UNIT STUDY ON MAPLE SYRUP - If you send us your children’s stories, photos, etc to us we will feature several each week on the website - send them by email or mail - if you send them by mail and want them back please send a SASE
- If your children bring their project notebooks to our festival we will display them in a special place and then they can take them back home to complete and save
Notes about using the unit study: · Math problems are presented on several levels, # 1 being the easiest, and # 4 being the hardest. The math problems use word problems dealing with actual facts about our Sugarbush. Don’t feel like you have to do all the problems, we gave you plenty. Feel free as parents or teachers to change any of the numbers in the problems to match your child’s or students’ ability. (I.e. If your child or student does not yet do carrying and place value, change 5 numbers that add up to 21 (like in the 1 level question in the math section of the Boiling part of the study) to 5 numbers that add up to 9 instead.) Email us for answers or help if you get stuck. · Language Arts – writing assignments are to be done on the child’s level, very young children can just discuss the reading or dictate a narration, older children can write a paragraph or short essay, high school students can write a more extensive report as decided by the parent · Don’t feel obligated to use every activity in this unit study – some may not appeal to you, others you may want to spend more than one day on · It is not necessary to use every link provided – I have included all the quality pertinent links I could find about each subject, some of them may have repetitive information, it is interesting to look at them all because of the different pictures on every site · Websites used as resources are marked with numbers 1 through 5 to indicate age appropriateness using this key: § 1 very young age § 2 elementary age § 3 middle school age § 4 high school age § 5 high school – adult, very technical Of course, any of the sites I have indicated for younger children are still interesting for older students and adults. Also, many of you may want to use material I have marked for older children and read only parts of it to younger children. Many of the sites marked for older readers have wonderful pictures that younger students would enjoy. · Using a 3-ring binder and protective plastic sleeves, save your writing, lab reports and artwork for future reference and to enjoy WEEK 1 Indian Syrup Making Language Arts - Read a book from the following list about Indian maple sugar making and discuss it or write a paragraph or short book report. - The Maple Syrup Book by Marilyn Linton, Lesley Fairfield (ages
8-12, 48 pgs) - Ininatig’s Gift of Sugar : Traditional Native Sugarmaking by Laura Waterman Wittstock (ages 9-11, 48 pgs)
- The Maple Sugar Book by Helen and Scott Nearing (high school - adult, 273 pgs)
- Sweet Maple : Life, Lore and Recipes from the Sugarbush by James Lawrence and Rux Martin (high school - adult, 223 pgs)
History - Read about Indian syrup making http://www.projects.yrdsb.edu.on.ca/pioneer/syrup.htm also presents pioneer syrup making 1 http://members.iquest.net/~childers/maple/native.html1 1 http://www.kstrom.net/isk/food/maple.html 3-4 http://www.enaturalist.org/topic.htm?topic_ID=59 2-3 http://www.mi-maplesyrup.com/Information/info_hist.htm 3-4 http://www.runningdeerslonghouse.com/webdoc121.htm 3-4 http://www.montshire.net/minute/mm010326.html 3-4 http://ohioline.osu.edu/b856/b856_5.html 4-5 AND/OR Read about the Indians’ legend of the origins of maple syrup and sugar making http://bcn.net/~thatcher/the.htm 1-3 http://www.maple-erable.qc.ca/history.html 1-3 http://www.chms.k12.vt.us/dy-maplesyrp.html#Boiling 1-3 http://www.mi-maplesyrup.com/Information/info_hist.htm 3-4 http://gomez.mkl.com/jeffs/maple/syrup.html 2-4 NATIVE AMERICAN MAPLE SYRUP AND SUGAR MAKING The first maple syrup and sugar makers were the Native Americans of what is now the United States and Canada. The Native American men provided most of the food for the family, but when it came time to make maple syrup and sugar, the women owned and used all the means of producing the maple crop. Just as the Native Americans traveled around following the herds of buffalo and other game, they traveled every spring to the forest where the sugar maples were. Sugar-making time was a great time of festivity and celebration with much dancing and feasting. The Native Americans used the tools available to them at the time and in order to release the sap from the maples deep gashes were cut in the maple trees with hatchets. This method allowed a large amount of sap to flow but it often killed the trees. Small, hand-carved, wooden troughs were inserted in each gash to direct the flow of sap into a birch bark container set on the ground at the base