Maple Syrup

Real maple syrup is a delicious and healthy sweetener harvested from the sap of maple trees. Maple syrup is used as a popular topping for pancakes and waffles and it even goes good with french toast. It is also used as a baking ingredient for candy and in desserts.

In the spring, if you drill a hole in a maple tree it will start to drip a watery type substance called sap. When boiled this substance turns into maple syrup. It takes 30 to 40 gallons of sap from the maple tree to turn into one gallon of maple syrup. There are several states and provinces that produce maple syrup in North America.

The Native Americans were the first people to make maple syrup. They would use their tomahawks to make a V shaped cut in the tree and use reeds or pieces of bark to run the sap into buckets.

Fast Facts

1. Tapping a maple tree for the sap does no permanent damage to the tree
2. It takes one gallon of syrup to produce 8 lbs of candy
3. You can freeze maple syrup to extend its life indefinitely
4. Most syrups sold as pancake syrups are not true maple syrup

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