Maple Syrup - A History
The first people believed to have produced maple syrup (and maple sugar as well, for that matter) are the pre-contact native peoples residing in the northeastern portion of North America.
Their oral traditions and archeological evidence state that maple tree sap was processed for its sugar content way before Europeans arrived in the area.
It was the the Algonquins who recognized the sap of the maple tree as a good source of energy and nutrition.
They used stone tools at the beginning of spring to make deep V-shaped incisions in the barks of the trees, inserting reeds into them and letting the sap collect in their buckets.
The sap was then concentrated by dropping very hot cooking stones in the buckets, allowing the water to evaporate.
An alternative to this was leaving the buckets overnight and exposed to cold temperatures, after which they would dispose of the layer of ice that has formed on top.
During the early years of European colonization, the native peoples showed their colonists the process of boring holes into the trunks of the maple trees, harvesting and boiling to produce maple syrup.
This activity then quickly became integrated into colonial life.
The Europeans improved the methods using their more advanced technologies.
A larger number of trees were contained, more sap was harvested, and the transport became more convenient.
By the 1850s, gatherers no longer needed to camp with their families nearby the maple trees so they can also boil the sap there.
Sugarhouses became the places where this was done, to which transportation was done via horses and oxen.
Maple syrup was called "country sugar," being the only sugar available due to its availability and cheap cost.
Technology for boiling improved since then, and in the 1970s, tubing systems were perfected so that the sap can come directly from the tree to the evaporator house.
Vacuum pumps later were added to these tubing systems, while pre-heaters were developed for the recycling of steam heat being expended.
To help take water out of the sap before boiling, reverse osmosis machines were made.
More advanced technology is sure to improve these current processes in gathering and boiling maple sap to turn it into maple syrup, and you can be sure of that.
Their oral traditions and archeological evidence state that maple tree sap was processed for its sugar content way before Europeans arrived in the area.
It was the the Algonquins who recognized the sap of the maple tree as a good source of energy and nutrition.
They used stone tools at the beginning of spring to make deep V-shaped incisions in the barks of the trees, inserting reeds into them and letting the sap collect in their buckets.
The sap was then concentrated by dropping very hot cooking stones in the buckets, allowing the water to evaporate.
An alternative to this was leaving the buckets overnight and exposed to cold temperatures, after which they would dispose of the layer of ice that has formed on top.
During the early years of European colonization, the native peoples showed their colonists the process of boring holes into the trunks of the maple trees, harvesting and boiling to produce maple syrup.
This activity then quickly became integrated into colonial life.
The Europeans improved the methods using their more advanced technologies.
A larger number of trees were contained, more sap was harvested, and the transport became more convenient.
By the 1850s, gatherers no longer needed to camp with their families nearby the maple trees so they can also boil the sap there.
Sugarhouses became the places where this was done, to which transportation was done via horses and oxen.
Maple syrup was called "country sugar," being the only sugar available due to its availability and cheap cost.
Technology for boiling improved since then, and in the 1970s, tubing systems were perfected so that the sap can come directly from the tree to the evaporator house.
Vacuum pumps later were added to these tubing systems, while pre-heaters were developed for the recycling of steam heat being expended.
To help take water out of the sap before boiling, reverse osmosis machines were made.
More advanced technology is sure to improve these current processes in gathering and boiling maple sap to turn it into maple syrup, and you can be sure of that.