of the tree. Sometimes large containers made of animal hides (usually moose hide) were used to hold the sap collected from the smaller bark vessels until it was time to boil it down. The Native Americans used several different methods to make syrup and sugar from sap. To remove as much water from the sap as possible before boiling they would let the sap freeze overnight for several nights and remove the ice from the top each morning. The ice contained no sugar, only water, so this was effective in reducing the amount of boiling to be done. Then they would boil the sap in pottery or birch bark vessels over a fire. Even though the pottery was fired and birch bark is inflammable, neither one of these vessels could withstand the direct heat of the fire for the long periods of time it takes to make syrup or sugar. The most widely used method was to constantly add rocks, heated directly in a fire, to sap in a hollowed out log. Since it was more difficult to store liquid syrup than the dry sugar, most of the Native Americans' maple crop was turned into maple sugar. Sometimes it was boiled until most of the water was boiled out and poured into carved wooden molds to make hard sugar cakes in the shapes of stars, flowers or animals. More commonly it was boiled until all the water was removed to produce loose, coarse crystals of maple sugar that were stored in birch bark boxes called mokuks. The Native Americans used maple sugar much as we would salt, sprinkling it on food or mixing it with hominy and bear's oil, or venison and bear's oil. They boiled their wheat in it, mixed it with Indian corn and often added the maple sugar to water for a cool, refreshing drink. It was also an item commonly used for trade. Science – Freeze 2 cups of water mixed with 2 teaspoons of sugar in a flat bowl or pan. Check it after an hour and remove any ice that has formed on top. Taste the ice, is the ice sweet? Remove the ice every half hour until only a half cup or so of water is left. Is the water less sweet or sweeter than it was to begin with? How would this have been an advantage for the Indians if they removed the ice from their sap every day before boiling it? Math – Historians estimate that the Indians who made maple sugar consumed 120 pounds of it each year. Using this information, work one or more of the following word problems: 1 How many pounds of maple sugar would a family consisting of a grandmother, mother, father, an uncle and two teenage children have consumed each year? 2 If it takes an average of 5 gallons of sap to make one pound of maple sugar (40 gallons sap to make 1 gallon syrup, 1 gallon syrup yields 8 pounds sugar), how many gallons of sap would a tribe have to collect to make the 24,000 pounds of sugar needed to feed the tribe for one year? 3 It is estimated that Americans eat an average of 138 pounds of refined sugar each year. What percentage of this did the Indians consume each year? 4 One gallon of sap weighs about 8.4 pound. There are 2000 pounds in one ton. Using the information in question 2 calculate the weight of sap (in tons) collected to make the 24,000 pounds of sugar. Art – Draw or paint a picture of Indian syrup making using the following links for ideas: http://collections.ic.gc.ca/heirloom_series/volume4/220-221.htm This lithograph and engraving show the Indians making syrup with a combination of their original methods (the hollowed out log gathering sap by the tree) and with the equipment they learned about from the Pioneers (the buckets and yoke, and the kettles) http://www.kstrom.net/isk/art/art_minn.html double click to enlarge the wash drawing labeled Tapping Maple Trees, for a nice picture of the early Indian method of gathering sap http://members.iquest.net/~childers/maple/conner.html The picture shows the Indian method of heating rocks in a fire and putting them into a hollowed out log filled with sap to heat the sap and evaporate the water from it to make it into syrup or sugar. Note: All patterns for artwork are at the bottom of this page, they take a while to load. AND/OR Make a mokuk The Native Americans stored their maple sugar in "mokuks" and made small "mokuks" for their children to have their own maple sugar containers. These were made from birch bark, cut to shape, folded, and stitched together. http://www.tourcar.com/erabliere/eng/history.htm a picture of a mokuk
