When is maple syrup made

At Heifer Farm, we use a large-scale evaporator in a sugar house. Sap is officially maple syrup when it reads 66 percent sugar content on a hydrometer or degrees on a candy thermometer. Strain the hot syrup through felt or cheesecloth. Store at room temperature in a cool, dark location or in the refrigerator or freezer.

Enjoy on pancakes, waffles and French toast. Real maple syrup is also great for sweetening beverages and flavoring salad dressing, vegetables, meat and baked goods. Lifestyle changes that are realistic and attainable can be more effective at fighting climate change than an overwhelming overhaul of your life.

Please enable Javascript in your browser. Some features of the site will not work without Javascript enabled. Phone: Many people ask us when they visit "when is maple season" or "when is maple syrup made". There is no such thing as a dumb question so we're here to help with your maple syrup production questions. The short answer is- maple syrup is made in the winter and spring.

This is somewhat of a generalization as some regions may start a little earlier and end a little later. But in general the whole crop is harvested and produced in this short 3 month window. Maple syrup comes from the sap of the maple tree. Although maple trees grow all over the world it is only in North Eastern North America that we get the correct climatic conditions to harvest maple sap. In our part of the world the spring of the year brings cold night and warm days- above freezing during the day and below freezing at night.

Over the next 40 years, the family transformed the property into a conservation area with ponds, nature trails and a hand-operated maple syrup operation.

Image: White Meadows Farms. The Bering family settled on a acre farm in , originally raising dairy cows, growing grapes and producing cash crops. In the family began experimenting with maple syrup harvesting, and by , the practice had evolved and passed down among relatives. In , the family began serving their maple syrup and pancakes to visitors outside a modified greenhouse called The Pancake Hut. As well as learning about the history of White Meadows Farms and the production of their indulgent maple syrup, you can buy some to take home.

The farm also has a cosy pancake house and offers visitors horse-drawn wagon rides through their beautiful woodland trails. Image: Sandy Flat Sugar Bush. Set in rural Warkworth , the farm is open seasonally from 10am-2pm and offers a huge range of maple syrup products. In the last three weeks of March and at the weekends throughout April, the pancake house opens for delicious pancake breakfasts.

Be sure to call ahead to reserve a spot at the table. This year it took place on 10 th and 11 th of March. Full steam ahead! JulieCTV pic. The craft of maple syrup making has been passed down through eight generations of the Crinklaw family, which takes great pride in producing high-quality maple syrup. Arriving from Scotland in , the Crinklaw family settled on the farm and harvested maple sugar in the spring with their community.

The family business has gone from strength to strength and now runs 11, taps during maple syrup season. A magnificent Fall day. Restaurant is open, music is playing, workshops are in motion. Settling on a acre plot of woodland, including thousands of maple trees, the brothers are said to have learned the craft of maple syrup making from First Nations people.

Several stalls within this colourful market sell maple syrup bottles and products. Tapping involves going from tree to tree in the sugarbush, drilling holes into the wood which carries the sap. A cover is put on the bucket to keep out rain, snow, and debris. If a plastic tubing system is used to collect the sap, a plastic spout, which is connected to the pipeline system, is tapped into the hole in the tree.

The maple tree must be a least 10 inches in diameter and in good health before it can be tapped. It usually takes about forty years before a tree will reach tappable size. The hole is usually placed about waist high on the tree, and not near previous tapholes. Larger trees may take as many as three or four taps, but only if they are healthy. The sugarmaker has a feeling of respect for his trees and knows they must take care of this tree which provides for them. Trees that are in poor health or have been defoliated by insects are often tapped less, or not tapped at all.

If proper tapping procedures are followed, tapping will not endanger the health and vitality of the tree. A healthy sugar maple can provide sap every year for a hundred years or more. Throughout the 4—6 week sugar season, each tap hole will yield approximately ten gallons of sap.

The average amount of syrup that can be made from this ten gallons of sap is about one quart. These amounts vary greatly from year to year, and depend upon the length of the season, the sweetness of the sap, and many complex conditions of nature, such as weather conditions, soil, tree genetics, and tree health. These must alternate and be in long enough series to allow the sap to move in the trees. For the first time each season the sap will drip into a bucket or slowly start to flow down the tubing system towards a collection tank.

Prolonged periods of either below freezing temperatures or days without freezing nights will stop the sap flow. As a result, sugarhouses often start and stop boiling at different times due to local climatological factors.

The gentle geographic progression is a reverse of the fall foliage season.