Maple Syrup: Maple Memories

Maple Memories!

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When I was a child, I remember I never really liked sweet things; ice-cream, cookies, candies, cake, those sorts of things! Although I wasn't a fan of sweet treats, I absolutely loved maple syrup. Anything with maple syrup I loved!

When I was around 7 years old, my Aunt and Uncle decided that they would take me to the sugar bush and show me how real maple syrup is made. This is one of my most favorite memories growing up because I remember being so happy and excited to learn something new.

While I was at the sugar bush I learned lots of things. I learned that there were two main parts of making maple syrup; 1) collecting the sap from the maple trees and 2) getting the sap to a sugar house where it gets boiled into real maple syrup. Of course there's lots more work than simply collecting and boiling the sap, the diagram below shows what has to happen in order to get this golden liquid into stores.

how maple syrup is made

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Now while I was in the sugar bush, I got to see the tapping process. The maple trees being tapped have a metal spout in the trunk of the tree, with a metal pail under it to catch the dripping sap. I remembered at the start of the tour through the maple bushes the tour guide said at the end we would be able to try some of this pure maple syrup, and I think that was the best part of the trip.

When we got to the end of the trail, there was a man with a pan of snow in front of him and what looked like to be spilled maple syrup in it. Right away I thought that we wouldn't be able to try any, since he spilled it in the snow, but he quickly explained that he was making "Maple Taffy". He then took a wooden popsicle stick and twirled it around the maple syrup in the snow. The maple syrup stuck to the stick and looked like candy. The man then handed it over to me and told me that that is maple taffy!

Below I'll include some things I saw while at the sugar bush;