of thawing temperatures. At the same time, carbon dioxide forming inside the tree needs to escape, and any opening will begin to leak sap.
The roots of the maple send sap up and down inside the trunk to nourish the buds that become flowers and then leaves. As warmer weather becomes common, the sap often flows 24 hours a day, running up and down inside the tree like an elevator at rush hour. Once the buds fully develop, the season is over.
This year’s mild winter had the maples sending sap out in early February. Sugaring often is a March event, and, says naturalist Wayne Vanderploeg, is “psychologically in March” anyway.
Among connoisseurs, “first run” is considered the best maple syrup. It is honey-colored, rather than the darker liquid most of us associate with maple syrup. Also, the only kind worth buying is Grade A or Grade A Fancy, says syrup guru Dave Brooks, the manager of conservation services at Spring Valley Nature Sanctuary in Schaumburg.
None of that matters to kids, however, Brooks adds. “In blind taste tests kids usually pick store bought” over first run Grade A.
About 90 percent of the world’s maple syrup comes from Canada and 10 percent from Vermont, but nature centers closer to home offer the chance to see the tapping and boiling firsthand. And, of course, to sample nature’s finest dessert.
Following is just a sample of the region’s syrup events:
ILLINOIS
– Maple Syrup Festival, River Trail Nature Center, 3120 N. Milwaukee Ave., Northbrook. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 15 and 22, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 29. This event draws thousands, especially when the weather cooperates. Maybe it’s because this is the second-largest producer of maple syrup in Illinois, although the center doesn’t sell its stuff commercially.
Assistant director Wayne Vanderploeg says the sap has already been running, and hundreds of gallons have already been collected.
“The trees don’t have an internal clock like animals,” he says; “they’re simply stimulated by the correct temperature conditions. Then they convert starch to sugar.”
Outside, there will be walks into the sugarbush where tree-tapping demonstrations are set up. Inside a sugar shack, the sap goes from a big boiling machine to an evaporator. Puppet shows and storytelling accompany the demonstrations. If you want to wait for the grand finale, that’s March 29. There will be a tasting offered along with a homemade sourdough pancake breakfast. Cost is $4 or $3 for kids 12 and under. 847-824-8360.
– Maple Syrup Festival, North Park Village Nature Center, 5801 N. Pulaski Rd. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 28 and 29. The nature center has been presenting maple syrup festivals each spring for 17 years. The educational event is the center’s most popular. Last year 5,000 people attended.
“We have four weeks of field trips where kids from schools all over the city come here and tap a tree,” says the center’s Deborah Dustin. “Then they come back with their families for the festival.”
Tapping a tree is somewhat delicate. Depending on its size, a maple can withstand one to three taps, but the process of sap collecting, Dustin says, is pretty basic: a tube is hammered into the tree, diverting the flow of sap into a bucket or a bag that hangs from the tube.
(In Wisconsin, the country’s third-largest producer of maple syrup, it is not unusual to drive down a road and see tubes and buckets connected to hundreds of trees.)
During the festival, the sap collected over the weeks is boiled down in rectangular steel vats on a huge outdoor fireplace. As the water boils off, the sweet syrup remains.
Visitors are each given a cup of fresh maple syrup, fresh out of the vat. A storytelling session will explore the folklore of maple tree tapping. Crafts and games for all ages throughout the day. Nature walks take families on a trip back in time when pioneers carried buckets of maple syrup with an old fashioned yoke, drilling tap holes in trees by hand. Children are shown how to make a construction paper version of a mokuk, a Native American cup made of birch bark that was used for carrying maple syrup. Pancakes and hot drinks will be for sale. The event is free. Call 312-744-5472.
– Festival of the Sugar Maples, at Coral Woods, McHenry Conservation District, Ringwood. March 14, 15, 21 and 22. In the old days, sap was collected one tin at a time. Modern tapping may look more like a tree hospital as plastic spiles connected by plastic tubing empty into one big trough, with the liquid then mechanically pumped into the sugarhouse. Both methods will be demonstrated at Coral Woods from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Freezing weather won’t stop the event or the sap from flowing; if the sap’s 97 percent water content turns to ice, the frozen chunk is removed and the sugary sap remains undamaged. Samples of syrup are given out. Free admission. For group tours and information, call 815-678-4431.
– Maple Sugar Festival, Red Oak Nature Center, 2343 S. River St. (Illinois Highway 25), Batavia. March 21. Jim Kenney wants you to know this is a smaller event than other festivals. There are no power tools, no pancake breakfasts. It’s mostly about the trees. From 9 a.m to 1 p.m. every hour there’s a demo on tree tapping and some advice about the sugary maple tree. How old should a tree be before it’s tapped? “At least 40 years old,” says Kenney. “It’s almost like giving blood. You don’t want to tap one too young or one that’s on its last leg.”
