Polar bears are cute, hockey brings us gold medals, Anne Murray sings beautifully. But maple syrup has tenure as a Canadian icon. Its long history in Canada begins, most believe, with the Native Indians who accidently
discovered sap. Legend tells us that a young hunter stuck his tomahawk into a maple tree and then noticed the liquid puddle forming on the ground below.
Curious and thirsty, he tasted it and rushed some home to his mother who cooked the evening meal in it. Sap was used as a sweetener for many years after that. Early settlers allowed the sap to freeze and then skimmed off the icy water formed on top. Or they put hot rocks in the sap to warm it up. Finally boiling was used to create what we know as maple syrup.

When the daytime temperatures rise to just above freezing then drop to several degrees below at night, the sap starts to run and it’s time to start “sugaring off.” The original process involved boring a hole into a tree, inserting a trough-like piece of bark, and placing a bucket below. Then horse-drawn wagons would carry the buckets of sap to the sugar shack where the sap would be boiled into syrup. Since it takes 40 litres of sap to produce one litre of syrup, this was a labourintensive activity.

Nowadays big businesses require about 1000 maple trees in their “sugar bush” to make a business profitable. They use miles of plastic tubing running from
tree to tree, vacuum pumps to move the sap along faster to the sugar shack, and large evaporating systems to reduce boiling time. The Canadian industry produces close to 24 million litres of syrup per year, about 85% of the world’s supply. The industry, worth around $200 million, exports primarily to the United States.

Maple syrup can be enjoyed in some interesting ways - perhaps you remember as a child pouring the hot syrup on snow and then eating the maple taffy. People like to eat it as a topping on ice cream, porridge, or baked beans (especially in Quebec), or they pour it generously over hot pancakes slathered with butter. This syrup is also a popular hostess gift when Canadians visit other countries. One visitor to Mexico reported watching her hosts pour the syrup into their Scotch before drinking it! Recently, however, Maple Syrup has enjoyed increased status in the gourmet food industry where it is now used as a sweetener in sauces, glazes, and vinaigrettes.

Spring is just around the corner and with it comes the possibility of a visit to a sugar bush. King Township offers some nearby opportunities for this adventure;
Kortright Conservation Centre in Woodbridge, for example, provides demonstrations, tastings, and wagon rides. Or perhaps your neighbour has a small operation in his back forty, where a piece of clean garden hose is stuck into a tree, the sap is caught in a bucket below, and then boiled over an open bonfire. Friends gather to sample the syrup and to celebrate this great Canadian tradition.