AND/OR MAKE A NATIVE AMERICAN "BARK LOLLIPOP" The Native Americans made a fun way for their children to eat their maple sugar. From birch bark they made “bark lollipops” in a cone shape with a long tassel of animal skin and beads. The cone was then filled with maple sugar. Another use for it was to fill it with snow mixed with maple syrup - a tasty treat. Just think - this may have been the first ice cream cone!!!! Use the pattern and instructions at the bottom of this page to make your own “bark lollipop.” Additional note: http://ep.k12.ri.us/Hennessey/NativeAmericans.html looks like a great site with links for studying Indian culture. Week Two Pioneer Syrup Making Language Arts - Read Chapters 7 & 8 in the Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder and write a paragraph about the Pioneer method of syrup making presented in the book *** extra credit – write several paragraphs comparing and contrasting the drawings in the Big Woods book with the Currier and Ives and Grandma Moses paintings in the Art project for this section History - Read about pioneer syrup making http://www.projects.yrdsb.edu.on.ca/pioneer/syrup.htm 1 http://members.iquest.net/~childers/maple/settler.html 1 http://www.runningdeerslonghouse.com/webdoc121.htm 3-4 http://ohioline.osu.edu/b856/b856_5.html 4-5 The people in these pictures are boiling sap in kettles like the settlers did. http://www.quietvalley.org/maple_sugar_gallery.html AND/OR Discuss or write about the following: How was maple syrup related to slavery during Thomas Jefferson’s time? http://www.vtonly.com/hstymar7.htm 2+ AND/OR How was maple syrup related to the Civil War? http://members.iquest.net/~childers/maple/protest.html 1 http://www.runningdeerslonghouse.com/webdoc121.htm 3-4 PIONEER MAPLE SYRUP AND SUGAR MAKING When the early settlers came to North America they had to be their own farmers, blacksmiths, builders and hunters, in short they had to do everything for themselves. The Native Americans taught the settlers to do many new things and one of these was maple syrup making. The pioneers added their own innovations and equipment to make syrup making easier. A hole was drilled in the tree with an auger and a spile (a tube with a hollow center) made of elderberry, cedar or pine was inserted in the hole to direct the sap into the wooden bucket set beneath the tree. This did not damage the tree like the method they had learned from the Native Americans. The sap was gathered in wooden buckets and carried two at a time on wooden shoulder yokes. The buckets were carried from each tree to a large barrel on a sled pulled by horses or oxen to the place it was to be boiled. The settlers at first did not build any type of sugarhouse in which to boil the sap, but boiled out in the open. Later, when evaporation methods changed, permanent buildings were constructed. When the settlers arrived in North America they brought copper and cast iron kettles that they used for everything from washing clothes and making soap to cooking soup and stew. They also used these kettles for boiling their sap into syrup or sugar. The kettle was hung from a tripod over an open fire and new sap added as the old was evaporated away. This produced strong, dark syrup since the original sap cooked in the kettle all day long. Later, three kettles were hung from a horizontal pole braced between two trees or other poles, allowing the sap to be transferred to a different kettle as it got closer to being syrup. This produced lighter syrup with a much more desirable flavor. The pioneers made much of their maple crop into sugar, as the Native Americans had. The thickened syrup was poured into any available container, allowed to harden and then stored. When maple sugar was needed it was chipped off with a knife. Maple sugar became so valuable to the settlers that it was actually used as a form money in trading and bartering. During the late 1800's syrup making was so important to the pioneer family that the school children were given what was called a "sugaring off holiday." This was not a holiday for fun however, it was a time to help the family produce their yearly crop of maple syrup and sugar. Leane and Michael's Sugarbush pure maple syrup is available on the MAPLE SRYUP page of this site to use for the following projects. Science - Make sugar on snow (use crushed ice if you don’t have snow) http://www.vermontmaple.org/recipes.htm http://www.wildanimalpark.com/kids/science_maple_candy.html Math – 1-4 Make a maple syrup recipe. In order to learn about fractions use a ¼ cup measure for all measuring (i.e. 1 cup flour will be measured as four ¼ cups) http://www.ucdsb.on.ca/athens/maple/recipe7.htm This is a good cake recipe with measures that can all be divided by ¼. Other recipes using maple syrup can be found at the very end of the unit study and can be used to learn about 1/3 cup, ½ cup, etc. 3-4 If Mrs. Goering is making the following cookie recipe to serve at a field trip and the recipe makes 3 dozen cookies, does she need to double or triple the recipe to have enough cookies for 2 cookies for each of the 24 children at the field trip? Figure the amount of each ingredient Mrs. Goering will need to make this double or triple batch. How many cookies will she have left over? Pretend Cookie Recipe (Don’t try this recipe – it is made up