A tasting with corn bread and ice cream follows the demonstration. There will also be strolls along the Fox River. Free admission. 630-897-1808.
– Sugarbush Fair, Spring Valley Nature Sanctuary, 1111 E. Schaumburg Rd., Schaumburg. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 14 and 15. When Illinois was still a frontier, syrup gatherers wore aprons and hats, carried black-powder rifles and lugged sap in wooden buckets. Spring Valley presents a reenactment by actors of an early-1800s pioneer sugar camp. Back then it wasn’t syrup that was prized; it was crystallized sap, which was used primarily as a food flavoring in stews and rice, the way we use salt now.
Everyone gets to taste maple candy here and watch with some bemusement as kids pick store-bought syrup over the real thing during blindfolded taste tests. Besides the pioneer camp, children are treated to puppet shows, and there’s a hayride for everyone to get from the parking lot to the farm. Free admission. The pancake breakfast with real maple syrup is $2 for a short stack, $3 for a tall stack. 847-985-2100.
WISCONSIN
– Sugarin’ Off Pancake Sundays, River Bend Nature Center 3600 N. Green Bay Rd., Racine, Wis. 9 a.m. to noon March 1, 8, 15 and 22. Get the tape measure — there’s an all-you-can-eat pancakes-and-sausage breakfast on tap. Plus tours and hikes through the sugarbush, demonstration of syrup processing and tree-tapping, and, of course, tasting the sweet stuff after the final boil down, a very tricky time (if you boil too long, the syrup will crystalize into candy). A nearby brewery has its own maple-bock microbeer. The hike and demos are free, breakfast is $4.50 for adults, $2.50 for children 3-12, under 3 eat free. 414-639-0930.
– Maple Sugar Days at Wehr Nature Center, 9701 W. College Ave., Franklin, Wis. (just south of Milwaukee). 1 to 4 p.m. March 21 and 22. Families get to take a 45-minute hike to the sugarbush in the 200-acre preserve and then are treated to a pioneer-style maple sugaring demonstration, from the boil-down process to an old-time sugaring camp culminating in a tasting session. Admission is $4, or $2 for children 2-13, under 2, free. 414-425-8550.
– Flapjack Day at Elwood H. May Environmental Park in Sheboygan, Wis.. 1 to 4 p.m. March 15. About an hour north of Milwaukee, Elwood May Park offers a festival with live music that includes some sugaring songs, exhibits, sugaring demonstrations and tours of the sugarbush. In honor of Wisconsin’s sesquicentennial, there will also be Native American crafting of sumac necklaces and do-it-yourself burnout bowls made from cedar logs. Plus the de rigueur maple syrup and flapjacks are offered. Call 920-459-3906.
– Maple Sugarin’ Open House at Riveredge Nature Center in Newburg, Wis. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 21, 28, 29 and April 4; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 5. There’s a self-guided trail through the sugarbush at this nature center, located along the Milwaukee River and offering 10 miles of hiking paths. Like similar festivals, the history and process of syrupmaking are emphasized. But here’s a slant: Taste maple syrup on dill pickles. Traditionalists will want to be there April 5 from 9 a.m. to noon for The Maple Sugarin’ Breakfast, served outdoors within sniffing distance of the evaporating sap. Cost for pancakes, ham, coffee and real maple syrup is $6.75, $4.75 for children 3-12. 414-675-6888.
MICHIGAN
– Maple Sugar Festival, Kalamazoo Nature Center, 7000 N. Westnedge Ave., Kalamazoo, Mich. 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. March 21. Celebrate the vernal equinox followed by a pancake brunch. Guides demonstrate equipment used to collect sap, and visitors can take home syrup, maple candy, a maple-leaf medallion and tools to tap into your own trees. Horse-drawn wagon rides through the woods take you to a pioneer sugar camp reenactment, then to the Sugar House, which also has maple syrup production demonstrations every weekend in March. Admission is $4.50, $3 for seniors, $2.50 children 4-13, children under 4, free. Pancake brunch is served from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. and costs an additional $5, $4 for seniors, $3 for kids 12 and under. Call 616-381-1574.
INDIANA
– Maple Sugar Time Festival at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Porter, Ind.,10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and March 14 and 15. Now in its 20th year, the festival takes place on the Chellberg Farm and Bailly Homestead. From the historic houses on the site, musicians and singers will be performing traditional American and French songs on dulcimer, hurdy gurdy, fiddle and guitar. Singalongs are expected. From the barn, storytellers dressed in historical garb will be spinning tales about farms, animals and, of course, syrup. Two films about maple sugaring will be shown. There are two boiling sites, guided tours and costumed volunteers along the trails. Guided tours until noon. Admission is free. 219-926-7561, ext. 225.
