The sugaring season is a busy time for about 2-3 weeks early each spring. And busy means hard work! Peter, our Hunter's Banquet host and chef, can be found tapping the Ten Point Lakes maple trees during those fleeting spring days when the temperature rises above freezing during the daylight hours, but falls below freezing at night. This is when the sap runs!
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Each tree gives about 2 gallons of sap a day. It takes about 40-50 gallons of sap to boil down to 1 gallon of syrup!
The work involves slugging through snow, which is often deep and wet, and mud to get to the trees, then tapping them and hanging the buckets to collect the water-like sap that drips out of the fresh wound. Each day the raw sap in the buckets must be transported to the cooking fire, filtered, and then boiled down for hours.
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The fuel to boil the sap is wood that has to be chopped first. A massive quantity of wood! The temperature of the boiling sap must be carefully monitored.
The final finishing boil is usually done in the kitchen, and then the syrup is filtered into bottles, jugs, or cans. Most cans of syrup come from Quebec commercial producers (they use plastic tubing strung between the trees, to collect and transport the sap).
The highest quality is very lightly coloured and runs very freely. This grade of syrup should not be used for cooking as you will lose its delicate taste and texture. For cooking, a lower grade, darker and thicker syrup is the best.
Keep syrup frozen until opened, then keep in the refrigerator. It's a mineral rich, natural product with no artificial preservatives, that needs care in storage.