for fraction practice only!!) 1 ¼ cup butter 3 2/3 cups flour 1 1/3 cups brown sugar ½ cup maple syrup 2 1/8 teaspoons baking powder 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla 1 egg ¼ teaspoon salt Try this real recipe for maple cookies if you want – they are delicious!!! The fractions in this recipe are just too easy to make the math challenging and fun. MAPLE SYRUP COOKIES 1 cup butter 2 cups white flour 1 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 cup Leane and Michael's Sugarbush pure maple syrup 2 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1 egg Cream butter with blender until softened; add egg, brown sugar and maple syrup and beat until smooth. Add the baking powder, salt and half the flour. Beat on low speed of mixer until mixed and then on medium for 2 minutes. Add remaining flour and stir in. Wrap dough and chill at least 1 hour. Roll portions of dough on lightly floured surface to 1/4" thickness and cut with cookie cutters. Bake on ungreased cookie sheets in 375 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove, cool and frost with frosting if desired. FROSTING 2 cups sifted powdered sugar 2 Tblsps Leane and Michael's Sugarbush pure maple syrup 1 to 2 Tblsps milk Stir together powdered sugar and maple syrup; add enough milk to bring frosting to desired consistency. Art - Study the Currier and Ives painting entitled “Maple Sugaring” shown on this site, name the processes you see taking place, draw or paint a pioneer syrup making picture of your own using what you learned in Little House in the Big Woods, the Currier and Ives painting and the Grandma Moses painting below: http://www.currierandives.com/ (click on Rural Life Prints gallery) Study the Grandma Moses painting entitled “Sugaring Off” shown on one of these sites – name the processes you see taking place, use these ideas to make the drawing of your own I mentioned above: http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?aid=85097&item=323457 http://artwork.barewalls.com/product/artwork.exe?ARTWORKID=85983&ITEMID=85983 This site has a great biography of Grandma Moses: http://www.nhcs.k12.in.us/staff/pbortka/studentwork/arthistory/Moses/grandma%20Moses.html 2+ This site has a great art project using other Grandma Moses paintings in addition to the painting studied above (which is mistitled “Maple Sugaring” in this site) http://www.arches.uga.edu/~tybo/crkplans.html You can also look at this photograph of pioneer syrup making for ideas for your picture: http://www.maplesunday.com/history.html This site has a picture of a sled and barrel full of sap pulled by a horse and a picture of an old maple sugar mold being filled to make maple sugar blocks: http://www.tourcar.com/erabliere/eng/photos.htm Note: All patterns for artwork are at the bottom of this page, they take a while to load. MAKE YOUR OWN PIONEER YOKE AND SAP BUCKETS The Native Americans taught the pioneers to make maple syrup and maple sugar and the Pioneers added innovations of their own to the process. The Pioneers had wooden buckets so they used them to collect and carry the sap. Two full buckets of sap were very heavy to carry so the pioneers carried them on a shoulder yoke. You can make a yoke with two sap buckets using this pattern, two catsup containers from a fast food restaurant (or two film canisters) and some string. Transfer this pattern to a piece of cardboard, punch out the two marked holes and paint it light brown. Paint the catsup containers light brown if you want and paint two black bands for iron hoops. Punch a hole in opposite sides of the tops of each catsup container and make a handle with string or cardboard. Tie a 5” piece of string to each hole in the yoke and to the sap bucket handles. The pattern is sized to fit Barbie and Ken or similar sized dolls. History of Maple Syrup Making The Native Americans were the first maple syrup makers. Legend has it that an Iroquois chief, Woksis, before leaving to hunt one March morning, removed his tomahawk from the tree in which he had embedded it the night before. After he removed it the day turned warmer, causing the sap to flow and fill a trough left standing by the base of the tree. The chief's squaw, Moqua, being careful and wasteful of nothing, used the liquid for cooking their evening meal of moose meat. The cooking turned the sap to syrup, providing them with a flavorful meal never tasted before. Of course this is only a legend and no one really knows how maple syrup making began. The Native Americans' methods of making maple syrup and sugar are quite fascinating. Deep gashes were cut in the tree allowing the sap to flow into vessels made of birch bark and seamed with pine resin. This method caused much sap to be wasted and caused injury and death to many trees. The sap was then transferred into clay or wooden (hollowed out