Maple Syrup: Nature's Spring Tonic. -- Since 1918

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Successfully Bottled Today

24 overnight. Sunny and 44 today. Tree pressure up to 12 PSI. Trees dripping. By 5:00 PM pressure down to 3 PSI.

Collect 105 gallons. Sugar content back to normal: 2 Brix.

Successfully bottled today. Frequently the first bottling has problems: filter press hard to pump; cloudy; trouble holding temperature. But this first bottling went smoothly.

Welding repairs on evaporator. Added an angle iron on the back, right side where it rusted through causing the evaporator base to open up and threaten the structural integrity.

Cook tomorrow.

Nature’s R/O

18 overnight again. But the ice is nature’s R/O: water freezes leaving sweeter sap: from 2.5 Brix to 3.0 Brix.

Collected 70 gallons. Done by 5:00 PM.

Took until after Noon to warm to high 30s and even later for 40. By 5:30 it was below 32 already. The ground is still cold.

Put out the tree pressure gauge. 18 PSI today.

MapleAcres March 1962

 

MapleAcres March 1961

Drops of Sap to Make a Gallon of Syrup

Assuming there are 100 drops/teaspoon

There are 3 teaspoons in tablespoon
So 3 x 100 drops = 300 drops in a tablespoon.

There are 16 tablespoons in a cup
So 300 x 16 gives 4800 drops in a cup.

There are 16 cups in a gallon
So 4800 x 16 gives 76,800 drops in a gallon of sap.

It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup
So 76,800 drops x 40 gallons gives 3,072,000 drops.

So it takes 3,072,000 drops of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.

Read About Sugarbush Activities

Making maple syrup is a pleasant chore. Its hard work in the woods: staying up late boiling; carrying pails full of sap; adapting to changing weather (cold and snowy in early March; wet and muddy late March and early April.)  Yet every Spring the maplely sweet aroma from the boiling sap in the evaporator seduces you again and you know its the right thing to be doing.   Following are narratives of our past seasons chronicling our daily activities during the maple season.

 

Contact MapleAcres

MapleAcres is located in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

MapleAcres
3406 Maplewood Rd
Two Rivers, WI  54241
USA

E-mail: Info@MapleAcres.com

Site Copyright 2000-2017 Karl W. Zander.  All Rights Reserved.

The Sugar Master at MapleAcres

Maple Syrup: Nature’s Spring Tonic

Maple Syrup has been produced at MapleAcres in Two Rivers, WI since 1918.  2015 marks the 98th year Maple Syrup is made at MapleAcres.  Maple Syrup is made in the spring of the year.  The season starts around the end of February or early March and lasts to early April depending on weather. Maple trees need a unique weather pattern of alternating warm sunny days and freezing nights that happen as winter gives way to spring.  

Click here to read about the 2014 season.  You can read about past season by clicking on the section “In the Sugarbush.”

 

The Sugar Master at MapleAcres

The Sugar Master at MapleAcres


Sappin’ Time

Sappin’ Time

By Esther S. Zander

“Come boys, get the auger and spouts,”
Hear their happy-go-lucky shouts;
Into the woods, away they go
Over the ice and melting snow.

Washed are the buckets, free from grime
“Hurry, boys, it is tappin’ time.
The sun is high; tonight ’twill freeze,
Hang those buckets on the trees.”

At sappin’ time it is such fun
Up and down hillsides on the run
From tree to tree like squirrels they leap
Carrying pails; some on the jeep.

Hear that tinkling drip, drip, drip,
Ah, for a cool, refreshing sip,
Crystal clear it runs from a tap,
That spring-time tonic, maple sap.

“The pails are full,” we hear them say
At the end of the busy day;
With gathering tank on the rack
The tractor brings a full one back.

From tank to tank the clear sap flows
To evaporators it goes;
It bubbles, boils, makes clouds of steam,
Fills the cabin from floor to beam.

A roaring fire, temperature high,
Stacks of wood in the shed near by,
Gathered many months before
To have it handy at the door.

Seems strange that maple trees should know
Just when it’s time for sap to flow.
And when a storm is passing by
They feel the east wind in the sky.

They know when it will rain or snow,
And when the cold northeast winds blow;
No sap flows then, for maple trees
Need balmy weather — warmer breeze.

The vendor’s cry is not our lot,
The amber fluid’s been canned hot
In clear glass jars where all can see
How tempting maple syrup can be.

On ice cream, waffles, pancakes, too,
No other syrup quite will do
For breakfast, dinner, and at night
To pep a waning appetite.

“Come, boys,” with busy weeks ahead,
Long, pleasant hours, few spent in bed.
With sunny days, nights freezing clime,
We know its maple sappin’ time

MapleAcres Address

MapleAcres Address

George Straka

2005-03-19

 

Four score and seven years ago, Walter Zander brought forth from these woods maple syrup conceived  in hard work and dedicated to the proposition that all people should enjoy maple syrup.

 

Now we are engaged in the great time of collecting, testing whether that maple or any other maple tree so conceived and so dedicated to giving harvest can long endure.  We are met at the time of collecting.  We have come to harvest a portion of these woods as a reminder of all who gave of their time and love of the woods to preserve and to produce the way of making maple syrup.  It is fitting and proper that we should do this.

 

Folks will little note, nor really wonder how maple syrup is made, but we can always appreciate the work that goes into such a harvest.  It is from these woods under God that produces devotion of the collecting of the maple sap.  And the sap collected from the woods, by the family, of the family, of Walter Zander shall not perish from these very mapleacres.

Maple Syrup Means….

M – Maple Sugar Trees that Stand so Tall.

A – All Trees the Good Lord Gave Us All.

P – Pure Maple Syrup that People Love.

L – Labor of Love Making Maple Syrup.

E – Enjoying Nature’s Pure Maple Syrup.

S – Sweet Sap that Drips from Maple Trees in the Spring.

Y – Your Work to Drill Holes, Pound Spouts and Hang Buckets on Maple Trees.

R – Roaming from Tree-to-Tree Collecting Sweet Maple Sap.

U – Using Evaporators to Boil Out Water Making the Sap Sweeter, Darker and Thicker as it Becomes Maple Syrup.

P –  Pouring on Pancakes, Waffles and Many Other Foods Making Them Taste sooo Delicious!

Used with permission.  Copyright 1998 Verna D. Zander

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