Making Homemade Maple Syrup in the Mohawk Valley
Just the idea of it – Collect sap from trees and turning it into sugar, and also sweet delicious syrup. How did people come up with the idea to make maple syrup??
Like most inventions, the discovery of the process of making sugar from trees, and especially maple syrup, likely came about as the result one discovery, one idea, and tweaking it just a little to see the results.
More Homemade Maple Syrup to Come!
We will be doing a series of posts about making your own maple syrup at home! The topics will cover:
1. How to properly identify Maple Trees (and other species to make syrup)
2. Correct way to tap the trees
3. Method you will use to collect the sap
4. Storage and transportation of your sap
5. How to make your own maple sap evaporator
6. Develop efficient Sap boiling process
7. Finishing the Maple Syrup
8. Filtering and storage of Maple Syrup
While the time for collecting sap has past – we are still making Homemade Maple Syrup
How it All Began
The history of making maple syrup, from what I have learned, began with the first nations people who knew about the qualities of maple sap. They taught the first Europeans to arrive on these fair shores what could be done with the sap of the Maple Trees.
Maple trees can be found predominantly in the north eastern United States and Canada. The easiest way to identify a maple tree is by its leaves. If you think about the Canadian flag, that is the shape of the Sugar Maple leaf. There are several varieties of maple trees and all can be used to collect sap and make homemade maple syrup.
So, you may ask, “How is homemade maple syrup made?”
Making maple syrup is made through the process of boiling down the maple sap until you have maple syrup. This is done through the process of evaporation and is how sugar has been made for hundreds of years. The basic steps for making your own maple syrup:
1. Identify Maple Trees that you can tap
2. Tap a few maple trees and collect the sap
3. Boil down the sap to make Maple Syrup
As with most things that are simple, there are few details and processes to consider the first time trying to make your own maple syrup.
We have added a resource page to help you learn more all about Mohawk Valley Maple Sugaring. On this page you’ll find upcoming NYS maple Weekend events in the Mohawk Valley. Additionally, there are links to more in-depth educational videos from Cornell Maple Program. We have also added links for some interesting recipes that use maple syrup. Be sure to
Thanks so much for joining us and be sure to check back again real soon! You can find more videos of our videos at Mohawk Valley Today!