logs) troughs or leather pouches, and hot rocks were dropped, again and again, into the sap until enough water was evaporated to make syrup or sugar. The Native Americans made most of their maple sap into maple sugar because the sugar was much easier to store and transport than the liquid syrup. They stored large sugar blocks or loose granulated sugar in special birch bark boxes called mokuks. The sugar was used as food, sold or used for barter. The Native Americans used maple water (sap or sugar added to water), or sugar in most all of their cooking. The maple water was used as a broth in which to cook their fish and meat. Their everyday gruel and corn cakes were flavored with maple, and maple sugar was sprinkled on a variety of foods before cooking. They also made sugar candies in greased molds carved from soft wood. These molds were made in the shapes of moons, stars, flowers, leaves, animals and men. When the settlers arrived in America, the Indians introduced them to many new things, one of them being the delightful treat of drinking maple water and using maple syrup and sugar. The settlers brought with them many items which improved the Native Americans' syrup making methods. Waste and injury to the trees was minimized by the settlers' use of augers to drill tap holes. Collection containers were now made more reliable by using wooden buckets (later tin was also used). Two of these buckets, full of sap, were carried on a yoke on a man's shoulders either directly to the boiling place or to tubs on oxen or horse drawn sleds that would later transport the sap to the boiling place. The settlers boiled sap down in a series of iron or copper kettles hung on a pole frame over a blazing fire. They would ladle the partially evaporated sap from one kettle to the next, thus not adding raw sap to almost completed syrup. Like the Indians, the settlers produced most of their maple product as sugar, which they used for food, barter and as a cash substitute. By 1720, the production of maple syrup and sugar reached four million gallons annually, twice modern production in the United States. Production remained at that level until the 1860's when it began to decline steadily. The shortage of other sugars during World War I caused a rise back to the four million gallon figure. Except for another rise during World War II, production then steadily declined to today's two million gallon level. Improvement on the use of kettles for evaporation came in the 1890's with the introduction of the evaporator, which has changed little since then except for a few innovations such as using waste steam and the exhaust gasses from the fire to preheat the sap. Heavy duty plastic bags are often used in place of buckets now, and the use of tubing, which began in the 1960's, has greatly reduced the work of collection. Vacuum pumps were introduced in the early 1980's, with improvements being made to them later in that decade. Keep this history in mind while you study about modern maple syrup making. Compare the methods of obtaining, collecting, hauling, and boiling sap, and storing the finished product. But remember, our modern technology merely speeds the time it takes from tree to table, but in no way diminishes the quality, flavor or healthy goodness of this pure sweetener enjoyed by the Native Americans and our early settler ancestors over three centuries ago. MAKE YOUR OWN PIONEER SYRUP KETTLE When the pioneers learned to make maple syrup from the Native Americans they realized they had something that would make the job much easier. The early settlers brought copper or cast iron kettles with them from Europe. They used these kettles to wash their clothes and make soap, among many other things. The kettles quickly became the Pioneers' sap evaporators. The Native Americans soon recognized the value of these kettles and began to trade for them. The kettles were hung from a tripod made of three long poles tied together at the top. Sometimes the kettles were hung from one long pole resting on two trees growing close together. This was an advantage over the tripod method because three kettles could be hung in a row this way. The Pioneers discovered that when they added sap to the same kettle all day it produced syrup or sugar that was much darker and stronger. When they used three kettles and transferred the sap from one to the next as it got closer to being done, the sap didn't stay in the kettles so long and made a much lighter syrup or sugar with a more pleasing flavor. Using the drawings on the other side of this page, you can make your own pioneer evaporator. Make a kettle out of clay, let it dry and paint it black. Using string or tiny chain, make a handle and hang the kettle on a frame you have built from sticks you can find outside. Then mount your sticks in mounds of clay on a cardboard or wooden base.
