Maple syrup, a delicacy across much of the northern United States in late spring. Maple syrup does not simply come off of the store shelves, nor is it made in a large factory. In fact many steps take place before the syrup is at the table. Late Spring, the start of the syruping season, nights are cold and days warm perfect for the sap, sugar rich water, to start moving throughout the trees. The opportunity to collect sap varies every year because it relies on the temperature, specifically when the mercury falls below freezing at night and rises to about 50 degrees during the day. The reason for this is in the fall the tree stores all of its sap in its roots for winter. New warmth after a long winter signals the tree to send the sap backup to the branches, for the formation new leaves. The perfect conditions allow for the sap to move throughout the tree during the night and day allowing people to collect it. The first step, finding the right tree Sugar maples followed by silver maples are …show more content…
For example, in a three pan systems two pans could be at a constant boil and the third warming, maintaining a boil is the most important part of keeping the process as time efficient as possible, having a third pan warming allows sap to be warm as it enters the boiling pans keeping a constant boil. Once the sap starts to boil, foam will appear on the surface. This is natural, but it should be removed. Along with the foam ash and other debris will fall into the sap and need to be removed. If these are not removed it will result in lower quality syrup. Depending on the system used boiling fifty gallons of sap can take about fifteen hours, and needs to be attended throughout the entire process. More sap needs to be added regularly because if the it heats up to much it will burn ruining the entire pan of sap. To keep the sap cool add more as needed. Because of the large ratio every drop of sap is