If you go down in the Sugar Maple Woods Today, Be Prepared for a Big Surprise. You'll Find An Authentic Sugar Shack in Full Swing.

There are but a few things that come to the top of your mind as soon as you think about the country of Canada.

They are:

1. winter, that seems to last forever;
2. the game of hockey;
3. and maple leaves.

It seems that you can't travel too far down any given road in Canada without being reminded of these 3 things.

Hahaha! Seriously, I'm not joking. I took this picture last night on our way home from the sugar maple woods.

The truck's tail-gate is painted to represent our country's flag which has a red maple leaf, dead centre in the middle of it. Plus, there's a few hockey sticks and a collection of shovels sticking out of the truck's box. 

Grab your rubber boots and your winter coat so that you can join me in the middle of the woods as we forage directly from a mature stand of sugar maple trees!

(I definitely needed mine.)

In Canada, we are currently in the middle of harvesting sugar maple sap which is called xylem sap.

It is typically foraged from sugar maple, red maple or black maple trees. These trees are all, very specific species of the maple tree, in which there are about 13 different known varieties.

At the beginning of winter, the trees produce a clear, sugary sap which gets stored in its trunk and roots. As winter slips away into the hopeful embrace of Spring, our Canadian days get warmer (above 0 degrees Celsius) while our nights still plummet below freezing.

These warm days and cold nights trigger the sugar maple trees to move the sap they have stored in their roots and lower trunks, up their tree bodies to their limbs. (This sap is used by the trees as their energy source and it is what they use to produce buds which eventually grow into their leaves in later spring and early summer.)

This process was originally discovered by the Indigenous people of North America. They were the first group of people to forage (by tapping into the trunks of the trees), harvest (by collecting the colourless sap in sealed vessels) and transform this plant material into concentrated dark syrup. They used fire and hot stones to boil the xylem sap for long periods of time until it transformed into a thicker very sticky syrup. This thick syrup is also very sweet and has a distinct maple aroma and flavour. It is the pure essence of the tree.

Today, we know that nutritionally, maple syrup is high in manganese, riboflavin, calcium, magnesium, potassium and zinc. It is one of the best natural sweeteners on our planet.

Canada produces 85% of the world's total maple syrup production which all happens in approximately 8 weeks, from mid February to mid April.

Of all the Canadian provinces, Quebec produces the most syrup and they actually have a maple syrup marketing board. Harvesters in Quebec, have quotas and maple trees are planted specifically for the purpose of producing sap. A full transport truck-size, stainless-steel tank of sap has a street value of about $1 million dollars. It's very regulated as an industry and is a multi-million dollar export business, for our country.

In Ontario, it is still legal to harvest the sap from maple trees without too much government hoop jumping if you are just harvesting for your own personal use and aren't selling your production commercially. 

In my area, (which is eastern Ontario) the sap harvest started on February 18th, 2017.

@knarly327 and I were invited into a sugar maple woods, where there are 115 mature trees currently being foraged from through a process called tapping. 

Here we go...

You can see how muddy it is. This is why it is advisable to wear rubber boots or old footwear that you don't mind getting dirty. There is still the odd bit of snow on the ground in patches.

We parked our car at the side of the road and hiked approximately a 1/4 mile into the woods which was up-hill. You can see some of the sugar shack (that's what the larger outbuilding is called).

This is quite an elaborate sugar shack. The small square building with the little rectangular window and long overhang on the roof, is a very well appointed outhouse. (Nature is likely going to call, at some point, while you are in the woods.) ;)

Welcome! The name of the woods and the sugar shack is "Crowbush Hill, Sugarbush". The woods and the shack are owned by a fellow whose nickname is "Crow". Apparently, this was given to him by his older brothers when he was just a young lad.

The transformation of the sap into syrup magically happens over long periods of boiling and evaporating time in the shack. (Over watchful eyes, with extreme dedication and attention to detail, I might add.)

Let's look at how the sap is harvested, shall we?

In this tree, you can see 2 taps are in place. They are feeding into plastic tubing that is then feeding into these large plastic water jugs. 

In this bucket, you can see that it is almost 3/4 full of clear sap. It is filling the bucket one drip at a time. The sap flows quickly when the temperature outside is warm during the day and cold at night. These buckets need to be emptied, every other day while harvesting is taking place.

When the trees are being tapped and harvested responsibly, by people who care about the health of their maple tree forests, only 7% of the trees' total sap production will be siphoned off. This ensures that the tree will not be harmed or killed in the process. (In my opinion, the process is similar to humans donating blood. Just enough vital life force is taken to create a benefit for others.)

The clear jugs with their sap are then emptied into larger containers. About 55 of these jugs are collected at any one particular time.

This fluid is then emptied into a large barrel which is located just outside the sugar shack.

You can see some chunks of sap ice floating on the top. Just a reminder that it's only the early days of the Spring season and it's still cold outside. This barrel, feeds directly (via a pump), into the 2 stage evaporator which is wood- fired. The evaporator is located just inside one end of the shack.

The evaporator is boiling and bubbling. Notice that the wood is cut quite small. This is to keep the fire raging quite hot for hours on end. The fire requires regular feeding every 20 minutes during the course of a whole day of syrup production.

A rolling boil as the sap begins to concentrate in sugar and water is evaporated off.

Feeding the fire is a labour of love and care.

There is always orange flames.

Fresh sap is being pumped into the evaporator at the far end. At this end, you can see that a colour change is starting to happen. Maple Syrup, when the correct level of concentrated sugar is achieved and the sap is siphoned from the middle of the total harvest run, is a darker brown colour.

This sap is about 10% away from being finished syrup. It is still very liquid and tastes like a hot sweet tea. You have to be careful not to drink too much of it as it's one of the best natural laxatives. (You'll just have to trust me when I say it's hard to drink only a little bit of this elixir because it tastes so good. Fair warning to all, if you ever get a chance to try the syrup at this stage in its production. Go easy on it or you'll find yourself stuck in the loo.) ;)

Syrup made from the sap taken from the beginning of the run isn't as dark in colour.

Here I am, checking the sugar content of the syrup through an apparatus called a refractometer. The sap was reading at 55. When it reaches 66, it will be considered syrup and will be ready to bottle.

This is what it looks like, in it's finished form:

The tall cylindrical bottle is syrup from Quebec. The bottle with the maple leaf on it, is "Crowbush Hill" syrup.

In addition, maple syrup can easily be turned into candy by heating it again on a stove top or open fire. It's a fantastic treat, for young and old alike.

Heat the syrup to a boil, again.

It just takes a few minutes...

Then, you spoon it right over top of clean snow! (I said clean!!! No yellow. Ever.)

Here's the progression:

The sticks are for ease and portability.

Let's see some action:

(This video was uploaded to YouTube by @knarly327 on Scrap Fe's channel.)

Getting to eat maple taffy on a stick is about as "Canadian" as it gets and is also a Steemit reporter perk, for sure.

This is an old tree that had to be cut down because it split and would have landed right on top of the sugar shack.

It was approximately 150 years old and would have been one of the first original maple trees in these woods. The holes, at various intervals of history, are from original maple taps or spiles. We used original spiles which had hooks that buckets would hang off of, only about 30 years ago. This is what they looked like:

Then, we moved to plastic and hoses which accommodate larger collecting jugs or vessels and minimize the challenge of over-flowing sap pails. In large commercial productions the sap collection is even more automated. Pails and buckets no longer need to be collected by hand.

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

Thanks for joining me in the woods today on Crowbush Hill, Ontario Canada.

I welcome your comments and invite you to follow me on my journey.

~ Rebecca Ryan