Additional note: http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/colonial.htm looks like a great site for resources on America’s colonial period
WEEK 3 Modern Syrup Making Language Arts – Look maple syrup up in an encyclopedia and write an essay about modern syrup making. You can also use the "Facts About Modern Syrup Making at Our Sugarbush" that you will find below. This site is a report another student wrote using an encyclopedia: http://www.vuhs.org/project/maple.htm 3+ History – Using these sites, read about the modern methods used in maple syrup making: http://www.mi-maplesyrup.com/Contents.htm (takes a while to load, the blue background does go away) 3-4 http://www.massmaple.org/how.html 3+ http://geography.anu.edu.au/associated/fpt/nwfp/maplesyrup/maple3_copy.html#anchor8702944 3+ http://www.salisburypa.com/mapleindustry.html 1+ http://ohioline.osu.edu/b856/b856_5.html 4-5 http://www.cmonitor.com/stories/news/local2003/0303_syrup_2003.shtml 3+ Facts about Modern Syrup Making at Our Sugarbush Each year we tap approximately 2300 hard maple trees, mostly sugar maples and some black and red maples. We drill approximately 4600 tapholes, an average of two tapholes per tree. A 10" (diameter) tree gets one tap, a 14" tree two taps, an 18" tree three taps and a 24" tree four taps. Each hole receives a bright blue, plastic, 7/16" diameter spile. The spiles are lightly tapped into the tapholes, which are about 1 1/2" deep in a 10" tree and 2" deep in all others. The most stressful part of sugaring for the trees is driving the spile. "Drive the spile light to be right!" The trees can be tapped at any height but we prefer to tap low (from waist to shoulder height). We normally tap the trees only once per year, drilling new tapholes each year. The tapholes last from four to six weeks and begin drying up and healing over after that time. Occasionally we will retap if the weather continues to be right for sap flow after the tapholes dry up. After the sap run ends and the spiles are pulled, the holes quickly dry up and the taphole completely heals over in one to two years. On a good day an average two tap tree will produce two to four gallons of sap. Over the season the average yield will be 15 - 20 gallons per tree. On the average it requires 45 to 55 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. The range has been from 25 to 90 gallons of sap to one gallon of syrup. The actual sugar content of the sap ranges from 1 to 2.5% and averages 1.8%. To collect the sap from the maple trees we use about 16 miles of purple, 5/16", ultraviolet tubing to carry the sap from the trees. This purple tubing carries the sap to three miles of 1/2" to 3/4" blue or black main-line tubing, which empties into the collection tanks. We use five vacuum pumps to help gently draw the sap from the trees. When the collection tanks are full, the sap is hauled via a tank on a wagon behind a tractor to the holding tanks at the sugarhouse. Due to damage to tubing and fittings from ice, falling branches, deer and mainly from squirrels, we replace, per season, 400 spiles, 400 Tees, 400 connectors, one to two miles of tubing and use about 2 miles of black electrical tape (half of it to wrap around the tubing to close up minor holes the squirrels have made with their sharp teeth and the other half to tape the tubing to trees to keep it stretched properly). All sap is sterilized by being pumped past an ultraviolet light before going through the Reverse Osmosis (RO) machine. The RO removes around 20,000 gallons of excess water from the sap during the season. It removes about one-half of the water from the sap, greatly reducing the boiling time. The sap is filtered in the process of going through the RO. From the RO, the reduced sap flows to the evaporator. The wood fired evaporator can evaporate from 200 to 300 gallons of water from the sap per hour. Depending on the sugar content of the incoming sap, we make between five and eight gallons of syrup per hour. We use about 25 cords of firewood, cut into three foot lengths, each season in the evaporator fire box. The evaporator is in two sections with the firebox beneath both. The rear evaporator pan (where boiling begins) is a flue pan and is covered by a hood. It is here that most of the evaporation takes place. Also beneath the rear section is a preheater which uses the heat of the outgoing steam to raise the temperature