22 July: Maple Syrup Day

Today is Maple Syrup Day. 10 things you might not know about maple syrup:

1. Maple syrup is made from the sap of three of the thirteen species of maple tree native to Canada: sugar maple, red maple, or black maple. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before winter. In the spring, this is converted to sugar which rises in the sap.
2. Maple syrup was first collected and used by the indigenous peoples of North America. We don't know how it began but according to legend, it was the Squirrels that taught the men how to make it. Native American tribes would celebrate the Sugar Moon, the first full moon of spring, with Maple Dances, and would use maple syrup or sugar in cooking the way we use salt.
3. When the sap comes out of the tree, it looks just like water. To turn it into syrup it must be boiled to evaporate the water. The Native Americans used to drop hot cooking stones into the buckets or alternatively, leave it outside overnight and simply remove the ice in the morning. These days it is boiled at a temperature of 4.1 °C (7.4 °F) over the boiling point of water. It takes roughly 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup.
4. There is a relatively short window for harvesting the sap in spring. When the weather starts to get warmer, and the tree starts budding, the syrup doesn't taste so nice, possibly because of amino acids.
5. 75% of the world's maple syrup is produced in Quebec, Canada. When scientists discovered a new compound that is produced during the syrup production process, they called it quebecol. The US state of Vermont produces about 5.5% of the world's supply. The sugar maple is Vermont's state tree.
6. Maple syrup is graded according to colour and taste. The lighter the golden or amber colour, the milder the taste. The earlier in the season the sap is harvested, the lighter the colour of the syrup.
7. If your maple syrup goes mouldy (it never lasts long enough in my house for this to happen!) they say you need not bin it. Scoop off the mould and and heat it up to 180 degrees F. This will kill any remaining Bacteria and once it's cooled, it's fine to eat.
8. A maple tree has to be about 40 years old before it can be tapped for maple syrup.
9. Maple syrup is mostly sugar, of course, but 100g also contains just under half your daily recommended intake of Zinc and well over 100% of your daily manganese intake.
10. Abolitionists before and during the US Civil War used maple syrup instead of the cane sugar which was produced by slaves.