Wow! I just had the most awesome day. Sparky called me and said that his Uncle Arte was taking him to visit a Sugarbush today and that I could come along. A Sugarbush is a farm where Maple Syrup is produced every spring. Mmmm… I just love maple syrup so I was all over that! It was really interesting – I learned all about the process of making maple syrup.
We got to the Sugarbush and we climbed onto a tractor-drawn wagon for a ride to the Sugar Shack, where they make the syrup. As we drove through the maple trees, we could see taps in all the maple trees. Tapping a maple tree is how you collect the sap. The farmers bore a hole in the tree and insert a tap then hang a bucket underneath to catch the sap. In cold weather, starch stored inside maple trees converts to sugar in the sap and in the spring the sap is collected and turned into maple syrup. The sap runs best when nights are cold and days are warm so spring is the perfect time to collect it.
The farmers collect the buckets of sap from the trees and take it to the Sugar Shack, where it will be boiled down over an open fire to get rid of all the impurities. This can be a very tricky process because if the sap is boiled for too long, it will crystallize and make the syrup gritty, but if it’s not boiled for long enough the syrup will be too watery and can go off quickly.
After it is boiled down to the correct temperature, it is strained through a special filter to remove impurities then it is allowed to cool for 12 hours or more. It is reheated again to almost boiling before being poured into clean glass jugs.
While the farmer was boiling the syrup, he took a ladleful and poured some onto the snow. In the cold snow it immediately hardened into chunks of maple candy and the farmer gave it to us to eat. It was so sweet and delicious!
In the farmhouse they were making pancakes and sausage. We each got a plateful and took it outside to sit on picnic tables around an open fire where we had our lunch with fresh maple syrup from the Sugarbush.
What a great day! But oh man – am I ever stuffed!
We went to a sugarbush today! It was sooo fun! We had maple popcorn, maple fudge, maple syrup, maple tofee and maple lolipops. We went to make little bird feeders out of Fruit Loops, Cheerios, Cranberes, Rasins, and mangoes. Then we decarated bags and wrote our names on them. We even went on a horse drawn wagon ride!
Cool! Glad you had a good time, but personally, I don’t really like pancakes. I like waffles, though. I’m weird that way.
~~O~~SapphireSea~*~*~*~
omg this is soo cool love mapel syrup hey maybe u can get me in 4 free wink
Has anyone ever had sugar cane? YUM THE BEST STUFF EVER!
Hi Alex! That looks like fun! Were sure we would have a great time!