of the cold incoming sap. Condensation of this steam on the pipes of the preheater generates between 50 and 100 gallons of distilled water daily. The front evaporator pan is a flat pan and is where the syrup is finished. The average time that it takes to make syrup, once the sap enters the pan, is three hours. In other words, the sap boils for three hours before it is the correct specific gravity to be considered finished maple syrup. You will notice two stacks, one to draw off the steam from evaporation and the other to vent the firebox. The tall firebox exhaust stack is needed for the fire to 'draw'. The exhaust stack temperature is 600-700 degrees F. Sugar sand, which consists of minerals in the sap, coats the pans and must be removed periodically. We have two of the front flat pans so we can rotate them when one becomes coated with sugar sand. We fill around 7,000 maple syrup jugs per year. We are the only producer in Indiana with custom printed jugs. We taste each batch of syrup and generally bottle 35 gallons per batch. Our syrup is all natural; you are buying only maple sap, boiled down into pure maple syrup. Maple syrup will not turn to sugar. Because our syrup is all natural, with no preservatives added, a harmless mold may develop. Simply skim the mold and reheat the syrup before using. Only a very few jugs will form mold. The mold results from a variety of factors, primarily due to the syrup being stored in too warm of an environment. Refrigerate all open syrup containers. Science – Read about the physics behind boiling sap in this link http://www.goshen.edu/merrylea/sugar/physics.htm 3+ Learn about the chemistry of maple sap in these two links - http://www.schoolnet.ca/autochtone/science2/syrup-e.html - Do #’s 5 and 6 in Learning Outcomes, Source of information about this is in paragraphs 3 and 4 under Content Summary, make a solution of sugar and water, evaporate some of the water in the solution by boiling it on the stove, make a mixture using water with beads or some solid objects that will not dissolve link not working Math – 1 We collect sap from 4 different areas. Area 1 has 2 tanks for collecting sap, Area 2 has 1 tank, Area 3 has 3 tanks and Area 4 has 1 tanks. How many tanks full of sap do we have if they are all full of sap at the same time? (That happens!!!) 2 Each tank above holds 550 gallons of sap. To haul the sap back to the sugarhouse, the tank on the wagon holds 1,000 gallons each trip. How many trips would it take to haul all the sap in the tanks in the above question back to the sugarhouse? 3-4 Make a bar graph of the statistics about maple syrup production in Canada and each state, use the encyclopedia or this site which has 2003 statistics by state (go to very bottom of the page) http://www.nass.usda.gov/ny/06jun/mpl0603.htm 2+ Add Indiana which made 5,136.5 gallons in 2003 2-3 Leane & Michael’s Sugarbush made 700 gallons in 2003, what % of the state total was that? http://www.indianamaplesyrup.org/tapline/July03Tap.pdf 4+ This is a magazine that the Indiana Maple Syrup Association puts out, this article has some interesting statistics on the production of syrup in Indiana in 2003, the article begins on page 5, must have Adobe Reader to view this Art – Draw or paint pictures of modern syrup making techniques using the photographs in the following links. Or maybe try making a picture of this by gluing tiny torn pieces of paper of different colors on your paper. This site shows some special education students tapping trees using both buckets and tubing: http://www.crotchedmountain.org/cmschool/frmscience.htm This site shows a maple tree tapped with plastic tubing like we use on our farm and an evaporator similar to ours. http://www.com-site.com/cedarvale/tour23.html This site has some great photos. http://www.salisburypa.com/mapleindustry.html This site has some great evaporator photos. http://www.maplewood-farm.com/processing.htm This site shows a school group visiting a sugarhouse. http://www.crockerfarm.org/ac/k/ This site shows pictures a school class drew about making maple syrup: http://www.nps.northampton.ma.us/wtproject/themes/syrup/index.htm This site shows a college Biology class using buckets to collect sap: http://www.biology.clc.uc.edu/maple/ REVIEW Use this information for a review of Indian, pioneer and modern maple syrup making. History of Maple Syrup Making The Native Americans were the