A Sweet Valentine's Day

The Boy and I went maple sugaring at the Cincinnati Nature Center for Valentine's Day! The center has their own classic sugar house with the boiling facilities and all amid a bunch of maple trees that they're just beginning to tap for the season. The class took us through all the steps of picking a tree, tapping, collecting, and boiling the syrup down. It was really fascinating. Here are some steps for tapping:

1. Pick a tree that is at least 10 inches in diameter at chest height.
2. When deciding where to tap, take into account large roots and branches, and try to tap above or below those a couple feet off the ground. That's where the sap supply is sure to be strong. If it's possible to tap on the south side, that's a good option, since it warms up, and the sap will flow more steadily.
3. Sterilize your drill bit in alcohol between each tree, since bacteria can be transmitted from tree to tree.
4. Drill--angling very slightly up and about an inch and a half in.
5. The taps are also called "splines." Spline is apparently a corruption of the word "spill," which is literally what the sap did when we drilled the hole.
6. When you pound the tap into the tree, listen for it to hit the back of the drilled hole--the sound of the hits becomes more resonant.
7. Hang and cover the bucket. Voila!

The sap flowed out completely clear and the consistency of water. It had a very very mild maple flavor, and just a hint of sweetness. We were told that making tea out of maple sap is absolutely fantastic, and I believe it! The folks working in the sugar house confided that in the mornings they sometimes scoop out a ladle or two of the hot sap before it gets boiling and pop a tea bag into it. The sugar house smelled absolutely like heaven--the wood fire, along with the mild smell of maple syrup cooking was wonderful.

Sap needs to be treated like milk when it comes to how perishable it is. It should be refrigerated if you're not going to boil it the same day, and once it becomes any color other than clear (brownish, or milky) it means bacteria's beginning to form, and the sap is turning.

You need about 5 gallons of sap for a pint of maple syrup--that's a whole lot of evaporating. The syrup boils in a massive vat with a series of trenches the sap moves through as it cooks. They stand by to skim off the impurities that rise to the top, and it slowly becomes one of my favorite flavors. They recommended that if you're going to make syrup on your stove top, you use 4 big pots, and slowly transfer the syrup around from pot to pot. If it stays on one place too long it darkens too quickly. How long it takes depends on the humidity, your stove, etc.

One thing I found interesting is that the thing that decides the grade of syrup is the color. "Grade B" maple syrup is simply darker and more caramelized. It also is supposed to have more maple flavor to it. That sounds great to me, yet it's the cheaper type--go figure!

Apparently there's a class on cooking with maple syrup coming up at the Nature Center, and I think we may need to get in on that too.