Tapping the Sweetest
TREE! By Kelley Stewart ~ Forest Specialist, Wayne Conservation District
Maple syrup has a long tradition in North America dating back to the Native Americans who first discovered the sweet sap of the sugar maple. Boiled sap was reduced to syrup and then to a granulated sugar making it easy to store and transport. As European colonists began to settle North America, Native Americans shared their knowledge of ‘sugaring’ with them. 16 | CONNECTIONS MAGAZINE |
Through the years, new technology has advanced the processing of turning sap into syrup, but regardless of the equipment, the product remains the same.
DID YOU KNOW? The sugar maple, Acer saccharum, is a unique native tree to Northeastern America including Pennsylvania. Other species of maple trees may be used to produce syrup, but the sugar maple offers the highest sugar content in the sap (up to 5%), making it the best tree to tap. Maple season occurs in early spring when cold nights dip below freezing, and day temperatures are above freez-
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