first maple syrup makers. Legend has it that an Iroquois chief, Woksis, before leaving to hunt one March morning, removed his tomahawk from the tree in which he had embedded it the night before. After he removed it the day turned warmer, causing the sap to flow and fill a trough left standing by the base of the tree. The chief's squaw, Moqua, being careful and wasteful of nothing, used the liquid for cooking their evening meal of moose meat. The cooking turned the sap to syrup, providing them with a flavorful meal never tasted before. Of course this is only a legend and no one really knows how maple syrup making began. The Native Americans' methods of making maple syrup and sugar are quite fascinating. Deep gashes were cut in the tree allowing the sap to flow into vessels made of birch bark and seamed with pine resin. This method caused much sap to be wasted and caused injury and death to many trees. The sap was then transferred into clay or wooden (hollowed out logs) troughs or leather pouches, and hot rocks were dropped, again and again, into the sap until enough water was evaporated to make syrup or sugar. The Native Americans made most of their maple sap into maple sugar because the sugar was much easier to store and transport than the liquid syrup. They stored large sugar blocks or loose granulated sugar in special birch bark boxes called mokuks. The sugar was used as food, sold or used for barter. The Native Americans used maple water (sap or sugar added to water), or sugar in most all of their cooking. The maple water was used as a broth in which to cook their fish and meat. Their everyday gruel and corn cakes were flavored with maple, and maple sugar was sprinkled on a variety of foods before cooking. They also made sugar candies in greased molds carved from soft wood. These molds were made in the shapes of moons, stars, flowers, leaves, animals and men. When the settlers arrived in America, the Indians introduced them to many new things, one of them being the delightful treat of drinking maple water and using maple syrup and sugar. The settlers brought with them many items which improved the Native Americans' syrup making methods. Waste and injury to the trees was minimized by the settlers' use of augers to drill tap holes. Collection containers were now made more reliable by using wooden buckets (later tin was also used). Two of these buckets, full of sap, were carried on a yoke on a man's shoulders either directly to the boiling place or to tubs on oxen or horse drawn sleds that would later transport the sap to the boiling place. The settlers boiled sap down in a series of iron or copper kettles hung on a pole frame over a blazing fire. They would ladle the partially evaporated sap from one kettle to the next, thus not adding raw sap to almost completed syrup. Like the Indians, the settlers produced most of their maple product as sugar, which they used for food, barter and as a cash substitute. By 1720, the production of maple syrup and sugar reached four million gallons annually, twice modern production in the United States. Production remained at that level until the 1860's when it began to decline steadily. The shortage of other sugars during World War I caused a rise back to the four million gallon figure. Except for another rise during World War II, production then steadily declined to today's two million gallon level. Improvement on the use of kettles for evaporation came in the 1890's with the introduction of the evaporator, which has changed little since then except for a few innovations such as using waste steam and the exhaust gasses from the fire to preheat the sap. Heavy duty plastic bags are often used in place of buckets now, and the use of tubing, which began in the 1960's, has greatly reduced the work of collection. Vacuum pumps were introduced in the early 1980's, with improvements being made to them later in that decade. Keep this history in mind while you study about modern maple syrup making. Compare the methods of obtaining, collecting, hauling, and boiling sap, and storing the finished product. But remember, our modern technology merely speeds the time it takes from tree to table, but in no way diminishes the quality, flavor or healthy goodness of this pure sweetener enjoyed by the Native Americans and our early settler ancestors over three centuries ago.
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