Maple Syrup – How It’s Made
Every year in the late winter/early spring my brother and I head to the Adirondack mountains in northern New York for a weekend to help our father tap trees to make maple syrup.
This year I packed up some of my filmmaking gear as I headed north. I haven’t made any of my own projects in a while, so I decided to put together a short video about how maple syrup is made. I thought it would be nice to show folks the process, and knew my dad would humor me while I did it. As long as I didn’t slack off on helping him do what needed to get done.
The Steps to Making Maple Syrup
Making maple syrup isn’t very complicated – it just takes a lot of time and effort. Here are the basic steps.
- Tap the trees
- gather the sap that flows from the trees
- boil the sap to remove excess water
Tapping the Maple Trees and Collecting the Sap
To tap the trees, holes are drilled into the trunks, and spiles (a spout) are inserted.
Traditionally buckets were hung from the spiles to gather the sap. These buckets need to be collected, and emptied by hand every day or two.
These days most people have “tube runs” – a system of tubes hooked up directly to the trees, which run downhill to a reservoir to collect the sap.
Boiling the Sap
Raw sap is converted into maple syrup through boiling. An evaporator – a large flat pan, with 3 separate channels is used for this. Raw sap is fed into the evaporator at one end, and flows through the channels as the excess water is boiled off.
Sap is considered to be maple syrup when it has a sugar content of 66% – this last bit of boiling is typically done in a smaller pan, but can also be done directly in the evaporator.
Making Maple Syrup isn’t as Easy as it Sounds
Making maple syrup might not be an overly complicated process, but it is hard work. Tapping the trees is labor intensive, and so is collecting the buckets. If tube runs are used, then the lines need to be walked on a regular basis to ensure that there are no leaks or splits in the lines. None of that even factors in the many hours required to boil the sap, or all the firewood that needs to be cut.
Why Did I make a Mini Documentary Video about Maple Syrup?
I decided to make this mini documentary video for fun, and as a creative outlet. But I think it can also serve as an introduction to how maple syrup is made. These days too many people take food for granted without thinking about where it really comes from, or the people that provide it.
My father makes maple syrup as a hobby in his retirement, but many people do this to provide for their families. Hopefully next time you’re in the supermarket you won’t mind spending $20 for a pint of real maple syrup instead of reaching for the mass produced corn syrup that has the TV commercial.
