Vol. 6 No 14
Sweet Stories!
Memories of Sugaring By Donnie Miller
I was so excited when it was time to tap the maple trees. This was back in the days before power tappers. Dad would drill all the holes by hand and we boys almost could not keep up putting the spiles in, hanging the buckets and putting the lids on. Mom always saved a sugar-cured ham for this occasion and we had ham sandwiches in the sugarhouse along with hard-boiled eggs. All parts of the woods had names like the Ann Woods and the Outside Loop … and, of course we had a tree called Old Faithful. A part of the woods was called Fillmore as the trees in that part of the woods always filled buckets to running over. Ah, the memories!
What Tree? By Jacquie Foote
There is an old story about a newcomer to Geauga who bought property that included a sugar bush. Being recently retired, the man, called Grandpa Jim by his family, decided to do the sugaring himself with the able help of an Amish neighbor, Mose, also a grandfather (and known in the Amish Community for his sense of humor). Mose took Jim through the stand of trees and pointed out how to tell if a tree was a likely candidate for producing sap to boil. Jim, as owner of the sugar bush, decided exactly which trees should be tapped and Mose did the tapping and the bucket hanging. The two grandfathers worked happily together. Laughter was frequently heard in the woods, for they both loved a good joke and told them often. After the second season, Jim began to fuss about one tree. It just wasn’t producing like the others. He urged Mose to change where the taps were placed, he wondered aloud if that tree was somehow diseased. Finally, at the beginning of the fifth season, Jim asked Mose if he thought
Mar. 4, 2015
the tree should just be cut down. Mose said he didn’t think so, the tree looked healthy enough. Jim said, “But it doesn’t produce sap like the other Sugar Maples!” With a twinkle in his eye, Mose replied, “That’s because it’s a Basswood tree.” Actually, sap can be collected from about five different species of maple, but it’s the sugar maple (acer saccharum) that produces the most flavorful syrup. Sap in most sugar maples is about 2 percent sugar, but some trees produce a sap with as high as 6 percent sugar which means these trees yield three times as much syrup as a typical sugar maple. Naturally, efforts are made by syrup producers to identify them. One thing to look for is a more exposed crown due to less blockage from the Sun by neighboring trees. Sugar maple trees are only found in the northeastern and north central areas of the US. They occur naturally as far north as Nova Scotia and as far south as the Carolinas. They can’t survive in areas where summer temperatures frequently reach 100 degrees F or where the winter temperatures regularly drop below 0 degrees F. Maple trees should be approximately 12 inches in diameter (about 40 years old) before they are tapped, and no individual tree should have more than three taps. The taps can be placed anywhere on the trunk but for convenience they’re usually 2 to 4 feet above the ground. Trees are tapped at different places each year. The tap Continued on page 7
PLAIN PAGES (published in the Middlefield Post): Wednesday, March 18. Deadline: Friday, March 6. Next issue: PLAIN COUNTRY: Wednesday, April 1. Deadline: Friday, March 20. See details on page 2.